Austin Whippet
| Whippet | |
|---|---|
| Error creating thumbnail: Austin Whippet replica at South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum | |
| General information | |
| Type | Private light aircraft |
| National origin | Britain |
| Manufacturer | Austin Motor Company |
| Number built | 5 |
| History | |
| First flight | 1919 |
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The Austin Whippet was a British single-seat light aircraft that was designed and built by the Austin Motor Company just after the First World War. It was a small single-seat biplane that was intended to be an inexpensive aircraft for the amateur private pilotwere. Five were built, after which Austin abandoned aircraft production.
Development and design
[edit | edit source]In 1919, John Kenworthy, chief designer of the motor manufacturer Austin Motor Company, (who had built large numbers of aircraft under license during the First World War) designed a small single-seater light aircraft in order to cash in on an expected boom in private flying. The resulting aircraft, named the Austin Whippet, was a small single-seat biplane of mixed construction, with a fabric covered steel tube fuselage, and single-bay, folding wooden wings. The wings avoided the need for rigging wires by use of streamlined steel lift struts.[1][2]
The first prototype, powered by a two-cylinder horizontally opposed engine,[3] flew in 1919, receiving its Airworthiness Certificate in December that year.[1] Production aircraft were powered by a six-cylinder Anzani air-cooled radial, and four more aircraft followed before Austin abandoned aircraft production in 1920, when it realised that the postwar depression was severely limiting aircraft sales.[1][4]
Operational history
[edit | edit source]Of the five aircraft built, two were sold to New Zealand, while another was sent by its purchaser to Argentina. One of the New Zealand aircraft, serial AU.4/ZK-ACR, remained in existence at Kai Iwi in the 1940s.[5]
A Whippet replica, marked as the first example, K-158, later G-EAGS,[6] is currently on display at the South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum in Doncaster, UK.[7]
Specifications
[edit | edit source]Data from British Civil Aircraft since 1919: Volume I [8]
General characteristics
- Crew: 1
- Length: 16 ft 3 in (4.95 m)
- Wingspan: 21 ft 6 in (6.55 m)
- Height: 7 ft 6 in (2.29 m)
- Wing area: 134 sq ft (12.4 m2)
- Empty weight: 580 lb (263 kg)
- Gross weight: 810 lb (367 kg)
- Powerplant: 1 × Anzani 6-cylinder two-row air-cooled radial piston engine, 45 hp (34 kW)
- Propellers: 2-bladed fixed-pitch propeller
Performance
- Maximum speed: 95 mph (153 km/h, 83 kn)
- Cruise speed: 80 mph (130 km/h, 70 kn)
- Endurance: 2 hours
- Time to altitude: 5,000 ft (1,520 m) in 9 minutes
Notes
[edit | edit source]- ^ a b c Jackson 1974, p.89.
- ^ Flight 15 July 1920, pp. 751-752.
- ^ Flight 14 August 1919, pp.1076-1078.
- ^ Gunston 2005, p.36.
- ^ Jackson 1974, pp.89-90.
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Jackson 1974, p.90.
References
[edit | edit source]- "The Austin "Whippet"". Flight, 14 August 1919. Vol. XI, no. 33, pp. 1076–1078. Technical description with photographs and scale drawings.
- "The Olympia Aero Show 1920". Flight, 15 July 1920. pp. 749–780.
- Gunston, Bill. World Encyclopedia of Aircraft Manufacturers, Stroud, UK: Sutton Publishing, 2nd edition, 2005. Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value)..
- Jackson, A.J. British Civil Aircraft since 1919: Volume I. London:Putnam, 1974. Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value)..
