Nick Comper

The company was formed in March 1929.  Nick Comper and friends, relatives and a local businessman raised £15,800 capital.  The directors included his brother, Adrian Comper, GA Dawson, a local businessman and owner of Hooton Aerodrome, Flight Lieutenant JB Allen, who had served with Comper at Cranwell and A Moulsdale.  Richard Shuttleworth, who later created the Suttleworth Museum at Old Warden near Biggleswade, was also an investor and director.  He invested £7,000.

It was based at Hooton Aerodrome, near Ellesmere Port in Cheshire.

The first Comper Swift emerged from the Hooton Works in December 1929.  

Designated Comper CLA -7 and named Swift, the prototype, registration G-AARX, first made a public appearance at Brooklands on 17th May 1930. 

For a short time Hooton was the only commercial aerodrome in the north of England.

Over forty Swifts were manufactured at Hooton during the lifetime of the company.

The  works at Hooton, however, lacked facilities for manufacture of a sophisticated multi-seat touring aircraft.  Work on the Mouse was therefore delayed until the new factory at Heston airport was ready for production.

Moving the works from Hooton to Heston was completed in March 1933 and by early September Nick donned a business suit and bowler hat, sat in the pilot’s seat, slid the cabin top closed and the Mouse took off.

But by 1933 the company was suffering grave financial difficulties.  The move to Heston was a sympton of last ditch moves being made by the company’s directors.  There were urgent and frequent reshuffles of the board until finally the company ceased trading in August 1934.