The Auster was a twice-removed development of an American Taylorcraft design of civilian aircraft, the Model A. The Model A had to be redesigned in Britain to meet more stringent Civil Aviation standards and was named the Taylorcraft Plus C.[1][2] After the start of the Second World War, the company developed the model further as an air observation post (AOP)—flown by officers of the Royal Artillery and used for directing artillery-fire of the artillery.
Prewar Taylorcraft C/2, impressed by the RAF in September 1941, seen postwarAuster I converted postwar to Taylorcraft Plus D, restored in wartime markings as LB382 of 653 Squadron RAF
The Plus C was re-engined with the Blackburn Cirrus Minor I engine and was re-named the Taylorcraft Plus D. Most of the civil Plus Cs and Ds were impressed into Royal Air Force service; the Plus Cs were re-engined with the Cirrus Minor I and re-named Plus C2.
Pre-war tests identified the Taylorcraft Model D as the most suitable aircraft for an AOP. Three more Ds were purchased from Taylorcraft and a trials unit, D Flight, under Major Charles Bazeley RA, formed at Old Sarum on 1 February 1940. The flight with three Austers, one Stinson 105, three artillery and one RAF pilot, moved to France where they trained with artillery and practiced fighter avoidance with Hurricanes of the Air Component of the British Expeditionary Force before moving south to train with French artillery. The flight did not participate in the fighting and withdrew without loss to Britain. The War Office then ordered 100 Stinson L-1 Vigilants. Formation of the RAF Army Cooperation Command in December 1940 led to the RAF rejecting the very notion of light AOP aircraft.
Intercession by General Alan Brooke led to an accommodation and the first AOP pilot course for artillery officers taking place in October 1940. In 1941, the first AOP squadron, 651, formed. Stinson Vigilants eventually arrived in early 1942 but most had been severely damaged in transit leading to the adoption of the Taylorcraft Auster 1 and an order for 100 aircraft was placed. Some of the Stinsons were resurrected but found to be too big for the AOP squadrons.[3]
The Auster II was a re-engined aircraft with an American 130hp (97kW)Lycoming O-290 engine. Due to the shortage of American engines that version was not built but led to the Auster III (Model E), which was the same as the Auster I but had a 130hp (97kW)de Havilland Gipsy Major engine. The next development was the Auster IV (Model G) which had a slightly larger cabin with three seats and used the Lycoming O-290. The main production version was the Auster V (Model J) which was an Auster IV with blind flying instruments, and a conventional trimmer design.[4][5]
Post war, the Auster Mark V was used as the basis for the Auster J/1 Autocrat intended for the civilian market; the British firm having changed their name to Auster and stopped licensing from Taylorcraft. Further military aircraft were supplied, the Auster AOP6, Auster T7 (a trainer) and the Auster AOP9.
Operational history
The Auster Mark III, IV and V were issued to twelve RAF, one Polish and three Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) air observation post (AOP) Squadrons. The first to deploy was 651 Squadron. The leading elements landed in Algiers on 12 November 1942 with eight aircraft, eleven Royal Artillery (RA) pilots, 39 RA soldiers and 25 airmen (mostly maintenance technicians). The normal strength of an AOP squadron was 12 aircraft, 19 RA officers (all pilots), 83 RA other ranks and 63 RAF including two administrative officers. Aircraft were fitted with an Army No 22 Wireless, an HF set providing two-way voice communications with artillery units and formations on the ground.
On 31 March 1943 Army Cooperation Command was disbanded, most of its assets being used to form the Second Tactical Air Force. Four squadrons (651, 654 Squadron, 655 Squadron and 657 Squadron) fought in North Africa and Italy, being joined from August 1944 by 663 Polish squadron. The other seven RAF squadrons (Nos. 652, 653, 658, 659, 660, 661 and 662) operated after D-Day in France, the Low Countries and into Germany.
664 Squadron, 665 Squadron, and 666 Squadron RCAF were also issued with the Auster Mk. IV and V, formed at RAF Andover in late 1944 and early 1945. The RCAF squadrons were manned by Canadian personnel of the Royal Canadian Artillery and the RCAF, with brief secondment to the squadrons with pilots from the Royal Artillery; control was maintained in Britain by 70 Group, RAF Fighter Command. The three squadrons deployed from RAF Andover to the Netherlands, to Dunkirk in France, where the last Canadian 'shots' in Europe were fired and later to occupied Germany. 656 Squadron RAF was assigned to the Fourteenth Army and used Austers in Burma, generally with flights assigned to each corps. In the European theatre a squadron was generally assigned to each corps but under command for technical matters of an RAF group.
