Auster J1 Autocrat

Auster J1 Autocraft
The Auster Autocrat such as this was one of the favourite aircraft of the Air Police.
Country of Origin	Great Britain
Maker	Auster Aircraft Ltd.
Type	single-engine touring aircraft
Years in Service	1945 onwards
Appeared in	Many books in the Air Police era

The Auster J1 Autocrat was a civil touring aircraft developed from the successful Taylorcraft Auster observation aircraft that was widely used by Commonwealth forces during the Second World War. First flown in 1945, the Autocrat became one of the most successful British light aircraft in the immediate postwar period, with over 400 built. They were widely used by individuals, flying clubs and by small air charter companies for passenger flights.

In 1950, Auster produced the Auster J1B Aiglet, which was basically an Autocrat with a more powerful 130 hp Gipysy Major engine compared with the Autocrat's 100 hp. The new aircraft was externally very similar and was optimised for the Australian market where the more powerful engine was needed because of the hotter weather in summer. Some 86 of these Aiglets were built.

The Auster and Biggles

The Auster was a favourite aircraft of Biggles and his colleagues during the time they were in the Special Air Police and they used it whenever they felt they needed an aircraft that could land in a very small area, whether it be a tiny farm pasture in Britain or a jungle airstrip in India or Africa.

In a footnote in Biggles in the Terai, Johns gives his readers a detailed description of the Autocrat, where he explained that the advantage of the Autocrat over other faster aircraft for Air Police work lay in its very short landing run, well under 100 yards. The Autocrat therefore features in a great number of the Air Police era Biggles novels and short stories.

List of Books and stories where the Autocrat occurs

• Biggles Air Detective
  • The Case of the Visiting Sultan
  • The Case of the Wounded Agent
  • The Case of the Brilliant Pupil
  • The Case of the Stolen Aircraft
• Biggles Works It Out

• Biggles and the Black Raider

• Biggles Takes the Case
  • All in the Day's Work - G-KXRY flown by Lester Wolfe

• Biggles and the Pirate Treasure
  • The Case of the Poisoned Crops
• Biggles in Australia - used by von Stalhein's espionage gang

• Biggles' Chinese Puzzle
  • The Case of the Secret Inquisitors
  • Operation Starlight
• No Rest for Biggles

• Simple Arithmetic - flown by bank thief Norman Oliver Birch

• Biggles of the Interpol
  • Biggles Makes a Bet
  • The Man Who Came by Night

• Biggles Presses On
  • Fishy Business
  • Biggles Lays a Ghost
  • Mischief by Moonlight
  • The Case of the Stolen Truck

• Biggles Flies to Work
  • The Case of the Old Masters
  • Mystery on the Moor
  • The Two Bright Boys
  • Horace Takes a Hand - G-AOSL, used by Carlo Costino
  • Biggles Learns Something
  • Dangerous Freight
  • Dawn Patrol
  • The Trick That Failed
  • The Case of the Early Boy

• Biggles and the Black Mask

• The Case of the Somerset Farmer
• Biggles Investigates
  • Biggles Investigates (short story)
  • A Ring O' Roses
  • The Long Chase
  • The Case of the Amateur Yachtsmen

• Biggles and the Blue Moon

• Biggles in the Terai

• Biggles in the Underworld - Biggles used an Autocrat. Also featured were two Aiglets belonging to the Podbury Flying Club. Biggles also borrowed one for a time.

• Biggles and the Noble Lord

In derivative works

• Biggles Encounters a Brain Storm
• The Galilean Chalice
• Biggles in the Bahamas

Specifications

• Crew: Three
• Length: 23 ft 5 in (7.1 m)
• Wingspan: 36 ft 0 in (10.97 m)
• Max. takeoff weight: 1,850 lb (841 kg)
• Engine: 1 × Blackburn Cirrus Minor 2 piston engine, 100 hp
• Maximum speed: 120 mph (194 km/h)
• Range: 320 miles (515 km) (according to Johns, 600 miles with long-range tanks)
• Service ceiling: 14,000 ft (4300 m)

See also

• Wikipedia:Auster Autocrat
• The website of the Auster Heritage Group has an amazing amount of information about this and other Austers, including photos and scans of a magazine published by Taylorcraft Auster.