Norman discovered in John Britten a partner who was equally keen to make a career out of aircraft design. The two men built their first aircraft at Britten's home on the Isle of Wight. The BN1F was a ultra-light aircraft. The aircraft was a commercial failure, but with a third partner, Jim McMahon, they formed a crop-spraying company, Crop Culture (Aerial) Ltd. It was to be Norman's first big success. The reason was a revolutionary rotary atomiser, whose potential in aerial work Norman had recognised and set about developing. Crop spraying equipment Desmond Norman recalled that Britten-Norman came about as an aircraft manufacturer because of his and John Britten's experiences as agricultural operators. The partnership began by converting Tiger Moths for export to New Zealand and later moved on to develop spraying equipment. Edward Bals designed the first Micronair rotary atomiser suitable for mounting on an aircraft but, rather than get involved with aircraft, he encouraged Britten-Norman Limited and Jim McMahon to set up Micronair Limited. At one time Britten-Norman operated 80 agricultural aircraft and the need to consider replacement equipment led to an association with Leyland Snow of Texas. The company acquired a one-third share in the Snow Aeronautical Corp. equity and a lot of the Snow Commander's development had taken place before the whole enterprise was sold to North American Rockwell. The aircraft became the Rockwell Thrush Commander. The success of the crop spraying operations funded the realisation of Britten and Norman's dream: to design and build an aeroplane. At the time, there was no other aircraft that filled its remit, and Norman foresaw the market potential of an island-hopping passenger plane. In 1963 Norman and Britten sold their share of Crop Culture to other members of the Board to concentrate their efforts on production of the Britten-Norman Islander. A prototype, G-ATCT, was completed within nine months and made its maiden flight in June 1965. Production was centred at Bembridge, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom. Hovercraft In 1960 Britten-Norman developed the early Cushioncraft with support from Elders and Fyffes Ltd. to look at methods of transporting banana crop from plantations in Southern Cameroons. Cushioncraft Ltd was formed out of the hovercraft division of Britten-Norman. In 1966 the British Hovercraft Corporation Ltd took a 20% shareholding. Britten-Norman Ltd had a shareholding in Hovertravel Ltd (now the world's oldest hovercraft transport company), of which Norman was a director since its