Date:	Saturday 14 March 1942
Time:	day
Type:	Taylorcraft Plus C2
Owner/operator:	651 Sqn RAF
Registration:	ES956
MSN:	100
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Garth, Powys, Mid Wales, between Builth Wells and Beulah -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:
Destination airport:

Narrative:
In 1938 Alexander Lance Wykes a local Leicestershire businessman, flying enthusiast and member of the County Flying Group, travelled to North America and negotiated a licence agreement to build an American designed light aeroplane in England.

A. L. Wykes was the Managing Director of Crowthers limited a Thurmaston Company who manufactured textile machinery in the Britannia works, Melton Road. The licence obtained was for the manufacture of the Taylorcraft Model B Aeroplane.

On 21 November 1938 Taylorcraft Aeroplanes (England) Limited was registered as a Private company with both production and selling rights for the British Empire and Europe.

Construction commenced in rented premises behind Crowthers Britannia Works during February 1939. The first aircraft was completed by 24 April 1939, having already been registered G-AFNW [C of R 8984] on 11 January 1939

The finalised Thurmaston aircraft differed from its American counterpart, as it had to be strengthened to comply with British Civil Airworthiness requirements. It was therefore designated a Taylorcraft “Plus C” model.

Once completed the first aircraft was taken by road to Sir Lindsay Everard’s aerodrome at Ratcliffe on the Wreake from where it made its first flight on 3 May 1939.

Production of the type then followed with the first aircraft G-AFNW being subsequently delivered to the “County Flying Group” at Rearsby aerodrome on 15 May 1939. The group had occupied this airfield since leaving its flying field in Melton Mowbray during the late thirties.

Impressed into military service as ES956 on 31 July 1941 contract H.546122/41. Allocated to B Flight, 651 Squadron at RAF Old Sarum, Wiltshire

Written off (damaged beyond repair) when crashed at Garth in Powys, mid Wales, between Builth Wells and Beulah, on 14 March 1942, while taking part in an exercise with 76 Medium Regiment at Charborough. The failure of the starboard lower external bearing wire under the tailplane suggests that the aircraft broke-up in flight prior to its fatal crash. Pilot killed - recorded as being

Name: ROGERS, FRANK LESLIE
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Captain
Regiment/Service: Royal Artillery
Secondary Regiment: Royal Air Force
Secondary Unit Text: attached 651 Sqdn.
Age: 24
Date of Death: 14 March 1942
Service No: 77532
Additional information: Son of Colonel Thomas Leslie Rogers, O.B.E., and Dorothy Frazer Rogers, of Rusholme, Manchester.
Alternative Commemoration - buried in Birch-in-Rusholme (St. James) Churchyard.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: Screen Wall.
Cemetery: MANCHESTER SOUTHERN CEMETERY

The wreckage of the aircraft was taken to No.1 M.P.R.D. (Metal Produce and Recovery Depot) at Cowley, Oxfordshire for scrapping

1. Mike Draper Auster Quarterly Vol 1 No 1 Spring 1975
2. Mike Draper Auster Quarterly Vol 1 No 4 Winter/Spring 1976
3. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/gy/reg_G-A11.html
4. http://afleetingpeace.org/index.php/15-aeroplanes/80-register-gb-g-af
5. https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-AFNW.pdf
6. http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?8588-Unaccounted-Airman-(Army-attached-RAF)
7. http://www.orpheusweb.co.uk/vicsmith/Accidents/Mar42.html
8. [LINK NOT WORKING ANYMORE:https://www.auster80.co.uk/about/auster]

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
17-May-2008 11:10	ASN archive	Added
08-Dec-2012 06:50	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Country, Phase, Nature, Source, Damage, Narrative]
10-Jan-2013 13:00	Nepa	Updated [Operator]
29-Apr-2014 00:53	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]
29-Apr-2014 18:21	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]
16-Feb-2018 17:53	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]
16-Feb-2018 19:28	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Source, Narrative]