Intent on encouraging British aviation progress, the Daily Mail offered a prize of £1,000 in 1923 for a ‘motor glider’ competition. The Duke of Sutherland offered £500 for the longest flight on one gallon of petrol in an aeroplane with an engine of not more than 750cc capacity. So the Royal Aero Club organised a Light Aeroplane Competition at Lympne in Kent.
The ANEC l, G EBIL, was designed by W. S. Shackleton and was one of Britain’s first ultra light aircraft. It was entered in the 1923 Lympne Trials, and in the hands of J. H. James reached a height of 14,000ft after earlier flying 87.5 miles on a single gallon of petrol, powered with the 698cc Blackburne Tomtit.
Later it went to Martlesham for testing and acquired service number J7506. It was re engined with a 1000cc Anzani, becoming the ANEC 1A, and was returned for civilian use. With shortened wings it won the high-speed prize at the 1925 Lympne Trials at 83.76 mph. Registration marks were cancelled on January 22, 1926
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