Manufacturer

Lakes Flying Co / Northern Aircraft Co

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UK
Formed in 1911 by Captain E. W. Wakefield. Built the first successful British seaplane (designed by A.V. Roe) at Cockshott, Windermere. In 1912 built interesting seaplane with central float, designed by Oscar T. Gnosspelius. Renamed Northern Aircraft Company.
Northern Aircraft operated a seaplane training school at Cockshott, Lake Windermere, and built the Lakes Waterhen and Seabird aircraft.
The final design was the Hydro-monoplane. The seaplanes performed many pleasure flights from the Lake for the general public. In November 1914 the company was bought by the Northern Aircraft Company and the lakeside facility was expanded and pilot training (advertised as The Seaplane School) as well as the pleasure flights were undertaken.

One of the pilots of the Northern Aircraft Company was John Lankester Parker, who became Chief Test Pilot for the Short Brothers company in Rochester, Kent and later Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Lake / LanShe Aerospace / Sun Lake Aircraft

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Lake formed at Sandford, Maine (pres: Jack Strayer), and purchased manufacturing rights to Colonial Skimmer in 1959, marketed initially as Lake Skimmer. Circa1961 Aerofab (Herbert Lindblad (ex-Colonial)) was founded to build Lake Amphibians for M I Alson, Lake Aircraft distributor, 5511 S Main St, Elkhart IN.

Merged with Consolidated Aeronautics 1962, continuing production as Lake LA-4A amphibian, the first under the Lake name appearing in 1960.

1978 production model was LA-4 200 Buccaneer. One LA-4 used by Bell Aerospace to test Air Cushion Landing System (ACLS) 1963-1968. In 1969 the company moved to Tomball TX. 1979: Acquired by Armand Rivard, Laconia NH and Kissimmee FL; TC to REVO.

Company became Lake Amphibian Inc. in 1983 and Lake Aircraft Inc. in 1987.

Lake Amphibian Inc. markets six-seat Renegade amphibian (first flown 1983), four-seat Turbo-Renegade with turbocharged piston engine, Seafury and Turbo Seafury as variants for salt water operations, and military Seawolf with underwing NATO pylons for stores. Over 1,300 amphibians manufactured by all Lake companies, past and present.

LanShe Aerospace in Florida bought the Lake Aircraft Company in 2002 (pres: Wadi Rahim). TC to Global Amphibians. Renamed as Sun Lake Aircraft, Ft Pierce FL.

Laister / Laister-Kauffmann

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One of the pioneer US sailplane designers, John W. (or Jack) Laister built his first design, a gull-winged acrobatic sailplane in 1938 and later formed, with John R. Kauffman, the Laister-Kauffman Aircraft Corp. This produced, among other types, the TG-4A training glider version of the LK-10 for the USAAF and was one of the 16 firms taking part in the Waco CG-4A Hadrian programme, building 310 out of the nearly 14,000 CG-4As completed. Laister-Kauffman also produced one of the biggest troop-carrying gliders of the war, the 42-seat XCG-10A, which had a span of 105ft and could carry a 155mm howitzer or a 2½ ton truck.

Laird, Charles L.

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Charles L Laird, Wichita KS.
Brother of Matty Laird.
Charles Laird of Wichita, Kansas, built the Whippoorwill cabin biplane and changed company name in 1927 to avoid confusion with his brother “Mattie” of E. M. Laird Airplane Company.

1930: Aircraft Engineering, Chicago IL.

Charlie Laird established Aircraft Engineering (unrelated to the parent company for ACE biplane) in Chicago after he left Wichita in 1930, also had a hand in the Greer College Bryan-Laird B-1B N516K.

Laird Airplane Co / E.M. Laird Co

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Laird, who first learned to fly in 1913 from an empty field between Cicero Avenue and 52nd Street, north of 22nd Avenue, built a few promising airplanes at this location before going to Wichita.
Emil Matthew “Mattie” Laird built his first Model S aircraft in 1919.
The E.M. Laird Company of Wichita started operation as a partnership in 1920. Bill Burke, an Oklahoma Buick automobile dealer, asked Matty Laird to leave Chicago and come to Wichita to build airplanes. Bill Burke put up one half of the capital needed ($15,000) to start the company. The other partners were Jack Mollendeck, a Wichita oil man who contributed the remaining $15,000, Matty Laird, and his brother Charlie, who provid¬ed the design and technical know how to build the airplanes.

Commercial activity at Chicago began in 1920 with the Swallow, a redesigned Curtiss JN-4, claimed as first U.S. commercial aircraft. Design sold to Lloyd Stearman’s Swallow Aeroplane Manufacturing Company as the New Swallow.

In 1921, Walter Beech, who had barn¬stormed in a Jenny after WWI, joined the company to assist Laird in testing the air¬craft. Also in 1921, Lloyd Stearman joined the company to assist in the design, assem¬bly, and rigging work on the Swallow.

In 1921, Bill Burke left the company and returned to his Buick automobile dealership. In 1923, Matty Laird left the company, returning to his former Chicago location to build the Laird Speed Wing.

Built the first LC (Laird Commercial) 1924. Also designed Super Swallow, an improved New Swallow. Laird concentrated subsequently on custom-built sporting and racing aircraft, such as LC-DW Solution, the only biplane to win the Thomson Trophy.

The E.M. Laird Company did not survive and went into receivership on 13 August 1927.

In 1931 Super Solution Jimmy Doolittle set U.S. coast-to-coast records. With same aircraft set record of 293.193mph (471.8kmh) at 1932 National Air Races. Production continued of threeseat Speedwing biplane. Last project was in 1936, redesigning and completing ex-Lawrence Brown racer for Colonel Roscoe Turner, as LTR 14 Meteor.