Charles A. Lindbergh Miles M.12 Mohawk Photographs

This collection consists of six photographs of Charles A. Lindbergh with Frederick (F.G.) and Blossom Miles inspecting Lindbergh's new Miles M.12 Mohawk airplane on the ground at Woodley Aerodrome, near Reading (Berkshire), England, and making a test flight, circa August 1936.

Brothers Frederick (F.G.) and George Miles, got their start in aviation in 1916 operating a small, unlicensed flying business which later grew and was organized as Southern Aircraft Ltd. By 1929 the pair were joined by F.G. Miles' wife, Blossom, and had begun to design their own aircraft. Lacking the facilities for quantity production, they reached an agreement in 1932 with Phillips and Powis Ltd at Woodley Aerodrome (home of the Reading Reserve Royal Air Force Training School), near Reading (Berkshire), England, and formed Phillips and Powis Aircraft, Ltd to manufacture their designs under the Miles name. In early 1936, American aviator Charles A. Lindbergh, then living in England, placed an order with Phillips and Powis for a low-wing monoplane powered by a Menasco B-6S Buccaneer 6-Cylinder Inline engine. Lindbergh worked with the designers to modify an existing Miles design to produce a new custom-built two-seat touring airplane, the Miles M.12 Mohawk (r/n G-AEKW, c/n 298). Lindbergh and his wife Anne used the aircraft for numerous flights over Europe, eventually placing it into storage at Woodley in April 1939 before their return to the United States.