The Douglas Dragonfly is a

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike; uni (if one-wheeled); trike (if three-wheeled); quad (if four-wheeled)) is a lightweight private 1-to-2 passenger personal motor vehicle Steering, steered by a Motorcycle handlebar, handlebar from a saddle-style ...

designed and built by Douglas motorcycles in

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

. The last motorcycle produced by the company, the 1955 Dragonfly was an all-new motorcycle built to use an improved version of an existing engine. Despite its riding comfort, which was "equal to a car's", it did not sell well, and only 1,457 Dragonfly motorcycles were produced before the company was taken over and production ended in 1957. Very few Douglas motorcycles survive today.

History

After World War II Douglas was in financial difficulty and reduced its output to the 350 cc

flat-twin engine A flat-twin engine is a two-cylinder internal combustion engine with the cylinders on opposite sides of the crankshaft. The most common type of flat-twin engine is the boxer-twin engine, where both pistons move inwards and outwards at the same ti ...

models with the engine mounted across the frame. The flat twin had been the Douglas trademark since 1906 and had a long history of

Isle of Man TT The Isle of Man TT or Tourist Trophy races are an annual motorcycle racing event run on the Isle of Man in May and June of most years since its inaugural race in 1907 Isle of Man TT, 1907. The event begins on the UK Spring Bank Holiday at the e ...

racing successes.

Development

The Dragonfly was known as the ''Dart'' while in development and was based on the Mark V Douglas and an earlier prototype. Aiming to overcome the company's outdated image, designers were commissioned from the Reynolds Tube Company to develop a completely new open duplex frame of welded tubing, including a

swinging arm A swingarm ( or swinging arm), originally known as a swing fork or pivoted fork, is a single or double sided mechanical device which attaches the rear wheel of a motorcycle to its body, allowing it to pivot vertically. The main component of the ...

with twin Girling dampers (state of the art for the time) with leading link front suspension. The strengthened and streamlined engine had a modern coil ignition, AC generator and

distributor A distributor is an electric and mechanical device used in the ignition system of older spark-ignition engines. The distributor's main function is to route electricity from the ignition coil to each spark plug at the correct time. Design ...

, with bolt-through cast iron

cylinders A cylinder () has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base. A cylinder may also be defined as an infinite ...

and heads and pushrods made from

Duralumin Duralumin (also called duraluminum, duraluminium, duralum, dural(l)ium, or dural) is a trade name for one of the earliest types of age hardening, age-hardenable aluminium–copper alloys. The term is a combination of ''Düren'' and ''aluminium'' ...

Launch

The launch of the Dragonfly was the last chance of survival for the Douglas company when it featured at the 1954

Earls Court Earl's Court is a district of Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in West London, bordering the rail tracks of the West London line and District line that separate it from the ancient borough of Fulham to the west, the ...

motorcycle show in a big display held in a giant micrometer. Although it aroused a lot of interest, Douglas' finances did not allow them to exploit demand and the Dragonfly did not go into volume production for nine months.

Decline

As well as suffering from production delays, the Dragonfly was bigger and heavier than its predecessors and was very expensive. It was also noisy and acceleration was rather unpredictable. Douglas decided to concentrate on importing and license building Vespa scooters which were increasing in popularity, and only a little over 1500 Dragonfly motorcycles were ever built. While Douglas built the engine in-house, most other parts were sourced elsewhere. The

Westinghouse Brake and Signal Company The Westinghouse Brake & Signal Company Ltd was a British manufacturer of rail transport, railroad signs. Founded by George Westinghouse, it was registered as "Westinghouse Brake Company" in 1881. The company reorganised in 1920, associating with ...

bought out Douglas in 1956, and production of Douglas Motorcycles ended in 1957 with the final Dragonflys being sold at discount by London dealer Pride & Clarke.

References

{{Reflist, 30em, refs= {{cite book, last=Brown , first=Roland , title=Classic Motorcycles, publisher=Joanna Lorenz, date=2002, isbn=1-84038-433-6 {{cite web , url=http://www.motorcycleclassics.com/motorcycle-reviews/1955-douglas-dragonfly.aspx?page=4, title=1955 Douglas Dragonfly , publisher=Motorcycle Classics , accessdate=2009-08-10 , date=November–December 2007 , first=Roland , last= Brown {{cite book , last1=Kemp , first1=Andrew , last2=De Cet, first2 =Mirco , title=Classic British Bikes , publisher=Bookmart Ltd , date=2004 , isbn=1-86147-136-X {{cite web , url=http://www.realclassic.co.uk/doug04022400.html, title=Douglas Dragonfly , archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20051217143641/http://www.realclassic.co.uk/doug04022400.html , archive-date=2005-12-17 , work = RealClassic , first = Rowena , last = Hoseason , publisher = The Cosmic Motorcycle Co. Ltd.

Dragonfly A dragonfly is a flying insect belonging to the infraorder Anisoptera below the order Odonata. About 3,000 extant species of dragonflies are known. Most are tropical, with fewer species in temperate regions. Loss of wetland habitat threat ...

Motorcycles introduced in 1955

History

Development

Launch

Decline

See also

References