FLANDERS aircraft (L. Howard Flanders Ltd., Brooklands Shed 33 and Townsend Rd., Richmond, Surrey)

   Howard Flanders began working as an assistant to A. V. Roe at Lea Marshes in 1909. In 1910, with financial support from Dukinfield-Jones and others, he established himself in business, initially at Brooklands. He also acquired premises at Richmond in March 1912. Flanders was a Cambridge graduate and an intelligent designer, who expressed serious views on various aviation matters of importance.
   The firm began with a series of monoplanes which, unfortunately, were delivered for military service at the period of the ban on monoplanes and so were never used. The only biplane from the company, for the Military Trials of August 1912, was let down by the lateness of the unsatisfactory ABC engine. Flanders, who had a physical disability, was involved in a bad motorcycle accident in the autumn of 1913 and his company passed into bankruptcy. He went to Australia in January 1914 for six months to recuperate, and returned in July 1914 to be engaged as chief designer for Vickers at Crayford.


FLANDERS F.1 monoplane

   This was to be a twin pusher monoplane with a 120hp ABC engine and variable incidence wing to aid stability. The engine did not materialize and construction was abandoned in May 1911.