File:ANEC II 'G-EBJO' (12247605656).jpg

Owned and operated by the Shuttleworth Collection. On display in Hanger 3 at Old Warden, on the day of the 2013 Autumn Airshow. 06-10-2013.

The details below are from the Shuttleworth Collection Website:-

The Air Navigation and Engineering Co Ltd at Addlestone in Surrey were successors to the war time Bleriiot and Spad Manufacturing Co. In 1923 their Chief designer, Australian W S Shackleton, designed the A.N.E.C. I ultra-light monoplane around the new 1,070cc Bristol Cherub and two of them took part in the Air Ministry single seater Lympne Trials later that year, modified to take the inverted 696cc Blackburne Tomtit V twin which met the 750cc limit for the Daily Mail performance competitions at the Trials. Both A.N.E.Cs performed well but the second, G-EBIL, distinguished itself by achieving 87.5 miles to a gallon of petrol and reaching the tremendous height of 14,400 feet (after 2½ hours!). The Ministry were interested and purchased BIL, which appeared in RAF markings fitted with an 1,100 cc Anzani, but no order resulted and the aircraft returned to the civil register.

Encouraged by the 1923 success, Shackleton designed a two seat version for the 1924 Trials, to be powered by an 1,100cc direct drive inverted V twin Anzani. The A.N.E.C. II is of similar configuration to the I and has a fuselage built up from six spruce longerons and three plywood bulkheads, with ply covering for rigidity. The narrow fuselage top decking is concave at the nose, to improve the pilots (it was dual control) visibility over that of its predecessor. The high mounted, parallel chord monoplane wings, with slight dihedral and sweepback, are built on two box section spars, three-ply covered to the rear spar on the underside and the front spar on top. They are bolted to two of the fuselage bulkheads and strut braced to the lower longerons. The front struts are adjustable for incidence. The tail surfaces are built into the fuselage structure and feature a large rudder. This latter was necessary to aid ground steering because the low slung fuselage on its simple bent steel tube undercarriage axle meant the tailskid had to be fitted midway along the curved fuselage to keep the aircraft belly off the ground.

Despite a generally favourable official appraisal of the aeroplane, the engine let it down badly, first with a broken valve and then a malfunctioning carburettor, so that it missed the elimination preliminaries and failed to start in the Trials.

After the abortive Lympne entry the A.N.E.C. II was certificated, registered G-EBJO and sold to G L P Henderson who fitted a 32hp Bristol Cherub and modified the undercarriage to strut type to improve ground clearance. BJO was then sold to Norman Jones who raced it in various events before selling it in 1929 to Allen Wheeler who flew it extensively before himself selling it in 1931, by which time it was in a sorry state minus engine, undercarriage and instruments, to Jimmy Edmunds at Old Warden for £8.00.