These were the 10-foot Gipsy, the 16-foot Corsair and the 18-foot six-inch trailer/sailer Rambler. While Frank Bailey designed the first aluminium 12-foot Tiki sailing boat and 12-foot fibreglass Vagabond, de Havilland Marine later produced three small fibreglass yachts designed by Alan Payne, following trials from 1966. The brand name Topper was also adopted in 1960, intended initially to demonstrate that these lightweight and strong boats were suitable for transporting on a car top. By the end of 1960, 1100 boats of four different models had been made and sold. On 21 September 1959 the Board approved the manufacture of 50 12-foot boats, all of which had been sold by 31 December 1959. A naval architect designed prototype was commissioned, following which Frank Bailey, the Vampire Production Engineering Manager, redesigned it to be easier and cheaper to make, while also making it more attractive to the anticipated market. The company is now owned by Boeing Australia, who announced on 6 February 2009 that Hawker de Havilland would be known as Boeing Aerostructures Australia.įollowing a report in January 1959 by Daryl Murray Jones to the New Products Committee, it was recommended that small aluminium boat production be started in time to meet the Spring selling season, starting with an 11/12-foot dinghy. In 1960, following the takeover of the parent company de Havilland Holdings Ltd of England by the Hawker Siddeley Group, de Havilland Australia was renamed Hawker de Havilland. Following the end of the war, the Australian company diversified into an aircraft sales agency and engineering and marine craft manufacturing. Aircraft design and full manufacture by de Havilland Australia (DHA) did not take place until the Second World War. In 1930 the company moved to Bankstown (a suburb of Sydney), where it acted as an agency for the parent company, with assembly, repair and spares facilities for its range of aircraft. These included Carpentaria Class Patrol Boats for Burma & the Solomon Islands, Titan Work Boats for the New South Wales (NSW) government, and the hulls of the Nepean Belle which still operates on the Nepean River in NSW.ĭe Havilland Australia opened in Melbourne in March 1927 as de Havilland Aircraft Pty. In the years prior it manufactured various large aluminium craft for both the local and international market. Due to a lack of new business it closed its doors in 1982. By the end of the small boat production in the 1970s over 55,000 had been producedĭe Havilland Marine (Large Craft) (registered company number F11799) was located on the waters edge at 5-7 Burroway Road, Homebush Bay. In 1965, The Sydney Morning Herald reported the marine division had produced 15,000 craft of all types, with a projected annual production of 5,000 craft per year. de Havilland Australia built the mast and rig for Gretel. Later designers included in 1966 naval architect Alan Payne, designer of Australia's first America's Cup ( 1962 America's Cup) challengers Gretel and Gretel II. de Havilland Marine's designers were initially headed by Frank Bailey, the Vampire Production Engineering Manager, starting in 1959. It found a ready market in the production of a range of small aluminium boats made using techniques similar to those employed in the aircraft industry. which is now owned by Boeing Australia and known as Boeing Aerostructures Australia.įollowing the downturn of aviation manufacturing in the late 1950s, the Australian subsidiary of de Havilland looked to produce products utilizing the skills and knowledge available to the company. De Havilland Marine was a division of Hawker de Havilland Australia Pty.
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