Country of origin:

Australia

Description:

Five-seat light touring aircraft

Power Plant:

One 179 kw (240 hp) Siddeley Puma six-cylinder in-line liquid-cooled engine

Specifications:

History:

The Lascoter single-engine cabin monoplane was designed by Mr W S Shackleton, a British designer, who visited and was resident in Australia for a period in the 1930s. Shackleton had been chief designer for William Beardmore & Company Ltd of Scotland and arrived in Australia to join the Larkin Aircraft Supply Company (LASCo) as chief aeronautical engineer. At that stage Australian Aerial Services Ltd, a subsidiary of Larkin, announced it proposed to mass produce an all-metal monoplane if public demand and Government support were available.

The Company set about designing and producing the Lascoter, it being said it was designed to meet the requirements of private owners in Australia for a small passenger carrying machine, with a capacity to carry a pilot and four passengers, or for aerial mail services. This was the first serious attempt to design and produce an aircraft built from local materials. Expected initial production was to be one aircraft per week.

The prototype (VH-UKT – c/n 1) was ready for flight tests in February 1929 and was powered by the 179-kw (240-hp) Siddeley Puma engine, but could be fitted with a 224 kw (300 hp) ADC Nimbus engine if customers required. It was registered to Larkin Aircraft Supply Company Ltd of Melbourne on 10 May 1929. Trial flights flown by Frank Neale commenced at Coode Island on 25 May 1929, the aircraft being christened Lascoter by actress M/s Helen Patterson on 24 June. It was the first aircraft wholly designed in Australia to be awarded a Certificate of Airworthiness.

On 11 November 1929 Australian Aerial Services proposed a number of airline type services operating from Melbourne and Adelaide to Western District towns, Port Augusta, SA to Mildura, VIC, Cootamundra, NSW to Charleville in Queensland, Camooweal, QLD to Daly Waters in the Northern Territory, Broken Hill to Bourke in NSW and through the Murray Valley into Victoria.  Capt H J Larkin and F S Briggs in the Lascoter made surveys of some of the routes, and set up a new company known as Murray Valley Aerial Services Ltd using the Larkin Lascowl.

On 26 March 1930 the department was advised the prototype had been fitted with an ADC Nimbus engine. At one stage the Lascoter was flown to Camooweal and was operated on the Camooweal to Daly Waters service operated by the Larkin Aircraft Company.

The Certificate of Registration lapsed on 11 August 1931, and was renewed on 10 January 1933. It again lapsed on 9 January 1935 and was again renewed on 25 January that year. In August 1935 it was sold to Airlines of Australia Ltd of Sydney, the Certificate of Registration being renewed in November 1936.

On 23 December 1936 the owners notified that the engine had been changed again, and that it had been fitted with an Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar Mk IV. At one stage it saw service with the Methodist Inland Mission at Mataranka, NT in 1931. On 12 April 1937 ownership was transferred to Mr W F Dickson of East Melbourne. The Certificate of Airworthiness expired on 9 September 1938 and the machine was struck off the register on 29 January 1946. It is believed to have been broken up in the 1940s.