Miles Aircraft and the ballpoint pen – Fact or “Wiki-Fiction”?

‘Blackburn bungalows’, Cunliffe Owen went into producing bath tubs!

Some big boys kept busy on pre-fabs – dwelling units for bombed-out/slum-clearance. “Temporary” (some are still extant, inc. 2-storey near LHR), quick-clad aluminium shells (see one at Duxford). Blackburn did the Jowett car. Cierva, Cunliffe-Owen, General and Parnall were others who expired just before Stalin saved the survivors and stimulated Standard and others back into aero. Ball-pens might be the most remote aero-diversification. China was using MiG-stock aluminium for telephone booths at least to 1990.

They were not always originators they claimed – their LIBUELLA ‘first’ had been built by the Italians and flown pre-war at Castillion del lago

Welcome back AK!

nf: thanks. I didn’t know the aircrew context of the original Biro licence.

Fred, George and Blossom turned their minds to Peace earlier than other aeronauts, because their asset, glue, had no civil prospects. It was not that “big boys” took their aero-future away, but that they knew they had none (RAE’s Morien Morgan: “good at biffing out cardboard aeroplanes”, but the market was swamped with surplus Grasshoppers). All those extravagant schemes – X-planes, &tc – were acts of desperation as they tried to find a niche that might sell against US’ scale advantage, yet did not require Miles to duplicate, at risk, the metals investment that others had enjoyed at public expense (DH, same problem). They displayed initiative – their 1946 civil product range did sell; they were early into the “Regional Incentives” wheeze at Newtownards…but if you were the 1946 Minister guarding our feeble tax base, would you favour the Woodley shed over, say, the splendid Yeadon and Castle Bromwich vistas? Monitor did not cut it, against cascades of heavy metal from “big boys”.

So they diversified; 1946 Biro revenue exceeded aero’s. J.Temple’s book has the Brothers’ minds disastrously diverted by a lawsuit; they blamed atrocious 1947 weather for market evaporation. They did well to linger to November,1947: other armourers expired without trying peaceful conversion.

Resmoroh’s “shadowy” ref is to Sir Fred HP, who in 1940 was given an “Overlord” Policy role on trainers, clashed with the Brothers, appealed to Minister Beaverbrook, lost, quit, and fumed. Co-incidence, then (?) that the Receiver unloaded certain Reading assets to him, inc. M.73 sketch (to be) HPR.3 Herald.

Oh, and do stop banging on about M.52, an experiment and engine test bed, of no military relevance. If you want to allege that F-86 relied upon a Brit flying tailplane actuator, you need to demonstrate that Miles and/or UK vendor firms could have absorbed transonic loads on such a thing in 1944. PFCUs – always UK’s Achilles Heel.

These ‘Biro’ pens were also given away as a birthday gift (you had to submit d.o.b) in a Wednesday comic in the early 1950s -yes i had one. The entire contents ran out of the pen into my shirt pocket at school.
A regular problem i was led to believe

Newforest, Hi,
Agree – but one of the reasons Miles (aka Adwest) manufactured biro’s after WW2 was because “the big aviation/financial boys” had taken their, Miles’, aeroplanes away from them – by one means or another – and they Miles/Adwest had to stay in business somehow – they were, after all, one of the biggest employers in Reading!!!
HTH
Resmoroh

Little thread tangent there Resmoroh! This is a Biro thread. Always assumed the the Biro was invented by the French, but it turns out that Laszlo Biro was a Hungarian who patented the invention in Paris in 1938. In 1943 he moved to (and died there) Argentina and the British government took a licence agreement to produce the design for the benefit of bomber crews who found that it was easier to use at altitude.:)

If you want the gory details (and they are gory!!!) then read “Wings Over Woodley: The Sory of Miles Aircraft and the Adwest Group” by Julian C Temple (Aston Publications Ltd 1987, ISBN 0946627126).
It would seem that the UK Govt, The Treasury, Handley-Page (and a few others) were suspiciously close to the action when Miles Aircraft “got into difficulties”!! But don’t take my word for it (I’m biased!). Read the book, add all the stories together and then divide by the number of stories! I think that even the most laid-back of observers will have to admit that Miles Aircraft were “seen off” by some fairly shadowy vested interests. Pity. They made some good aircraft!
HTH
Resmoroh

Yes, fact. Twas on the TV, there was a programme about the Miles Company and it’s inventions / interests.
The main invention there was the bullet shaped jet with a detachable cockpit. “Handed over” to the Americans (Read “stolen” on behalf of the war effort) and a few years later the X-1 (Chuck Yaeger’s) rolled out of the Bell factory. Looking remarkably like the Miles designs and concepts.

Presumably Monsieur Biro was in the U.K. for the duration of the war?

I believe this is correct also. At one of the SBAC Radlett shows a Miles Aerovan performed the publicity stunt of dropping said biros from the air.

Fact. I do not have the exact dates at hand, but the production of Biro ballpoint pens by Miles is a fact