Walter Owen Bentley ‘s photografic portrait
Walter Owen Bentley, engineer; designer of aero engines, designer and racer of motor cars, founder of Bentley Motors Limited in Cricklewood near London. He was known as "W. O." without any need to add the word Bentley. Bentley had been previously known for his range of rotary aero-engines in World War I, the most famous being the Bentley BR1 as used in later versions of the Sopwith Camel. After the war, W. O. Bentley designed and made production cars that won the 24 hours of Le Mans in 1924 and following models which repeated those successes. Purchased by Rolls-Royce in 1931, when the factory was sold, and production stopped for 2 years, the name was revived for a Rolls-Royce "silent sports car" made at the Rolls-Royce factory in Derby, and later in Crewe. The business, minus the Rolls Royce name, has been owned by the Volkswagen Group of Germany since 1998.
Who-is-Who in MMS, History of machines, history of mechanical engineering, machine design, engineer, designer, inventor, entrepreneur, automobile, aero engines