Private company

Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft

British aircraft manufacturer (1912–1961)

Sir W. G. Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Company, or Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft, was a British aircraft manufacturer.2 It is part of Armstrong Siddeley Development.1 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 20, 2026.

Overview

1912Founded1
  • Industryaviation, manufacture of air and spacecraft and related machinery, vehicle construction1
  • HeadquartersGosforth1
  • Founded inNewcastle upon Tyne1
  • Legal formprivate company limited by shares1

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Armstrong Whitworth AW-660 Argosy E1, UK - Air Force AN2260199
Photo: Mike Freer - Touchdown-aviation, GFDL 1.2, via Wikimedia Commons4

Sir W. G. Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Company, or Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft, was a British aircraft manufacturer.2

The story

Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft was established as the Aerial Department of the Sir W. G. Armstrong Whitworth & Company engineering group in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1912, and from c. 1914 to 1917 employed the Dutch aircraft designer Frederick Koolhoven (hence the "F.K." models).

In 1920, Armstrong Whitworth acquired the engine and automobile manufacturer Siddeley-Deasy. The engine and automotive businesses of both companies were spun off as Armstrong Siddeley and the aircraft interests as the Sir W. G. Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Company. When Vickers and Armstrong Whitworth merged in 1927 to form Vickers-Armstrongs, Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft and Armstrong Siddeley were bought out by J. D. Siddeley and did not join the new grouping. This left two aircraft companies with Armstrong in the name – Vickers-Armstrongs (usually known as just "Vickers") and "Armstrong-Whitworth".

The most successful aircraft made by Armstrong-Whitworth in the inter-war period was the Siskin which first flew in 1919 and remained in RAF service until 1932, with 485 produced.

In 1935, J. D. Siddeley retired and Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft was purchased by Hawker Aircraft, the new group becoming Hawker Siddeley Aircraft. The component companies of Hawker Siddeley co-operated, but operated as individual entities.

In March 1936, the first Armstrong Whitworth Whitley bomber aircraft made its maiden flight and a total of 1,814 were produced for the RAF, ending in July 1943. During the war, Armstrong Whitworth also produced 1,328 Avro Lancasters and designed the Armstrong Whitworth Albemarle reconnaissance bomber which was then made by A. W. Hawksley Ltd, part of the Hawker Siddeley group.

Armstrong Whitworth built 281 Avro Lincolns at Baginton from 1945 to 1951. Then, during the 1950s Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft built many Gloster Meteor, Hawker Seahawk, Hawker Hunter and Gloster Javelin jet fighters at their Bitteswell and Baginton factories for delivery to the Royal Air Force, the Royal Navy and the Royal Belgian Air Force.

The Armstrong Whitworth Apollo airliner was unsuccessful and the company was eventually merged with another Hawker Siddeley company, Gloster Aircraft Company, to form Whitworth Gloster Aircraft in 1961. In 1963 Hawker Siddeley dropped the names of the component companies from its products, the last Armstrong Whitworth product, the Argosy, becoming the Hawker Siddeley Argosy.

From Wikipedia’s article on Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Products and brands

Aircraft

Date of first flight in parentheses.

Armstrong Whitworth Aerial Department

Armstrong Whitworth F.K.1 (1914) – "Sissit"

Armstrong Whitworth F.K.3 (1915)

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Armstrong Whitworth F.K.4 (1915) – gondola for SS class airship

Armstrong Whitworth F.K.6 (1916) – Escort fighter triplane

Armstrong Whitworth F.K.8 (1916) – "Big Ack" (1,200 built)

Armstrong Whitworth F.K.9 (1916)

Armstrong Whitworth F.K.10 (1917) – "Quadriplane" (8 built)

Armstrong Whitworth Armadillo (1918) (One built)

Armstrong Whitworth Ara (1919)

Armstrong Whitworth Tadpole

Armstrong Whitworth Siskin (1919) (485 built)

Armstrong-Siddeley Aircraft

Armstrong-Siddeley Siniai (1921) – Bomber (1 built)

Armstrong-Whitworth Aircraft

Armstrong Whitworth Awana (1923)

Armstrong Whitworth Wolf (1923)

Armstrong Whitworth Atlas (1925)

Armstrong Whitworth Ajax (1925)

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.14 Starling

Armstrong Whitworth Ape (1926)

Armstrong Whitworth Argosy (1926)

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.15 Atalanta (1932)

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.16 (1930)

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.17 Aries (1930)

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.18 – heavy bomber project

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.19 (1934)

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.20 – monoplane day bomber project

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.21 – monoplane fighter project

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.22 – monoplane project

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.23 (1935)

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.24 – monoplane day bomber project

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.27 Ensign (1938)

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.28 – single-seat biplane fighter project

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.29 (1936) – competing design for Specification P.27/32 for a day bomber

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.30 – twin-engined monoplane bomber project

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.31 – single-seat biplane fighter project

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.32 – braced two-seat monoplane project

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.33 – twin-engined two-seat monoplane turret fighter project

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.34 – twin-engined fighter project

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.35 Scimitar (1935)

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.36 – two-seat Army co-op biplane project

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.37 – two-seat general purpose biplane project

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.38 Whitley (1936)

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.39 – heavy bomber project

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.40 – monoplane mail carrier project

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.41 Albemarle (1940)

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.43 – monoplane airliner project

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.44 – four-engine bomber project

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.45 – monoplane medium bomber (and/or recce?) project

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.48 – medium (heavy?) bomber project

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.49 – twin-boom, laminar wing bomber (low level attack) project

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.50 – tailless monoplane project

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.51 – two-seat tailless glider project

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.52 (1947) – flying wing, prototypes only

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.53 – twin-engined fast torpedo scout (bomber?) project

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.54 – naval reconnaissance aircraft project

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.55 Apollo (1949)

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.56 – flying wing medium bomber project

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.57 – medium-range 4-engine passenger transport project

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.58 – advanced 59° swept wing Mach 1.2 research aircraft project

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.59 – variable wing-sweep research aircraft proposal

Armstrong Whitworth Argosy (AW.650 / 660) (1959)

Armstrong Whitworth AW.681 – proposed STOL military transport aircraft design

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.690 – proposed VTOL version of Nord Noratlas transport

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.168 – proposed tactical bomber design

Armstrong Whitworth AW.169 – proposed design for Operational Requirement F.155 high altitude supersonic interceptor

Armstrong Whitworth AW.171 – supersonic VTOL flying wing

Hawker Sea Hawk – produced as part of Hawker Siddeley Aircraft

Armstrong Whitworth Meteor NF.11 – redesign of the Gloster Meteor produced as part of Hawker Siddeley Aircraft

Airships

R25r airship

R29 – airship

R33 – airship

Missiles

Seaslug (missile)

From Wikipedia’s article on Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Subsidiaries and ownership

Parent company

Owners

From Wikidata.1

Timeline

  1. 1961Dissolved Dissolved1
  2. 1912Founded Founded in Newcastle upon Tyne1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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