The Straight Corporation Ltd was a significant operator of British airlines, airports and flying clubs from 1935 until the mid-1970s. Its major unit, Western Airways, expanded to become an important parts manufacturer, a maintenance, repair and upgrade organisation, and a builder of transport aircraft.

Whitney Willard Straight was a successful racing driver in the early 1930s, but his American millionaire mother and English step-father, Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst, were concerned for his safety and sought a less dangerous occupation for him, especially as he was about to marry. At a dinner at their home, Dartington Hall in Devon, they discussed this with William (Bill) Parkhouse, who was the owner of a local auto engineering company, and founder of Haldon Airfield, where Straight had learned to fly a few years earlier.

Parkhouse had been concerned that smaller airports, such as Exeter and Torquay, with which he was also involved, and smaller airlines, were too small to survive on their own, and he proposed that a holding company operating many such ventures would be able to achieve economies of scale and be able to use resources much more efficiently, sharing them as needed. Straight was summoned the next day, and readily agreed to found the venture, so on 17 April 1935 Straight Corporation was born, and Straight gave up motor racing.

The corporation was funded by Straight's own trust, with the objective of controlling up to 15 municipal airports, with first-class terminals, restaurants and flight training facilities. The headquarters were at 17 Manchester Square, London W.1.

Straight recruited several friends as directors in his corporation. These included Bill Parkhouse; Louis Strange; Richard Seaman, a fellow racing driver whom he had met while they were both at Cambridge University; and Straight's solicitor, Frederick A.S. Gwatkin. Both Seaman and Gwatkin invested in the company. Company secretary was Stanley John Cox, who would also be the secretary of most of the corporation's subsidiary companies. Many of the corporation's aircraft would be initially registered in the name of Richard Seaman. Straight also recruited Mary De Bunsen who carried out public relations and was responsible for the house magazine, Straightaway, intended for staff and club members.

The progress and growth of the corporation went on unabated as detailed below, and the expansion became even faster at the airports with the demand for aircrew training in the two years before World War II. When the war came, however, all private flying, including that by clubs and airlines, was prohibited except under licence, and almost all the corporation's activities stopped.

This was a new company, registered at Straight Corporation headquarters in Manchester Square, London and its main operating base was Ramsgate Airport. It was mainly concerned with pleasure, charter and army co-operation flights, but also ran scheduled services along the Thames Estuary. Its fleet varied depending on its needs and those of the other of Straight Corporation companies, sometimes operating aircraft registered to them, and sometimes lending their aircraft to them. Several aircraft were at first registered to Richard Seaman, possibly reflecting his investment in the corporation. The larger aircraft most often used by Southern Airways included:

Fleet