Austin Whippet

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. The first prototype, powered by a two-cylinder horizontally opposed engine, flew in 1919, receiving its Airworthiness Certificate in December that year. ==Operational history==

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. A Whippet replica, marked as the first example, K-158, later G-EAGS, is currently on display at the South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum in Doncaster, UK. ==Specifications==