Blériot-Whippet

During the First World War Blériot's British organization opened an Addlestone, Surrey, factory to build SPAD and Avro aircraft. The operation became Air Navigation & Engineering Company in 1919 and, seeking peacetime work, accepted a four-wheel cyclecar designed by Herbert Jones and W. D. Marchant after Zenith Motors helped them construct a prototype but declined production. First deliveries began in April 1920 under the Blériot-Whippet name. Its 997 cc air-cooled Blackburne V-twin produced approximately 14 bhp at 2,000 rpm and received roller-bearing big ends from Jones and Marchant. The original Zenith-Gradua transmission varied its ratio continuously through expanding belt pulleys, while quarter-elliptic leaf springs located all four wheels. In 1922 a conventional three-speed gearbox and chain drive replaced the belt system; a shaft-drive alternative with the engine rotated through 90 degrees followed in 1923. Plywood bodies covered in leathercloth included two-seat tourer and sports forms and a later three-quarter-seat version, on 81- or 87-inch wheelbases. The launch price of £300 fell to £115 by 1924. Several hundred cars are believed to have been made, but no exact total survives; Alec Issigonis owned one and only one example is now known to survive. Air Navigation & Engineering also built the unrelated Eric Longden light car before failing in 1927. The Blériot-Whippet shared little beyond its name and size with Blériot Aéronautique's French 750 cc two-stroke shaft-drive cyclecar, so the catalog preserves two separate marques and one complete model family for each.

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