Newsletter 2019 #1

During the 2018 Convention, President Kim McCutcheon presented a brief State of the AEHS talk. His thesis was that while AEHS membership (see Plot 1 below), website and finances are doing very well, the annual Convention has been on a downward spiral since around 2010 (see Plot 2). Several factors contributed to this, chief among them that many former attendees have died, many can no longer travel, and the interesting engine-related venues have already been visited. He explained the process by which a convention is organized and conducted, identifying several significant impediments to future Annual Conventions in light of decreasing attendance. He concluded that the convention paradigm the AEHS has used for the past 15 years no longer works and challenged those in attendance to come up with an alternate plan that would be ready to announce by 10 January 2019. As of 21 February 2019, no alternate Annual Convention plan has emerged.

However, several Members have suggested that AEHS Members might visit informally at aviation events that many attend, such as AirVenture, Sun 'n Fun, Reno, etc. These "mini-gigs" can also be based around more local aviation events, museum programs and the like.

To help with announcing and planning such events, a new private forum, AEHS Mini-Gigs, has been added to the AEHS Bulletin Board. This forum, along with all its topics and posts, are only visible to AEHS Members, so you don't have to worry about your privacy. Pick a venue, pick a date and time, and post it! Please visit
https://www.enginehistory.org/phpbb/viewforum.php?f=32

Randy Huff, who is well known in the AEHS Community for his 3D Solidworks CAD aircraft engine models, has recently started to create dimensional drawings of them. Currently on the drawing board are the BMW IIIa, Curtiss OX-5, Gnome Monosoupape 9B and Righter 2-GS-17. Randy’s initial goal is to create 3D CAD models and dimensional drawings of aircraft engines produced before 1928 for which little or no documentation can be easily found. If you would like to contact Randy with suggestions, or help him in this project by providing detailed images, videos, or even measurements where possible, email Randy at randyhuff1@aol.com

To easily translate foreign languages from photographs, hardcopy text, and even images on computer screens, try the following wizardry:
Download the free Google Translate to your iOS 10 or higher smart phone, iPad, or “modern” camera-equipped touchpad computer. Open the app, specify the languages for translation, use camera function to photograph the page, highlight with finger wipes the area you want translated, hit the arrow key, and boom, it shows you the original and translated text. Send the translated "file" to your email and you get a text in the email capable of being copied and pasted into Word to build a document. It may fumble some words and sentences, but for the most part it is miraculous. Now try your new skill on this Jumo 211B/D G/H Brochure.

A video of this engine, from a JB-2 “Loon”, has approximately 42 combustion cycles per second and makes approx. 500 lb of static thrust and up to 770 lb thrust in flight.

If you wonder whether you and your fellow AEHS Members are nerds or geeks, the difference is brilliantly explained by this engineer/comedian.

Tony Wytenburg, President of Classic Aero Machining Service Ltd. (CAMS) in New Zealand presented at our 2016 AEHS Convention #13 in Dayton, Ohio. CAMS is manufacturing new Gnome rotary engines, P-40 airframe components, and a host of other specialty hardware. Photographs and video can be seen at the links below:
CAMS Website
CAMS Facebook Page

Walter rocket-assisted take off booster engines and bi-fuel rocket engines pushed the boundaries of technology during WWII. The Helmut Walter rocket engine website describes these designs and engines. To navigate, click on the topic icon, then click on the bolded text in the upper middle left to open the listed documents.

The AEHS is looking for member volunteer(s) to help with maintaining and expanding Jack Erickson's Horizontally-Opposed Aero Engine database. We are primarily interested in adding entries for engines introduced since its last update. A secondary concern is maintenance of the information, such as identifying dead links, etc. Anybody wishing to get involved and help out, please contact Kim McCutcheon at

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Plot 1. AEHS Membership 2004 – 2018	Plot 2. AEHS Convention Attendance 2008 – 2018, Sorted by U.S. Geographical Location


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“Kerch”