Retrospective: Automobiles and aeroplanes: Alvis

By 1939, Alvis had developed its own aero engine, the nine-cylinder radial Leonides. During World War II, the Alvis factory was mostly engaged in reconditioning Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, but post-war it supplied the Leonides for aircraft including the Scottish Aviation Pioneer/Twin Pioneer and the Hunting Percival Provost/Pembroke, used by the RAF in conflicts such as Aden and Borneo. The Leonides was also fitted to helicopters by Bristol, Bristow and Westland, and the subsequent Leonides Major unit appeared in passenger aircraft such as the 47-seater Handley Page Herald (1955).

In the 1950s, car-making continued, but problems with body supply and the loss of many vital plans and blueprints during the war forced a shift in business: Alvis concentrated on special-bodied cars with coachwork by firms including Mulliner, Tickford and Graber, but this was unprofitable. Production of an all-new V8-engined car - designed by Alec Issigonis and with rubber-mounted suspension by Alex Moulton - was shelved in 1955, and Alvis struggled on for another ten years with its Three Litre saloons, offered in Switzerland with bodywork by Graber and in the UK with cheaper Mulliner Park Ward bodies.

But its aero engines operations were also suffering - the industry was shifting from piston engines to turbine units - and Alvis was taken over by Rover in 1965 and then merged into British Leyland two years later. Only its armoured vehicle division continued, making the Scorpion tank; this is now owned by BAE Systems.

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