Auster History

Austers come in many guises and have their origins in the American Taylorcraft Aircraft Corporation, who supplied the Taylorcraft ‘Auster’ observation plane for the UK and Commonwealth armed forces throughout World War II, built under licence by the UK branch of the company.

After the war, the UK Taylorcraft company became the ‘Auster Aircraft Company’ who continued to manufacture aircraft derived from the early Taylorcraft. The name change to Auster occurred on 7 March 1946.

All designs were evolved from the early Taylorcraft and were characterised by a high wing and sprung skid or tailwheel beneath the fin (except for a low-wing aircraft called the Agrigola designed for crop spraying, of which only two were ever completed ).

After the War, the newly produced Auster variants were used as basic training and touring aircraft as well as an ‘Air Observation Post’ througout the commonwealth.

In some of their guises, they made handsome private aircraft in their day; the Auster Autocrat being one such example and an indication of the obvious class based marketing strategies (and opinions) of the time.

Many people during the post war years experienced their first flight in an Auster from one of Britain’s seaside towns and some of them would have gone on to learn to fly in one.

They were a common sight at the flying clubs and schools of the 1950’s and 60’s but sadly became quickly outmoded by the arrival of the Cessna series of training aircraft with their easier to handle trigear arrangement.

The Auster name was dropped in 1968.