Taylorcraft Auster

The Taylorcraft Auster is a British military liaison and observation aircraft that was designed and produced by the Taylorcraft Aeroplanes (England) Limited company during the Second World War.

Design and development

The Auster was a twice-removed development of an American Taylorcraft design of civilian aircraft, the Model A. The Model A had to be redesigned in Britain to meet more stringent Civil Aviation standards and was named the Taylorcraft Plus '. After the start of the Second World War, the company developed the model further as an air observation post (AOP)—flown by officers of the Royal Artillery and used for directing artillery-fire of the artillery.

The Plus C was re-engined with the Blackburn Cirrus Minor I engine and was re-named the Taylorcraft Plus D. Most of the civil Plus Cs and Ds were pressed into Royal Air Force service; the Plus Cs were re-engined with the Cirrus Minor I and re-named Plus C2.

Pre-war tests identified the Taylorcraft Model D as the most suitable aircraft for an AOP. Three more Ds were purchased from Taylorcraft and a trials unit, D Flight, under Major Charles Bazeley RA, formed at Old Sarum on 1 February 1940. The flight with three Austers, one Stinson 105, three artillery and one RAF pilot, moved to France where they trained with artillery and practiced fighter avoidance with Hurricanes of the Air Component of the British Expeditionary Force before moving south to train with French artillery. The flight did not participate in the fighting and withdrew without loss to Britain. The War Office then ordered 100 Stinson L-1 Vigilants. Formation of the RAF Army Cooperation Command in December 1940 led to the RAF rejecting the very notion of light AOP aircraft.

Intercession by General Alan Brooke led to an accommodation and the first AOP pilot course for artillery officers taking place in October 1940.