The aircraft design calculations and other papers of W. O. Manning

A collections of notes, calculations, reports and drawings relating to his design work for English Electric and its predecessors, together with calculations for Flight Refuelling Limited and material from his reference library.

W. O. Manning was on of Britain's earliest aircraft designers. Born in Staines, Middlesex, in 1879 and educated at St Paul's School, he started his aeronautical career in 1908 when he joined Mr Howard Wright's firm and designed biplanes and box kites. He then started a career with companies that were to become part of English Electric, becoming chief designer first at Coventry Ordnance Works and then the Phoenix Dynamo Company and then taking up that role in the aircraft department of the newly-formed English Electric Company. During his career at English Electric and its predecessors, he designed a number of seaplanes and landplanes designs, including the Cork and Kingston seaplanes and the Wren.

Manning left English Electric in around 1925 and set up his own consultancy. He was drafted into the Royal Aircraft Establishment at the outbreak of World War II and, shortly after the war, undertake some work for the Flight Refuelling company. He also wrote a number of books, together with articles for Flight , The Aeroplane and Aeronautics .

Open for consultation.