George Handasyde

George Handasyde (full name George Harris Handasyde) was a Scottish aircraft designer and manufacturer, born in Edinburgh around 1877. He built his first aeroplane in north London in 1908 and, according to Grace's Guide, joined H. P. Martin in 1909 to found Martin and Handasyde, which built monoplanes at Brooklands and later became Martinsyde. After that company closed around 1921 he designed a glider in 1922 in which F. P. Raynham won the duration contest at Itford Hill, and he later designed a commercial monoplane. In the early 1930s he joined the Desoutter Aircraft Company and adapted the Dutch Koolhoven monoplane for British use, then moved to the British Klemm Aeroplane Company, where he designed the Eagle and Double Eagle variants of the Klemm monoplane for the successor British Aircraft Manufacturing Company. He retired to Scotland around 1939 and died in 1958 at the age of 81. His son Robert became a director of the British Aircraft Corporation Weybridge Division.