1949 Schwinn-Whizzer Delivery Prototype

In 1939, the Breene-Taylor Engineering Corporation, a Los Angeles manufacturer of aircraft parts, began building engine kits for bicycles. The 8.4ci (138cc) side-valve Whizzer was firstly a clip-on engine for use in any suitable bicycle, drive being transmitted to the rear wheel by means of a belt-driven friction roller beneath the bottom bracket. After WWII, by which time the design had been refined to incorporate belt drive to the rear wheel, the Whizzer could be purchased as a complete machine with Schwinn-designed frame. The Whizzer was immensely popular in its day, particularly with teenagers, but could not compete with more-modern Japanese lightweights and disappeared in the mid-1950s.
The unique example offered here is the product of Milton O. Golden, who was a successful, authorized Schwinn dealer in the 1940s and '50s. Finding the market void of an inexpensive delivery vehicle, Mr. Golden sought to fill the gap by building a delivery tricycle based on the cheap, widely available Whizzer motorized-bicycle.
After completing what is widely believed to be the first, and only, Whizzer tricycle, Mr. Golden applied for a US patent and contacted the Whizzer Motor Company, by then based in Pontiac Michigan, in the hopes of garnering interest for his project. Unfortunately, he was met with a tepid response from the company, and no other manufacturing company stepped forward to produce his unique little delivery trike