A1 Taylor Aircraft, Piper and Auster
At the age of 13, Clarence Gilbert Taylor became passionate about nascent aeronautics. We are in September1911, less than eight years after one of the first controlled flight of a plane by Orville Wright on December 17, 1903. It is the time of the first records to be beaten and of the first air meetings.
Clarence G. Taylor then attended the "Wine FIZ", a Wright EX Biplane model driven by Calbraith P. Rodgers who tries to win the Hearst Award promised to the one who will cross the coast to coast of the United States in less than 30 days. Although Cal Rodgers will spend 84 days to join Sheepshead Bay Long Island New York in Long Beach California, he will become the first aviator to cross the continent despite almost total deafness.
In 1926, Clarence G Taylor trained with his brother Gordon A Taylor to become the Taylor Brothers Aircraft Manufacturing Company in Rochester, New York in 1927. From 1928, the Taylor brothers ended up designing their first aircraft the Arrowing A-2 Chummy. It is a monoplane with a star engine.
In search of larger premises, C.G. Taylor moved his business to Bradford Pennsylvania where he found investors. In April 1928, the company was renamed "Taylor Brothers aircraft compagny".
However, it turns out that the Chummy is a commercial flop and does not sell. At a price of $ 4000 each, it is relatively expensive and the company is experiencing financial difficulties.
On April 24, 1928, Gordon Taylor killed himself at the controls of an A-2 during a flight in Detroit. For his part, C.G. Taylor continues to invest in the company.
One of the main investors is William Thomas Piper and goes into the business with $ 400 of funds. He had made a fortune in the oil wells. He became treasurer of the company and kept C.G. Taylor as president and chief engineer.
Taylor shares with Piper the dream of making planes as common and easy to use as cars but also affordable for the American people.
After continuing with the A-2 Chummy for a while, Taylor abandoned this design and began working on a new plane, the Taylor E-2 Cub. It is a monoplane with 2 seats in tandem which will make its baptism in September 1930.
In the meantime, the financial crisis of 1929 contributed to the collapse of the Taylor company, which took stock. At the public auction, William T. Piper, becomes the owner by making an offer of $ 761.
The Taylor E-2 Cub will be powered initially with a 20 Hp Brownback Tiger Kitten engine. After a runway exit and undeniable lack of power, as early as October 1930, Taylor changed engine for a star-shaped Salmson AD-9 produced in France.
Always looking for a reliable and inexpensive aircraft, Taylor finally chose the new Continental A-40 engine of 37 Hp for its E-2 Cub.
The price of the aircraft rose to $ 1,400 for the public and more than 350 aircraft of this type will be sold before the end of its production in 1936.
In 1931, after a restructuring, Taylor Brothers Aircraft Corporation became the Taylor Aircraft Company.
An internal battle over aircraft design between the engineer and the businessman caused the break between the two men.
Piper takes advantage of Taylor's absence during an illness, asking Taylor engineer Walter Corey Jamouneau to modify the Taylor H-2 Cub to make it more attractive and marketable. It will be the Piper J-2 then J-3 Cub which will be produced with more than 20,000 copies in many versions all over the world:
In 1936, C.G.Taylor, on returning from his illness, left the company and sold his share to W.T. Piper. He settled in Alliance, Ohio, where he founded the Taylor-Young Airplane Co.
For its part, the Taylor Aircraft Company changed its name to the Piper Aircraft Corporation.
In 1938, Taylor-Young Airplane Co became the Taylorcraft.
Taylor's new design was the Taylorcraft Model A: a two-seater monoplane side by side, a disposition he had already tried in 1929, but which had to be abandoned because of the financial crisis.
This new apparatus was a success. It was produced in large numbers, some of which found their way to England. One of these derivatives, the Model B was purchased in 1938 by the Flying Club County of Rearsby, Leicestershire. The company created in England to produce it will be at the origin of the construction of Auster aircraft.
