Page 11 – Key Publishing

keithmac

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October 1, 2002 at 7:12 pm in reply to: ConRods! #2105435

keithmac
Participant

RE: ConRods!

Hi Merlin. In a word – No! If you want to remove the piston in the master cylinder, you remove the spark plugs and any baffles around the cylinder, turn the engine until the piston is at the top of the stroke, undo the ring of bolts which secure the cylinder to the crankcase and slide it clear, disconnect the sleeve operating crank and slide the sleeve clear, remove the gudgeon pin which attaches the piston to the master rod and finally take off the piston!
(It takes longer to do than to describe!)

KeithMac

October 1, 2002 at 5:19 pm in reply to: Engines Again #2105442

keithmac
Participant

RE: Engines Again

Hi Wombat. The original idea was not a Bristol one. A chap called Charles Y Knight of Chigago actually invented it for use in motor cars and because of the very quiet operation compared with poppet valves they were known as “Silent Knight” engines. Later the system was improved by a Scottish Engineer called Peter Burt and a Canadian named James McCollum. It became known as the Burt-McCollum valve. But it was Bristols that really got the system up and running.

Why you ask, well it was believed that the poppet valve was reaching the limit of it’s development, and new ways were being looked at to maintain or improve the volumetric efficiency of the engine. Poppet valves are also very maintenance intensive compared to sleeve valves which are virtually maintenance free. I’ve spent many hundreds of hours adjusting valve clearances on Wasps and Twins Wasps and it’s the sort of job you just hate!! So I just love sleeve valve engines.

KeithMac

September 30, 2002 at 9:29 pm in reply to: ConRods! #2105507

keithmac
Participant

RE: ConRods!

Hi SeaFuryFan. In a piston engine the Connecting rod is indeed the rod which connects the piston to the crankshaft and turns the up/down motion of the piston into rotary movement of the crankshaft. On inline engines they are called connecting rods, but on radials its a master rod and articulating rods. The master rod is a sigle piece with lugs onto which the articulating rods are attached by the wrist pins.

KeithMac

September 30, 2002 at 7:52 pm in reply to: Mossie exhaust's #2105513

keithmac
Participant

RE: Mossie exhaust’s

Nice one Neilly, do you think we should have a separate forum for engine lovers!

KeithMac

September 30, 2002 at 7:09 pm in reply to: Schneider Trophy. #2105515

keithmac
Participant

RE: Schneider Trophy.

I’d rebuild the Short Crusader. It was built as a reserve aircraft for the 1927 race in Venice. After testing it was dismantled and shipped out on HMS Eagle. On the 11 September Flg Off Schofield tried to get airborne but the aircraft crashed on take off. The riggers had cross connected the elevator controls! Ever since then flying controls on RAF aircraft have had to have independent checks carried out at SNCO level after any control is disturbed during maintenance.
As it never got the chance to perform, it would be nice to see what it could really do on an air cooled radial engine!

KeithMac
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September 30, 2002 at 6:31 pm in reply to: Engines Again #2105518

keithmac
Participant

RE: Engines Again

To tackle Ant’s query on direction of rotation. – Well I don’t have a definitive answer. Most British engines rotate clockwise (viewed from the front). I suspect this developed from the early days were many engines were started by hand swinging the propeller. Most people at right handed, and it’s easier to hand swing a prop which goes clockwise if you are right handed. This of course stopped being the primary starting method very early on, but once you’ve set the fashion, why change? It’s a bit like the discussion we had on helicopter first pilots sitting in the right hand seat – more a convention than a necessity.

KeithMac

September 30, 2002 at 6:22 pm in reply to: Engines Again #2105521

keithmac
Participant

RE: Engines Again

I think you’ve covered most of it Steve. So I’ll just add a few points. The action of the drive gears acted on a crank at the bottom of the sleeve, so it went both up and down and side to side, uncovering the inlet and exhaust ports as required. On the cylinder there were 5 ports, 3 inlet 2 exhaust, but only 4 on the sleeve – this sometimes causes confusion! However there were 2 inlet ports, 1 exhaust and 1 which was common, so during induction the two inlets ports plus the common port were open, and on exhaust 1 exhaust port plus the common port were open.

