Austin Whippet

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Whippet
Austin Whippet replica at South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum
Role Private light aircraft
National origin Britain
Manufacturer Austin Motor Company
First flight 1919
Number built 5

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]

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]

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]

An accurate replica of Whippet K-158 is currently on display at the Aeroventure South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum in Doncaster, UK.

A Replica K.158/BAPC.207 South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum at Doncaster.

Specifications[edit]

Data from British Civil Aircraft since 1919: Volume I [6]

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]

  1. ^ a b c Jackson 1974, p.89.
  2. ^ Flight 15 July 1920, pp. 751-752.
  3. ^ Flight 14 August 1919, pp.1076-1078.
  4. ^ Gunston 2005, p.36.
  5. ^ Jackson 1974, pp.89-90.
  6. ^ Jackson 1974, p.90.

References[edit]

  • "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. ISBN 0-7509-3981-8.
  • Jackson, A.J. British Civil Aircraft since 1919: Volume I. London:Putnam, 1974. ISBN 0-370-10006-9.

External links[edit]