Industry Aerospace | Founded 1927 | |
Key people Ivan Gates, co-founder; Charles H. Day, co-founder, president Products General aviation aircraft Subsidiaries New Standard Flying Services Headquarters Paterson, New Jersey, United States | ||
The New Standard Aircraft Company was an airplane manufacturing company based in the United States. It operated from 1927 until 1931.
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Corporate history
The company was originally formed as the Gates-Day Aircraft Company on October 17, 1927, in Paterson, New Jersey. The founders were Ivan Gates (owner of the famous Gates Flying Circus) and Charles H. Day (an aviation engineer with the Standard Aircraft Corporation). The company initially updated the Standard Aircraft Corporation's Standard J-1 United States Army aircraft trainer and then sold it on the civilian market. The firm built a number of biplanes on the J-1 model, including the Gates-Day D-25, GD-23, and GD-24.
Day left the company in April 1928, and Charles L. Augur became its new president. With more stable finances, the company changed its name to the New Standard Aircraft Company on December 29, 1928. The company at one time considered merging with six other, unnamed aviation firms to form a much larger manufacturing concern, but this plan was never acted on. The company continued to develop a large line of aircraft, but the onset of the Great Depression left it significantly weakened. Day returned to the firm as president in 1930, but sold his financial interest in the company in the spring of 1931. The company went bankrupt later that year.
Despondent over the collapse of his company, Gates committed suicide on November 24, 1932.