Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, Comac, was founded in 2008 with the purpose of producing the first commercially functioning aircraft for passengers – something the state-run company had previously failed to succeed in doing in the 1970s.
Manufacturer
Columbia Aircraft Corp / Columbia Airliners Inc
USA
During 1928-1929 produced the Triad high-wing wheel/float amphibian at Valley Stream, Long Island, NY, at which time the company was known as Columbia Airliners Inc. Name changed to Columbia Aircraft Corp and later built 330 Grumman J2F-6 Ducks for the USN. Two Grumman designed XJL-1 (Duck replacement) prototypes were built. The company was taken over in early 1946 as part of the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation; it went into liquidation in 1948.
Colt Balloons Ltd / Eire Colting Balloons Ltd
Hokan (or Hakan) Colting began building balloons in Ireland with fellow Swede Per Lindstrand in 1976, drawn, like many others, by that country’s abundance of available skilled labor (much of the company’s output went to Sweden). Production of Colt balloons by Eire Colting Balloons Ltd. continued until the company moved to London in 1978, and changed its name to Colt Balloons Ltd. The company had half the staff of a giant like Cameron, but innovated by building many challenging special shapes, and fabricating most of the components itself, Colt made a name as a scrappy player in the industry, not to be underestimated. Resembling Thunder in the ’70s, the two companies merged in 1980. ThunderColt continued production of Colt balloons, bringing the marque’s ultimate output to 99 before production ceased.
Colonial Aircraft Corp
Founded as a side venture in 1945 by David B. Thurston, an aeronautical engineer at Grumman, and Herbert P. Lindbad (working at Republic). Colonial built its first aircraft at Long Island, New York, during 1947 and 1948, and after receiving the aircraft’s Type Certificate in 1955, the company moved to a new manufacturing facility in Sanford, Maine.
After Colonial was acquired by Lake Aircraft Corp in 1959, with John F. Strayer as the new President, Thurston left the company while Lindbad stayed on.
Colombes, Ateliers Aeronautiques / AAC
France
Amiot (SECM) company after nationalization; AAC came under control of Junkers during the occupation of France in Second World War and began producing Junkers Ju 52/3m transports for the Luftwaffe. After the war continued building these aircraft under French government contract, designated AAC-1 Toucan. More than 400 produced; when order was completed, factory taken over by Aerocentre-SNCA du Centre.
Colomban
1998:
37 bis, rue lakanal
F-92500 Rueil Malmaison
France
LSA builder
Collins Aero
1995-6: 238 Fairville Rd., RD1, Chadds Ford, PA 19317, USA.
Airplane plans provider
Collier Aircraft Corp
USA.
Formed by W. S. Collier in 1939 to build CA-1 Ambassador two-seat light trainer biplane.
Colgate-Larsen Aircraft
USA
Colgate-Larsen Aircraft Corporation succeeded Spencer-Larsen Aircraft Corporation around 1940, continuing its work at Amityville, Long Island, NY, on novel-design small four-seat amphibian flying-boat, the CL-15 (formerly SL-15). From 1941 engaged on subcontract work for other military aircraft building programs, especially after U.S. entry into Second World War.
Cody, Samuel F.
Born in Iowa, USA, in 1867 as Samuel Franklin Cowdery, he took on the name Cody to take advantage of the success of William Frederick ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody of’Wild West’ fame. S F. Cody arrived in the UK in 1889 and set up a touring show. Part of the many ‘acts’ within this travelling ‘circus’ was the flying of substantial kites. Cody became fascinated by flight and developed his own cellular (or box) kites and in November 1902 patented his man-lifting design. The UK military became very interested in these devices as an observation system that was than cheaper and more efficient than balloons.
From 1906, Cody was appointed Chief Kite Instructor to the Balloon Factory at Farnborough, Hampshire. As well as kites, he assisted in the construction of the airship Nulli Secundus (Second to None) which first flew in September 1907, powered by a 50hp (37kW) Antoinette V8.
In 1908, Cody turned his attention to building a heavier-than-air flying machine inspired by the Wright Brothers’ designs. Fitted with the same Antoinette that had powered the airship, his British Army Aeroplane No.1 took to the air for the first time on October 16,1908, and put Cody into the history books. He became a British subject in October 1909.
He built another biplane in 1910 in which he took the Michelin Prize with a flight of 185 miles (297km) in a closed-circuit. He gained Royal Aero Club Aviator’s Certificate No.9 on June 7,1910.
Cody developed his Circuit of Britain Biplane in 1911, entering it for the Daily Mail 1,010-mile contest of the same name. He came fourth in that and won two Michelin Cups for close-circuit flying, becoming well known for flying passengers.
In 1912, he flew a short-lived tractor monoplane, which was destroyed in a collision with a cow that July. The same year saw the birth of the Military Trials Biplanes, which resulted in a pair being ordered for service with the Royal Flying Corps. (The second of these biplanes, No.304, was presented to the Science Museum in November 1913 and is today displayed at South Kensington, London.)
His final design was the large (even by Cody’s standards) Hydro-Biplane designed to enter the coastal Daily Mail Circuit of Britain of 1913. Cody and his passenger W H B Evans were killed in this machine, in landplane form, on August 7,1913. Pioneer Cody had become the 32nd British pilot fatality.
All Aero 