1954, diverting funds from the motorcycle product line. The Picador was intended to power ultra-light aircraft. In particular the engine was to be used in the ML Aviation U120D Queen Bee pilotless target drone. To qualify for the government contract the motor had to be capable of passing prolonged full power operation tests. Initially built to Black Lightning specifications, the engine followed typical Vincent practice, with two air-cooled cylinders in a 50° V-formation and with the cylinders offset to improve cooling of the rear cylinder's exhaust valve. The engine displacement was , and it weighed , with a power output of @ 5000 rpm. The valves were operated by rockers and short pushrods driven by two camshafts mounted high in the engine's timing case, an arrangement euphemistically called "semi-overhead camshafts". The Picador motor was upgraded with a larger principal driveshaft, different big-ends, Scintilla magneto, and a double speed oil pump. To prevent fuel starvation during the U120D's rocket-assisted launch when accelerations of 10Gs would be generated, mechanical fuel injection driven from the propeller shaft replaced the usual carburettors. Unusually for an aircraft engine, the engine was mounted with the crankshaft transverse, although in the Queen Bee drone the engine was rotated 180° from its motorcycle applications, with the exhaust ports at the rear. An oilbath chain primary drive and a bevel gear drove the propeller with a 2:1 reduction from the engine speed. Due to ML Aviation's inability to deliver a working radio control system, Vincent did not win the contract. Russel Wright's record breaking bike was fitted with a Picador crank and oil pump, by Vincent, while in England for Earls Court, shortly after the 1955 record attempt. "The Last" Vincent motorcycle At the annual dinner of the Vincent H.R.D. Owners Club in the summer of 1955, Phil Vincent announced that the company could no longer continue in the face of heavy losses and that production of motorcycles would cease almost immediately. In 1955, one week before Christmas, the last Vincent came off the production line. Post-motorcycle manufacturing The factory then turned to general engineering, the manufacture of industrial engines, and there was the Amanda water scooter. A Vincent engineer lost his life testing it, drowning at sea. The company went into receivership in 1959. The name and motorcycle component manufacturing rights were taken over by a local business, Harper Engines Ltd., of Stevenage, Herts., and has since been