There is nothing as British as an Auster.

I have always thought of Auster being everything that was British in post war aviation. It came as a surprise to learn that the Auster started as a license built American Taylorcraft.
Is nothing sacred?
In 1938 A.L.Wykes, Managing Director of Crowthers limited, a manufacturer of textile machinery in Leicestershire, traveled to America and obtained British  manufacturing rights for the Taylorcraft Model B Aeroplane.
On the 21st November 1938 Taylorcraft Aeroplanes (England) Limited was registered. It had both production and selling rights for the British Empire and Europe.
The British version of the Taylorcraft had to be strengthened to comply with British Civil Airworthiness requirements and was designated the Taylorcraft Plus C and went into production in 1939.
When the Second World War started in September 1939 private flying and civilian aircraft production ended, and Taylorcraft become a sub-contractor for wartime aircraft production. This included repairing and rebuilding Tiger Moths, Hawker Hurricanes and Hawker Typhoons.

In addition the Model C was modified for military service as an Air Observation post role. This became the Taylorcraft-Auster Mk 1. By the end of the war further developments had become the final version, the Taylorcraft-Auster Mk V. As the Second World War came to a close the Taylorcraft Auster Mk V morphed into an economical post war light aircraft. This was the Taylorcraft-Auster J/1 Autocrat. The main difference between the Mk V and the Autocrat was that it had a less powerful engine.
Taylorcraft-Auster became Auster Aircraft Limited in March 1946.
The Auster J/1 Autocrat was the first post war civil light aeroplane to go into production. It sold for just over £1,000. This aircraft was the forerunner of prolific and diverse marques of light aircraft that were sold worldwide to both military and civilian customers.
Variants of the Auster were used  for training, touring,
observations, artillery spotting, crop spraying, aerial advertising, air racing as well as float and ski conversions.In 1960 Auster Aircraft became part of British Executive and General Aviation Ltd (BEAGLE). Production of various versions of Austers continued until 1968 under the name of the Terrier and a nose wheel version called the Airedale.
Beagle continued with a series of modern low wing designs that was a complete break from the Auster, starting with the Beagle Pup.