Britten-Norman

Britten-Norman (officially the Britten-Norman Group or BNG) is a British aircraft manufacturer owned by members of the Zawawi family from the Sultanate of Oman, making it the country's sole remaining independent commercial aircraft producer.

The company manfactures such aircraft as the Islander, Defender and Trislander, which are all well suited to short take off and landing (STOL) operations and are typically used for transport between small islands.

Britten-Norman has sold more than 1,250 aircraft to customers in more than 120 countries. In addition to aircraft manufacturing, the company also performs maintenance, overhaul and repair work as well as performing sub-contract engineering and design work.

The company's sole factory is located at Bembridge on the Isle of Wight.

History

John Britten and Desmond Norman started developing crop spraying equipment in the early 1960s. After moving to the Isle of Wight, Britten and Norman (who had both trained with De Havilland) turned their hand to aircraft design.

In addition to the successful BN-2 Islander, they also designed the unsuccessful BN-1 Finibee and the BN-3 Nymph.

Ownership of the company has passed through a number of hands. The Fairey group acquired Britten-Norman in 1972 and then sold it to Oerlikon-Buhle (owner of Pilatus Aircraft of Switzerland, hence the Pilatus Britten-Norman designation of some of their aircraft) in 1979. In turn, Oerlikon-Buhle sold Britten-Norman to its current owners in 1998.

External link

Britten-Norman company website (http://www.britten-norman.com)