made at Wembley, London
This aero engine was built for the Green Engine Company in November 1909 by the Aster Engineering Company at Wembley in London. It is an example of the very earliest type of aeroplane engine built in Britain. It would have been used on a Short-Wright biplane, the first aeroplane in the world to be produced in quantity.
The four-cylinder 35 horsepower engine is marked 'Green's Motor Patent Cc Type C4 No. 23' and 'Type 44 NSG No. 726 W'. It is shown mounted, with the carburettor to the right.
The engine was the powerplant of the licence-built Wright biplanes, made by the Short brothers. In February 1909, Horace, Oswald and Eustace Short acquired the manufacturing rights to the Wright brothers biplane design, thus earning the distinction of being the first aircraft manufacturing company in the world. Originally from Newcastle, the Short brothers' workshop was in Battersea in London. A move of premises in 1937 took them to Queens Island in Belfast, where the Short's aviation company still remain as a division of Bombardier Aerospace.
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