Brooklands Aerospace
of Old Sarum Airfield, near Salisbury
The Edgley EA7 Optica was a British light aircraft, designed by John Edgley and built by Brooklands Aerospace. It had an unusual configuration with a fully-glazed forward cabin seating three across, reminiscent of an Alouette helicopter. Behind it was situated a Lycoming flat-six engine powering a ducted fan, twin boom cantilever tailplane with twin rudders and a high-mounted single elevator. The fixed tricycle undercarriage had the nose wheel offset to port. The wings were unswept and untapered, and the aircraft was of a fairly standard all-metal construction with stressed aluminium skin. The aircraft's distinctive appearance led to it being known as the "bug-eye" in some popular reports. It was designed for observation work, intended as as a low-cost alternative to helicopters, retailing originally at around US$200,000.
1979 The first flight of the Optica was on 14 December
Mid-1983 The aircraft entered production.
1985 A crash of police Optica G-KATY on 15 May killed two members of the Hampshire Constabulary. The cause was suspected to be a stall: insufficient airspeed during a turn causing instability. The reason for the low speed was never established.
This led to the bankruptcy of Edgley, with Optica Industries being formed in October 1985 to continue production; 25 were built before a fire caused by arson destroyed the factory.
1987 The company became Brooklands Aircraft, a subsidiary of Brooklands Aerospace; the Optica returned to production but production ceased in March 1990, when Brooklands Aircraft went bankrupt. An example featured in the 1989 movie Slipstream.
A grounding order was imposed by the FAA due to cracks that had developed in the wing spars (but this is not in force as there are two examples flying in the U.S.A. and two are flying in Australia. There are a further two in store in the U.K.).
1990 Brooklands Aerospace was acquired by F. L. Smidth and Co
See Also
Sources of Information
- [1] Wikipedia