Aviation Innovation Legacy

A LEIGH daughter and father have co-authored and published a biography of their innovative family member, who played a pioneering role in the history of British aviation.

Emma Taylor Gracie, whose nursing memoir Blue Girl: Nursing Beyond the Ward was published in 2020, has now published On with the Next about her grandfather, the engineer John F. Taylor.

Written alongside her father Terry Taylor – John’s son –the new work details the life and achievements of the Essex-based post war innovator, who designed and made the first homebuilt aeroplane, the self-titled Taylor Monoplane.

Astonishingly, he built this in his first-floor lounge in Ilford: a town in Essex where he also worked as a car engineer at Fords.

Emma explains: “They had to remove the bay window of the house to complete the building!”

After leaving Ford, the family moved to Eastwood on a new estate built in the 1960s, so John could be near Rochford airport.

“He left Fords on Friday and started work as a metalwork teacher at Greensward School in Hockley on the Monday!”

With affordability and simplicity being John’s goal from the outset, the Taylor Monoplane proved so popular that went “On with the Next” to produce his second plane, the Taylor Titch, in his Eastwood garage, named after his test pilot Titch Holmes.

It was especially important to have Emma and Terry’s book published by 4th July this year, as this marks a special anniversary: “This date marks the 65th anniversary of Taylor Monoplane’s maiden voyage, in 1959,” explains Emma.

She adds: “I am so pleased we managed to complete the book on time. It is told first hand, as I have written the book with my dad Terry.”

Terry now looks after his father’s legacy, and runs the website from where the plans are purchasable.

With his international fame and place in history secured, Terry and Emma were also delighted to find, in writing this book, how well-regarded John Taylor was in the local area of Eastwood: “we have discovered, during our research, that there are many people who still remember him locally,” she adds.

“He flew his second plane, the Taylor Titch, from Southend airport: it seems many remember him doing this.

“Tragically, he was killed in the Taylor Monoplane in 1967 and the book tells not just his story, but the legacy he left behind.”

Few British homebuilt aircraft have gone on to be made in such quantity, or in so many countries.

“The response has been very good, with comments and reminiscences from people the world over, who fly his planes,” adds Emma.

Purchase the book at: amzn.eu/d/0gltj3uf

For information on the plane plans, visit: taylortitch.co.uk.

Picture: John Taylor (in the Taylor Titch plane) with test pilot Titch Holmes

REPORT BY SOPHIE SLEIGH-JOHNSON

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