Oliver Simmonds

Simmonds was born on 22 November 1897 in King's Lynn, Norfolk, the elder son of the Rev Frederick Simmonds, a lawyer by training and a Congregational Minister by avocation. He was educated at Taunton School in Somerset.

In early 1916, he volunteered to join the Royal Flying Corps as a pilot. He was trained at Weybridge, Surrey. He received his wings and in March 1916 joined 25 Squadron in France. He piloted a Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.2b, a light bomber and observation aircraft. Arthur Tedder, later Deputy Supreme Commander of all Allied Forces in Northern Europe in 1944/45, was also a member of 25 Squadron at that time.

Upon demobilisation Simmonds went up to Magdalene College, Cambridge, as an exhibitioner in 1919. He switched from reading History to Engineering, earning his degree in 1922. While at Cambridge he joined the Cambridge University Aeronautical Society.

Simmonds joined the Royal Aircraft Factory in 1922. During his time at Farnborough, Simmonds wrote a joint paper on the results of a test in the Wind Tunnel. Simmonds was then transferred to the Air Worthiness Dept, which was responsible for approving and granting a British Certificate of Airworthiness to each newly designed aircraft. This position required him to visit the design offices of all the British Aircraft designers, where he saw first hand all the new design ideas that were evolving.

After the US won the Schneider Trophy in 1924 at a speed of about 240 mph, the British Air Ministry called for a new monoplane challenger that could achieve 300 mph in level flight. In a search for new talent, R.J. Mitchell at Supermarine interviewed Simmonds and invited him to join the design team. In the 1960s, while talking to another former Schneider team member, he was reminded how the fuselage diameter of the Supermarine S.5 was determined. Simmonds had asked one of the team to put a piece of plywood vertically against the wall. He then sat on the floor with his back to the plywood, while a colleague drew a line around his body. This became the fuselage diameter. Simmonds was a small man physically, which is the reason that the RAF pilots chosen to fly the aircraft were of a similar stature. This Supermarine series of aircraft won the Schneider Trophy in 1927, 1929 and 1931, thereby winning it outright. The last of the Series, the Supermarine S6B was the first aircraft to exceed 400 mph in level flight, over the Solent, on 23 September 1931.

During Simmonds' time with Supermarine, he had begun, in his spare time, working on the design of a new light aircraft, which he later named the Spartan. It had interchangeable wings and interchangeable tail surfaces, a particular advantage in export markets. This resulted in a disagreement between Simmonds and Supermarine and the former announced in July 1928 that he was leaving Supermarine to form his own company to produce the Spartan.

In 1928 Simmonds formed two companies: Simmonds Aircraft, Ltd.— Capital £20,000, in £1 shares. With the purpose of acquiring interests in patents, licences, concessions and the like held by the Simmonds Interchangeable Wing Co., Ltd., and to acquire from O. E. Simmonds licences relating to the building, manufacture, design and sale of the Simmonds Spartan Light Aeroplane. The company produced a significant number of Spartans and also de Havilland Moths under license. In 1931, as the US depression began to be felt in Britain, Simmonds sold his interest in the company to Whitehall Securities Corporation. When the first Simmonds Spartan was rolled out in 1929, Simmonds was able to announce the company had orders for 54 Spartans and had a contract to produce the Blackburn ?