"Bat-Boat" after similar craft described in a short story by Rudyard Kipling, it was tested in August 1931 by being towed behind a speed-boat on the River Medway at Rochester. On 7 December that year it was demonstrated from the Welsh Harp reservoir at Hendon. B.A.C. XI The last of Lowe-Wylde's glider designs was the B.A.C. IX, a lightweight sailplane designed for possible home building. One only was built, first flown at Balsdean on 4 Oct 1931. The Kent Gliding Club were hoping to acquire it in 1933, but nothing more is known. Powered aircraft Planette In Autumn 1932 the four B.A.C. Planettes appeared; these were conversions of B.A.C. VIIs fitted with a 600cc Douglas engine driving a pusher propeller. The first two were demonstrated at London Air Park on 27 November 1932. In 1932 the prototype Percival Gull, G-ABUR, was built in the B.A.C. works at Maidstone. On 13 May 1933 Lowe-Wylde was killed in an accident while flying a Planette at Maidstone Airport. British Aircraft Company Drone Robert Kronfeld took over the company and started modifying the surviving Planettes to produce a more practical single-seat light aeroplane known as the B.A.C. Drone. The firm moved to a new factory at London Air Park (Hanworth), and became the British Aircraft Company (1935) Ltd. The Drone went into quantity production in 1935. On 21 May 1936 the company was renamed as Kronfeld Ltd. The Drone was also built under licence at Issy les Moulineaux in France by the Societe Francaise des Avions Nouvelles (SFAN), and at Ghent in Belgium by the Societe Gantoise des Avions sans Moteur. References Ellison, N.H. British Gliders and Sailplanes 1922–1970. London: A & C Black, 1971 Jackson, A.J. British Civil Aircraft since 1919 Volume 1. London: Putnam, 1973 Riding, R.T. Ultralights – The Early British Classics. Patrick Stephens Ltd, 1987 The Sailplane and Glider. British Gliding Association, weekly from 1930 Defunct aircraft manufacturers of the United Kingdom Former defence companies of the United Kingdom