It was a small single-seat biplane that was intended to be an inexpensive aircraft for the amateur private pilotwere.

In 1919, John Kenworthy, chief designer of the motor manufacturer Austin Motor Company, (who had built large numbers of aircraft under license during the First World War) designed a small single-seater light aircraft in order to cash in on an expected boom in private flying.

The resulting aircraft, named the Austin Whippet, was a small single-seat biplane of mixed construction, with a fabric covered steel tube fuselage, and single-bay, folding wooden wings.

[1][2] The first prototype, powered by a two-cylinder horizontally opposed engine,[3] flew in 1919, receiving its Airworthiness Certificate in December that year.

[5] An accurate replica of Whippet K-158 is currently on display at the Aeroventure South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum in Doncaster, UK.