Postwar Auster AOP aircraft were reorganised into independent flights (probably because the RAF used Wing-Commanders, equivalent to Lieutenant-Colonels, to command squadrons while the army insisted on Majors) including 1903 Flight in Korea that had artillery pilots from several Commonwealth countries. There was also an Auster-equipped 1913 Liaison Flight. Air OP flights also operated in the Malayan Emergency. Several AOP squadrons were reformed within the Royal Auxiliary Air Force in 1949 and these operated some AOP.5s, AOP.6s and AOP.9s until at least March 1957, when the Auxiliary Air Force was disbanded. All Auster AOP units were transferred to the Army Air Corps when it was formed in September 1957, with AAC squadrons using numbers starting with 651. The air observation duties, counter-insurgency and casualty evacuation performed by Auster and similar light aircraft were generally taken over by light helicopters from the mid-1960s.
Several Taylorcraft Austers formed, with other civil light aircraft, part of the initial equipment of the Sherut Avir, formed in November 1947 as the air component of the Jewish paramilitary organisation Haganah, which later became part of the Israeli Air Force. They were supplemented early in 1948 by six ex-RAF Austers that had been assembled from hulks of 25 aircraft purchased as scrap. These aircraft formed the core of Israel's air force in the early part of the 1947–1949 Palestine war, being used for reconnaissance and supply missions, while also being used to drop home-made bombs on Arab forces.[7]
Variants
Auster III
Taylorcraft Plus C
Original civilian version with a Lycoming O-145-A2 engine, 23 built (one prototype and 22 production aircraft).
Taylorcraft Plus C2
Plus C re-engined with a 90hp (67kW) Cirrus Minor I engine for the Royal Air Force, 20 conversions.
Taylorcraft Plus D
Plus C with a 90hp Cirrus Minor I engine, nine built.
Taylorcraft Auster I
(Model D1) Military version of Plus C2, 100 built.
Taylorcraft Auster II
(Model F) Auster I with a Lycoming O-290 engine, two built, later converted to Auster IIIs
Taylorcraft Auster III
(Model E) Auster I with a de Havilland Gipsy Major engine, two prototypes converted from Model F (Auster I) and 467 built new.
Taylorcraft Auster IV
(Model G) Three-seat version with a Lycoming O-290-3/1 H.O. engine, 253 built.
Taylorcraft Auster V
(Model J) Auster IV with blind flying instruments (Vacuum pump) and flap modification, and removable armour plate installed for pilot only, 791 built.
Taylorcraft Auster Model H
Experimental tandem two-seat training glider converted from a Taylorcraft B.
Operators
Military operators
Auster III of the Royal Australian Air Force at the RAAF Museum, Point Cook, Victoria, in March 1988
Royal Norwegian Air Force in exile in the United Kingdom – Nine aircraft in service from 1944 to 1945. Used by Nos 331 and 332 Norwegian Squadrons as communications aircraft.
Auster Mk.IV, built in 1943 and deployed to France in July 1944. It was operated by 661 squadron in Europe until the squadron was disbanded. Demobbed and civilianised by Taylorcraft England, it was sold to a flying school in East Anglia in 1948, then to a French parachuting club in 1958, before returning to the UK in 1973. Currently in flyable condition, restoration to full airworthiness is planned to be completed in 2024.
Auster Mk.V, C/N 1753, To 20 MU Aston Down 31.8.45. To CS(A) at A&AEE, Boscombe Down 12.9.46 (to replace TW513 for photography of smokescreens & communications duties). To 20 MU Aston Down 13.7.48. To 1960 Flt/661 Squadron, Kenley 19.5.49; coded 'RCE-D'. To 19 MU St Athan 20.9.51. Sold 1953. Operated by Channel Airways from 1954 to 1974 as G-ANHZ. Sold to Switzerland in 1995 as HB-EZJ and fully restored in Switzerland to original condition. Since 2022 OK-BTA, privately owned by Jiri Hruska.
Auster MK.V built in February 1944 as MS980, issued to 661 Squadron "C Flight" on 15.06.1944; Transferred to 652 Squadron on 12.4.1945, released to 663 Squadron Royal Auxiliary Air Force on 11.8.1949; Put in storage surplus 3.3.1954; civilized as G-ANGW and sold to the Austrian Flying Club "Fliegerclub Wien Aspern" registered since then in Austria as OE-AAT.
Was sold to Fliegerclub Fürstenfeld in 1964, removed from flying in 1984 and put in long term storage until 2004. Now restored to original authentic RAF WWII D Day factory config including camouflage between 2006-2012 by Erich and Matthias Lemmerer; Aircraft based in Austria;
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