Country of origin:

Australia

Description:

Commercial airliner

Power Plant:

One 298 kw (400 hp) Liberty twelve-cylinder VEE liquid-cooled engine

Specifications:

History:

In 1921 the Australian Aircraft & Engineering Co Ltd (AAEC), with its office in Union House in Sydney, NSW and its works at Mascot aerodrome, NSW on its own initiative proceeded with the design and construction of a commercial aircraft from Australian material, directed towards the carriage of passengers and mail on Australian air routes. Designed by Harry Edgar Broadsmith, who had previously worked for A V Roe & Co in the United Kingdom, the B.1 was the first ‘airliner’ designed and built in Australia.  Drawings, technical data, stress diagrams and calculations were prepared to British standards and checked and passed by Captain Frank Barnwell, who was then in Australia, designer of the Bristol Fighter, amongst other aircraft.  The aircraft was constructed entirely with Australian labour with Australian timbers and materials.

Work commenced on its erection in the AAEC hangar at Mascot.  After it reached a fairly advanced stage in its construction, Nigel Love approached the Minister for Defence with a proposal for the Federal Government to place contracts with the Company to manufacture additional aircraft for the military (at that stage 13 Avro 504Ks were under construction for military and civil operators at Mascot) and for a firm order for the new five-six seat commercial airliner “which was acclaimed by those who had inspected it to be the answer to Australia’s commercial airline requirements”.

The Sydney Daily Telegraph on 14 March 1922 made some reference to the first flight of the prototype: “Yesterday the new commercial aeroplane built for the Commonwealth Government by the Australian Aircraft & Engineering Company at Mascot was given its first official trial flight with the complement of four passengers, these comprising Nigel Love as pilot, J H Eakins, Chief Inspector of the Aerial Inspection Department, A J H Love, W Martin, foreman of AAEC, and H Halkman, a representative of the Daily Telegraph. It is the first machine of its kind made in Australia”.  Initial tests were made with a 298 kw (400 hp) Liberty engine but a Rolls Royce Eagle had been ordered for installation, it being said the performance would thus be considerably improved.

Subject to acceptance tests, the Civil Aviation Board indicated it would buy the aircraft for £6,000 ($12,000) after the installation of the Rolls Royce Eagle engine. However, there was no response by the Government to the offer to build further aircraft, the Press stating “unless assistance is given to the aeroplane manufacturing industry in Australia, several firms in the industry will probably have to close down”, and “the Company (AAEC) will soon be in financial difficulties unless assistance is forthcoming”. The Company went into voluntary liquidation and shortly thereafter the Federal Government decided to establish its own Government-owned aircraft factory in Melbourne, VIC. It also took over the AAEC facility at Mascot and was said to have paid a nominal price for the B.1.

In his privately published biography Nigel Love referred to Harry Broadsmith as being a “brilliant aeronautical engineer, his capability having been specially proved in the design and construction of the Five Seater Commercial machine which was ultimately delivered to the Commonwealth Government in our final settlement with them…I feel that this aircraft would have been an unqualified success in filling the requirements at that time. Its virtues were stability, ease of handling, ruggedness in construction, and its low wing-loading with its efficient wing-section, permitted it to operate from small aerodromes which was so vital then. It also provided passenger comfort which, in those days particularly, was important.”

Love also stated: “I formed the opinion, after having spent some time in the air flying this particular machine, that the five-seater commercial as we call it, designed by Broadsmith and built in our factory at Mascot, had wonderful prospects on our airmail routes. It was fitted with a 298 kw (400 hp) Liberty engine which, apart from being a beautifully smooth running job, was a war-time motor that had proved itself so effective and reliable in the DH4A which carried out long range bombing operations over enemy territory at night etc during the war. Powered with this motor she had a higher top speed than anything else in Australia. She was ruggedly built and, due to her ample wing-span, had a reasonably short take-off so essential for the limited runways in some of our country aerodromes. She would perhaps have needed some minor modifications such as, for example, the placing of her petrol tanks in some other position than on the outside of the wings, and a better place for the pilot. But basically she was sound and infinitely better than any other aircraft that was offering anywhere for commercial purposes at that time and, incidentally, infinitely superior to the Avro Tri-plane which was supposed to be then Britain’s best.”

After its initial flight with Nigel Love at the controls alone, the B.1 made a further flight with a full passenger load. The Civil Aviation Authority reported favourably on the aircraft but stated the centre of gravity was further to the rear than designed and Departmental acceptance and payment of the purchase price were withheld until the Rolls Royce Eagle engine was installed. This caused a crisis for the Company and culminated, with a series of other setbacks, in the Company going into voluntary liquidation. Most employees then left the Company. Broadsmith alone designed the engine mountings, made the necessary parts and carried out the Eagle engine installation. However, it was never tested with this engine and the money paid for the aircraft went to creditors.

Broadsmith was emphatic that there were no technical grounds for the refusal of a Certificate of Airworthiness to the aircraft, and that even in its original state it was more stable that the Bristol Tourers then in use in Western Australia. He was convinced that with time and money a successful aircraft could have been developed and built. The B.1 never flew again, was grounded, stored in a hangar at Mascot and literally rotted away. Only the engine was salvaged, this being used for some years as an emergency power plant at a Sydney bank. Norman Ellison in the magazine Aircraft in November 1959 described the fate of the B.1 as “one of the ugliest stories of early Australian air history. The payment of £6,000 by the Commonwealth Government was tardy; no further Government orders were forthcoming, and the Company crashed financially”.

Broadsmith subsequently worked with L J Wackett as a consultant aeronautical engineer at Victoria Barracks, Melbourne, on the Wackett Widgeon, and then on the establishment of the RAAF Experimental Section at Randwick, NSW. He then became involved in designing and building aircraft for the Australian Light Plane Competition in 1924. Later he left Australia and returned to the United Kingdom where he took up work with Saunders Roe, working on the designs of the Saro Cutty Sark and the Saro Cloud. He died on the Isle of Wight in 1959.

Nigel Borland Love (16 January 1892 to 2 October 1979) left the aviation world and went into other industry.

The B.1 was registered to Australian Aircraft and Engineering Co of Mascot as VH-UDT on 8 August 1922 and Certificate of Registration No 165 was issued.  On 7 August 1923 the registration lapsed.