English Electric Wren

English Electric · United Kingdom · first flew 1923 · light aircraft

The English Electric Wren was a 1920s British ultralight built not for speed but to prove how far an aeroplane could fly on almost no fuel.

Recognition (WEFT)

W — Wings	High-mounted, straight
E — Engines	1 × piston, nose-mounted
F — Fuselage	Extremely long, narrow wings on a tiny, minimal fuselage
T — Tail	Conventional

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Spot it by:

Extremely long, narrow wings on a tiny, minimal fuselage
Open single-seat cockpit with almost no cowling around the small engine
Slow, near-silent flight on a barely-audible motorcycle-derived engine

Its absurdly long, slender wings relative to its minuscule fuselage make it stand out immediately among 1920s light aeroplanes, along with the near-silent buzz of its tiny engine.

Specifications

The English Electric Wren has a length of 7.39 m (24 ft).
It has a wingspan of 11.28 m (37 ft).
Its maximum speed is 80 km/h (50 mph).
Typical crew: 1.

Figures are for the representative variant described above; marks differ. See how AircraftIQ sources figures.

History

First flown in 1923 and powered by a tiny 398cc ABC motorcycle engine, the Wren used long, high-aspect-ratio wings to stay airborne on minimal power. It shared first prize in the 1923 Lympne light aeroplane trials with the ANEC I, both covering 87.5 miles on a gallon, a feat that made it famous out of proportion to its size.

Variants

Only a small number of Wrens were built; it remained essentially a specialist economy-record aircraft rather than a production type.

Where you'll see it

It never entered operational or commercial service; the sole survivor, G-EBNV — rebuilt in 1957 from the third aircraft using parts of the second — is airworthy and on display at the Shuttleworth Collection, Old Warden.

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