Hunting Aerosurveys Ltd was a British

aerial photography Aerial photography (or airborne imagery) is the taking of photographs from an aircraft or other airborne platforms. When taking motion pictures, it is also known as aerial videography. Platforms for aerial photography include fixed-wing aircra ...

company founded by

Percy Hunting The English surname Percy is of Norman origin, coming from Normandy to England, United Kingdom. It was from the House of Percy, Norman lords of Northumberland, derives from the village of Percy-en-Auge in Normandy Normandy (; french: lin ...

in 1944. Its operations became more diversified under the name Hunting Surveys.

History

The firm incorporated

Aerofilms Aerofilms Ltd was the UK's first commercial aerial photography company, founded in 1919 by Francis Wills and Claude Graham White. Wills had served as an Observer with the Royal Naval Air Service during World War I, and was the driving force behin ...

Ltd and the

Aircraft Operating Company The Aircraft Operating Company was a British aerial photography company, that took over Aerofilms in 1925. In 1940, its staff and equipment were requisitioned by the Air Ministry, and in 1944 the company itself was taken over by Hunting Aerosurvey ...

. In 1947 it was using three types of aircraft:

Auster Auster Aircraft Limited was a British aircraft manufacturer from 1938 to 1961.Willis, issue 122, p.55 History The company began in 1938 at the Britannia Works, Thurmaston near Leicester, England, as Taylorcraft Aeroplanes (England) Limited, ma ...

s, a

Percival Proctor The Percival Proctor is a British radio trainer and communications aircraft of the Second World War. The Proctor is a single-engined, low-wing monoplane with seating for three or four, depending on the model. Design and development The Proctor ...

and a

de Havilland Dragon Rapide The de Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide is a 1930s short-haul biplane airliner developed and produced by British aircraft company de Havilland. Capable of accommodating 6–8 passengers, it proved an economical and durable craft, despite its rela ...

and planned to acquire one or more Percival Mergansers. The company had contracts for work surveying for tin mining in Nigeria; oil in Arabia, Venezuela and Colombia; timber in Ontario; and mapping in Australia & Hong Kong (in 1963). Between 1957 and 1964, Hunting operated a specially converted

Auster Autocar The Auster J/5 Autocar was a late 1940s British single-engined four-seat high-wing touring monoplane built by Auster Aircraft Limited at Rearsby, Leicestershire. Design and production The company recognised a need for a four-seat touring aircr ...

for smaller scale aerial survey work. In 1960 the firm was merged with Hunting Geophysics Ltd to form Hunting Surveys Ltd. Threatened with closure in the mid-1980s, it was merged with sister company Hunting Aerofilms Ltd to become simply Aerofilms Ltd in 1987. The new company was able to provide state-of-the-art serial survey work and associated mapping, with the oblique aerial photography that Aerofilms had been undertaking since 1919. In 1997 the company was sold to Simmons Mapping in Somerset, a move that ultimately led to the complete closure of the oblique photography business (and its long-established photo library) in 2006, with the vertical / survey side of the business passing to the Somerset operation.

Fleet

de Havilland Dove The de Havilland DH.104 Dove is a British short-haul airliner developed and manufactured by de Havilland. The design, which was a monoplane successor to the pre-war Dragon Rapide biplane, came about from the Brabazon Committee report whic ...

Douglas C-47B The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota ( RAF, RAAF, RCAF, RNZAF, and SAAF designation) is a military transport aircraft A military transport aircraft, military cargo aircraft or airlifter is a military-owned transport aircraft used to su ...

* Percival Merganser *

References

Bibliography

* Aerial photography Surveying organizations {{UK-company-stub

History

Fleet

See also

References

Bibliography