Beaufighter fuselages built by Standard, Coventry.

Beaufighter fuselages built by Standard, Coventry

Thanks for this Martin , will contact them asap.

Chris Butt

I am sure between you all this base will have been covered but just in case.

Has the Museum Of British Road Transport in Coventry been approached. I spoke to their Curator of Vehicles a few months ago and discussed Shadow Factories and he said some point in the future they wished to do a display/exhibition on the subject. Maybe they have information in their achives ?

BEAUFIGHTER FUSELAGES STANDARD MOTORS

Hi Roger,
Can offer you much information regarding Standard Motors Beaufighters and confirm that the three sections i.e. Front and Rear Fuselage and stern-frame were built at Canley have good pictures of the fuselages as delivered.
I worked at the Weston factory and also visited Canley in 1944 and saw Mosquito and Meteor sections on the production line.
I have a copy of the Minutes of the Weston Factory which gives details of some of the happenings at Standards, and also something that may not be generally known, that but for the intervention of certain individuals and organisations the Beaufighter assembly would have been at Oakley Wood Barford Warwick and not Weston.
Incidentally Chris Butt and I are well known to each other, he gave me considerable help with the book” Weston-super-Mare and the Aeroplane”
and I think between us we can answer some of the queries Ted Johnson

Hi Chris,

I think we know of no photos of Beaufighter fuselages (or parts of) at Standard Motors.

This seems strange as there are a number of photos of both Oxford and Mosquitos at Standard at Canley and Ansty.

I emailed my friend and we are hoping to talk in the next few days – I will report back

Roger Smith.

Beaufighter Fuselages at Standard Motors

Hi Roger, have just found your post.

I am researching Beaufighter production in WW2 and am very keen to locate any photographs of fuselages being assembled at Standard Motors. Did your friend publish in Triumph World and is the article still available?

The fuselages were almost certainly shipped to the BAC factory at Weston-S-Mare where 3336 aircraft were produced (see “Weston-Super-Mare and the Aeroplane” by Roger Dudley and Ted Johnson).

I have contacted the usual sources without success, but am still waiting to hear from the Heritage Motor Industry Museum.

Any assistance would be much appreciated
Chris Butt

Thanks guys, I have passed your comments on.

Alertken – I believe my mate has that reference (to do with Trade Union’s claim for piecework rates) – one of very few period documents found with the words “Standard” and “Beaufighter” together on. He thinks maybe Standard maybe only built the cockpit section of the fuselage, but that term “Standard Motor Co.’s Beaufighter factory in Coventry” is intruiging.

Springbok – he lives quite near Gaydon and knows it well. He seems to lack confidence the the Heritage Centre has much interest/information on aviation matters these days. Thanks anyway.

Gloster Meteors He has information suggesting that Standard recieved an order to construct Meteor centre sections (Mk.3s?) but that this order was transferred to SS Cars (later to become Jaguar) also in Coventry. But were any actually built at Standard’s Canley factory before production commenced at SS Cars’ Holbrooks factory?

Roger Smith.

Hello,

Try contacting Heritage Motor at Gaydon, they hold a lot of the Standard-Triumph archive material.

Regards,

Chris

Shadow bible is S.Ritchie, Industry and Air Power, Cass, 1997,0714643432 P.172 addresses the scandal of manipulated piecework earnings: “By far the worst case was…Standard Motor Co.’s Beaufighter factory in Coventry” He doesn’t tell us what chunks of Beaus were involved.

BUMP!