page_title: Miles Aircraft
section_title: Aircraft designs
hierarchical_section_title: Miles Aircraft / Aircraft designs
caption_attribution_description: English: Miles Messenger. Photo property of Adrian Beney
context_page_description: Miles was the name used between 1943 and 1961 to market the aircraft of British engineer Frederick George Miles, who, with his wife – aviator and draughtswoman Maxine "Blossom" Miles – and his brother George, designed numerous light civil and military aircraft and a range of curious prototypes.
context_section_description: The company's aircraft include the Hawk Trainer and its military variant, the Magister, as well as the Messenger and the Gemini. During the Second World War, they produced the Master advanced trainer, as well as the Martinet and Monitor target tugs.
  The aircraft designed by Miles were often technologically and aerodynamically advanced for their time; the M.20 emergency production fighter prototype outperformed contemporary Hawker Hurricanes, despite having fixed landing gear. The X Minor was a flying testbed for blended wing-fuselage designs, although the large commercial transport intended to be produced from this research never entered production. The gigantic Miles X Airliner was to seat 55 and have eight engines buried in the wings, driving four sets of contra-rotating props and achieve a range of 3,450 miles.
  The Miles Libellula were tandem-wing designs for a fighter and a bomber. Having two wings, one each end of the aircraft, movements of the centre of gravity due to fuel or ammunition use were less of a problem.
  The Miles M.52 was a turbojet-powered supersonic research aircraft project that was cancelled before completion.
caption: M38 Miles Messenger G-AKBN photographed circa 1951
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