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Old aeroplane photo's.

Browsing round the many aviation web sites I came across the following
In the late 1930s a certain enthusiast named Fred Taylor built his high-wing Wagtail monoplane in the spare bedroom of his municipal house. Fred's design was also governed by the measurements of a window, through which it passed, first the wings and then the fuselage, moving to the final assembly barn at Dunton Farm, Curdworth, north east of Castle Bromwich, Birmingham, from which Fred then taught himself to fly. It flew with a Douglas flat-twin dirt-track engine.
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The only photo I can find is when it was on a used car sales site in Digbeth c1951. It apparently was never sold and some reports say it was burnt. It was apparently never registered and Fred flew it unlicenced.
It would be interesting to find out where Fred Taylor's municipal house was ... maybe not in Curdworth. Also where the used car sales site was in Digbeth ... possibly on a bomb site.
Lots of used cars for sale and one used Taylor Wagtail aircraft.
TaylorWagtailDigbeth1951.JPG
 
oldMohawk said:
Browsing round the many aviation web sites I came across the following
The only photo I can find is when it was on a used car sales site in Digbeth c1951. It apparently was never sold and some reports say it was burnt. It was apparently never registered and Fred flew it unlicenced.
It would be interesting to find out where Fred Taylor's municipal house was ... maybe not in Curdworth. Also where the used car sales site was in Digbeth ... possibly on a bomb site.
Lots of used cars for sale and one used Taylor Wagtail aircraft.
index.php
Click to expand...
Info for you Oldmohawk.
Fred Taylor was a bricklayer from Perry Common, Erdington, so I would assume the initial building of his aeroplanes would have been from his house there. I do not have an address.
He designed and built three aircraft, firstly in 1935 the Taylor A101 Bedstead which was started at his home before moving it to Dunton Hall Farm for assembly and first flight. So it did fly, but not well.
He improved it by adding a new propeller, engine and redesigned streamlined nacelle. This was an improvement and called it the Taylor B102. His third build was the Taylor C103 and was named the Wagtail and flew well just before the war. All the flights were from Dunton Hall farm which was 3 miles ENE of Castle Bromwich airfield, just off the Kingsbury Rd, near Sutton Coldfield, RH side going away from Brum.
The aircraft were all built with unapproved materials, so could not be officially registered. The Wagtail ,last built and shown in the photograph regularly flew up to 1948, and visited Castle Bromwich and Elmdon. It was believed sold to a Arthur Harrison a Birmingham insurance broker, and then to a councillor Bevin. It was also believed traded in for a car at the car lot.
Fred Taylor emigrated to Australia in 1950 and died aged 78 in 1984
The aircraft was burnt sometime after the photo but not known exactly when.
The car lot where the photo was taken was in Deritend on the Coventry Road, opposite Milk St on the corner of Rea St. You can see the pub the Big Bulls Head in the background on the corner of Milk St.
The area of the lot would be where there is now is a boarded up waste lot by the traffic lights as shown on google map.
Hope this helps.
 
Hi Elmdon Boy,
Thanks for that interesting account it seems Fred Taylor was quite a determined character. It must have been quite a sight when the aircraft was moved from his Perry Common house to Dunton.
oldmohawk ... :)
 
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