Wings

The UK was home to dozens of auto manufacturers dating back to the earliest days of the motor car. Sadly, most of the marques we know and love no longer exist, or if they do, are owned by foreign entities.

One aspect that many of these manufacturers had in common was the affinity to use wings somewhere in the corporate logo. In some badges the wings are highly stylized while in others they were more true to nature. Here, in no particular order, is a brief look at a few winged badges.

Morgan uses wings on either side of a road wheel. This 'last British-owned car maker' celebrates its centennial this year, still producing cars with timber framed bodies.




Aston Martin also has a stylized winged badge with the artwork looking rather ancient Egyptian-derived. For a number of years, the name David Brown appeared above the Aston Martin name.




The Bentley approach to a winged badge is more simple with a 'B' in a winged oval. Bentley changed background color of the logo to reflect how powerful the particular model was.

MINI adopted a winged badge for the BMW-era cars. The current one is a simple black circle with the MINI name spelled out. Previous generation Minis had a green circular badge with longer wings.




Austin, that one-time powerhouse of British auto production, used a rather bizarre winged badge consisting of a road wheel connected to a steering wheel. This badge was applied to the earliest cars.







For a time, Jaguar even adopted a winged badge with the Jaguar name spelled out over not only a pair of wings, but tailfeathers, too.






I can't leave out Austin-Healey. The big Healeys sported a winged badge with the Austin-Healey name spelled out in script with the model name below that. Sprites made do with a round coat of arms badge.


Several motorcycle manufacturers also adopted winged badges - BSA and Royal Enfield coming to mind.

Do you know of any others? Drop me a line.

Images via nzclassiccar.com