Austin Greyhound

The Austin Greyhound was a British two-seat biplane fighter of the First World War, built by the car maker Austin to a design by J Kenworthy, who had come from the Royal Aircraft Factory. In 1918 the Royal Air Force issued a specification for a replacement for the Bristol F.2 Fighter powered by the new ABC Dragonfly radial engine, and an order for three prototypes was placed on 18 May 1918. The Greyhound was a two-bay, all-wooden biplane with a conical cowling that left the cylinder heads showing. The Dragonfly proved overweight, underpowered and unreliable, which delayed testing into 1919 and 1920. Performance was good, but no production was ordered, and the last prototype served as a flying test bed at Farnborough until June 1922.