Heinkel

Aircraft firm Heinkel chose bubble car production as a postwar stop-gap until they could return to aviation. The Heinkel was more difficult to get into or out of than the Isetta, because the steering column was rigidly fixed. It could not be made to swing out of the way, as in the Isetta, because that feature was patented. Under post-Suez fuel rationing, Britain took all of Heinkel's export production, flown in five at a time in Transair Dakotas. After the death of founder Ernst Heinkel the car went out of production in 1961 in Germany, where only around 6,000 had been sold in three years, and the bubble car phenomenon had largely come to an end. In 1958 a licence agreement was taken out by Dundalk Engineering in Ireland, but they sold very few bubble cars in Ireland. Trojan took out a UK licence in 1961 to build the Heinkel three wheeler as the Trojan Cabin Cruiser, later renamed the Trojan 200. After acquiring the rights from Heinkel, the production line was moved from Dundalk to Croydon. Five versions were made: three wheel (right or left hand drive), four wheel (right or left hand drive) and a three-wheel 'van' with an enclosed rear area (right-hand drive only). A prototype three-wheeler convertible was widely publicised but never entered production. The bubble car boom had passed, and production ceased in 1965.