It took Bristols 10 years to develop the sleeve valve to a production standard where it could be mass produced, an it was quite an achievement. Getting a thin steel sleeve to run inside an aluminium cylinder, and have an aluminium piston with cast iron rigs running inside it was a bit of a challenge. All the metals have different expansion rates, and the whole thing needs to be lubricated. Some people would have given up, but not Roy Fedden and his team.

KeithMac

September 28, 2002 at 9:44 pm in reply to: Engines Again #2105656

keithmac
Participant

RE: Engines Again

Hi Galdi. We did the sleeve valve a while back, but not probably as well as I would have liked. I’m trying to find a decent drawing and some pictures to explain it better. So keep looking and I’ll see what I can come up with.

KeithMac

September 28, 2002 at 9:18 pm in reply to: Needle-in-a-heystack Hampden #2105666

keithmac
Participant

RE: Needle-in-a-heystack Hampden

Boy, you make em hard! I’ve got a photo of a 16 OTU Hampden, but not P1271. My only suggestion is you try and contact Andy Renwick the curator of photographs at the RAF Museum. They may have an archive shot.

KeithMac

September 28, 2002 at 8:43 pm in reply to: It's the RAF over that Dam again! #2105668

keithmac
Participant

RE: It’s the RAF over that Dam again!

Hi David, Your right of course, this was not a commemorative flypast, just a good photo opportunity. However our German allies are not as sensitive as you might imagine. When we were setting up Cottesmore for the TTTE back in the late 70’s, we had a big painting of Winston in the Sgts’ Mess Bar. The Luftwaffe guys saw it and had no problems with it. However some of our highly paid decided it would be diplomatic to have it taken down. When the German boys came back and found it gone they thought we were bloody silly and being over sensitive! On my visits to Manching during the Tornado development programme on Tornado, I frequently dined in a room decorated with pictures of assorted Luftwaffe aces standing by their 109’s, 190’s etc. No offence was taken, and the Germans certainly never thought it would.

KeithMac

September 28, 2002 at 6:27 pm in reply to: Connie update #2105675

keithmac
Participant

RE: Connie update

It’s just got to be one of the most beautiful aeroplanes ever built. And those engines!!!

KeithMac

September 28, 2002 at 5:46 pm in reply to: It's the RAF over that Dam again! #2105676

keithmac
Participant

RE: It’s the RAF over that Dam again!

Correct on all points boys. The camera ship was a Puma!

KeithMac

September 28, 2002 at 5:42 pm in reply to: Hendon's 109 outside. #2105701

keithmac
Participant

RE: Hendon’s 109 outside.

Hi Guys, I’ve got the He.111, Me.110,FW-190 and a few others outside, I’ll get them scanned in as and when I get the time. I’ve posted the JU-88 and 87 before. I can’t remember if I posted the CR-42, but I’ll post that soon. The 109 was done before I took over. I believe the team leader on that project was Sqn Ldr Schofield, who was the Officer in charge before I took over responsibility for the collection.

KeithMac

September 28, 2002 at 3:33 pm in reply to: Pic of the day… Vulcan snapshot. #2105732

keithmac
Participant

RE: Pic of the day… Vulcan snapshot.

Truly magnificent shots of an truly magnificent aeroplane!
Pity there’s no sound to go with them!!

KeithMac

September 25, 2002 at 9:13 pm in reply to: Idiots at checkin #730191

keithmac
Participant

RE: Idiots at checkin

I was travelling from Germany to the Falklands. The first leg was Bruggen-Gatwick. At Gatwick I waited to get my baggage so that I could go to Brize by car to get my RAF flight for my journey to the land that time, but not Argentina, forgot. But No bags! Eventually they were recovered from the “Transfers” area. The Movements guys at Bruggen instead of putting Gatwick labels on the bags had put “MPA” labels on! God knows where they might have landed up!

KeithMac
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