Miles aircraft you can see
| Type | First flew | Built | UK museums |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles Hawk familySpeed Six, Major, Trainer | 1934 | ~300 | 2 |
| Miles Magister | 1937 | 1,303 | 4 |
| Miles Messenger & GeminiMessenger 2A/4A, Gemini 1A | 1942 | 263 | 2 |
Miles in brief
The Hawk light monoplane led to the Hawk Trainer and the Magister, an RAF elementary trainer. Rolls-Royce bought into the firm in 1936. In the war it built the Master advanced trainer and the Martinet and Monitor target tugs. The firm became Miles Aircraft Ltd in 1943, after the Rolls-Royce stake was bought out. The Messenger and Gemini light aircraft followed. The M.52 supersonic research aircraft was cancelled before it flew.
Heavy losses brought collapse in 1947, and the new board ended aircraft work. Handley Page bought the aviation assets as Handley Page Reading. F.G. Miles started again in 1948, later at Shoreham, and Beagle bought those interests in 1961.
Museums holding Miles aircraft
| Museum | Miles types | Adult entry | Airframes | Headline exhibit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Shuttleworth CollectionBiggleswade, Bedfordshire | 2 | £19.50 | 55 | The 1934 DH.88 Comet 'Grosvenor House', winner of the MacRobertson England–Australia air race, restored to fly; and the Edwardians —… |
| Hooton Park HangarsEllesmere Port, Cheshire | 1 | £9 | 45 | Hooton Park's 1917 Belfast-truss hangars — among the finest WWI aviation buildings surviving — hold aircraft, buses and a printing museum… |
| IWM DuxfordCambridge, Cambridgeshire | 1 | £29 | 146 | Concorde 101 (G-AXDN), the pre-production development aircraft and the fastest Concorde of them all at Mach 2.23 — plus an SR-71A… |
| Montrose Air Station MuseumMontrose, Angus | 1 | £10 | 14 | The 1913 fabric itself, plus the resident ghost stories (Montrose is Britain's most famously haunted airfield, a claim the volunteers… |
| Royal Air Force Museum MidlandsShifnal, Shropshire | 1 | Free | 78 | TSR-2 XR220, one of two survivors of the most gifted aircraft Britain ever cancelled, sharing floor space with the stainless-steel… |
| Ulster Aviation Society (Maze Long Kesh)Lisburn, County Antrim | 1 | By appointment | 63 | The Shorts family — SC.1 vertical take-off research aircraft included — plus a Buccaneer, Phantom, Wildcat, and a newly arrived AV-8… |
| Wings Aviation MuseumHaywards Heath, West Sussex | 1 | £13 | 25 | The Wings Museum near Balcombe displays Eastern Front and D-Day aircraft archaeology in crash-site dioramas — raw, unpolished and… |
Frequently asked
Where were Miles aircraft built?
At Woodley Aerodrome, near Reading, which Phillips & Powis opened in 1929.
What was the Miles M.52?
A supersonic research aircraft. It was cancelled before completion.
What happened to Miles Aircraft?
It collapsed in 1947. Handley Page bought the aviation assets, and F.G. Miles started a new company in 1948.