Bett
James M. Bett and Co.
Contents
History
James Murray Bett was born in Sydenham, Oxfordshire, in 1870, the son of Thomas Bett and Marian Crawford Bett (neé Baxter). His company, James M. Bett and Co., of the Beverley Aeroplane Works, Barnes, Surrey, was registered in 1910 and proposed an aeroplane with two 20 h.p. coupled engines. This was covered by Patents 27082/1909,7333/1910 and 22001/1910, in conjunction with Thomas Christopher Murphy. The machine did not materialize and nothing more appears to be known about Bett and Co.
Bett also claimed to be the proprietor of the "Dreadnought" Rotary Engine Syndicate which, despite many letters extoling its virtues in Flight during 1910, also went no further. From 1911, Bett appears to have played no further part in aviation; he died on 15 May 1932 in Essex.
In 1914 Ms Dolphens, Flamand and Lenaerts from Belgium took over the Beverley Aeroplane Works along with the Eagle Motor Manufacturing Co (also located in the Beverley Works). Dolphens was the engineer with Flamand and Lenaerts the financiers. The company specialised in precision engineering and during the First World War built under licence the French Le Rhone air-cooled rotary aero engines.
Company References
- British Aircraft Before The Great War, Michael H. Goodall and Albert E. Tagg (Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 2001)
- http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Beverley_Aeroplane_Works/
- https://www.ancestry.com/
Project Data
| Project No | Type No | Name | Alternative Name(s) | Year | Spec (Requirement) | Status | Qty | Description | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Not Identified | 1909 | Proj | 0 | 1E aircraft | (1) |
Project References
- British Aircraft Before The Great War, Michael H. Goodall and Albert E. Tagg (Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 2001)
Production Details and Type Description
Nothing known.
Total Bett Production0