enginehistory.org

[jfairchild]

On the subject of RR tappets, Arthur Rubbra states that 'satisfactory reliability' was achieved by increasing the thickness of hard chrome on the followers to 12 thou.
The Merlin/Meteor does seem quite slow at building top end oil supply. Short run engines (e.g from tractor pulling) seem to develop accelerated wear if not pre-primed.
The late Meteors went over to a 3 lobe (per cylinder) roller tappet design. I have such an engine. It appears in generally very good order but has seized rollers, one on each bank. The result is that one lobe is very severly grooved and the other is 'on its way'. It would seem that if a roller seizes, then the wear becomes very rapid. Fortunately I have spare cams. I would have thought that the roller technology would have been sorted by the '60s so is this typical? Could this be a reason for sticking to fixed pads ?

[gryan]

Thank you for the recommendations about the Junkers and metallurgical books. I'll go get those. For an engineer these are fascinating subjects to learn more about.

Any news on the V-12 book? Is it technical or just a potted history with some pictures?

Regards

Gerald

PS Porsche used Be for the 917 brake discs for a while. It saved unsprung mass but was very expensive and, as others have commented, poisonous. It turned out that there were better ways for Porsche to win races than looking for minor unsprung mass reduction. Using a pair of turbochargers to get 1000bhp was a much more effective way to gain the "unfair advantage."

[wallan]

Just had a look at the V-12 book: well done, Mr. Ludvigsen! It certainly passes my test of whether it was worth buying! (would I buy it if it was in Chinese and the profits were going to pay for the BBC to constantly show England winning the World Cup in 1966? Yes, and I'm Scottish)

Full of photographs, B/W and colour, cutaway and other drawings, writing up to the standard we have come to expect from Mr. Ludvigsen, a section from Dan Whitney on V-12 aircraft engine firing orders, and from what I have quickly read, and given my experience of collecting books for over 30 years, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that this book will be as highly prized as the Conway Bugatti, and the Borgeson Classic Twin-Cam engine, books, in the future.

28 pounds well spent in my opinion: (thank you www.123pricecheck.com) this book is to the same standard as the Doug Nye BRM books, and we all know how expensive they are, and how highly prized they are as well.

I might even buy a few copies to sell in my retirement!

As an aside to collectors, there seems to be a lot of the Caunter "Two-stroke Aero Engines" books on the S/H market at various prices. The "Steels in Enemy Aircraft" book is getting rarer, (used to be lots on the market) and Mackerle is starting to go through the roof.

Gotta go, got a book to read.

Cheers, Bill.

[wallan]

Just had a message telling me the Russian Piston Aero Engine book was mailed on the 16th. I will let you know when it arrives.

For our member who asked about Axis engines, ask your library to see if they can borrow, The Power to Fly, by LJK Setright. It's quite rare and expensive secondhand. (although a quick look on www.addall.com shows a damaged edition for 30 pounds) His views on Russian engines are up there with CG Grey's opinion!

[wallan]

Well, it arrived today, and a quick glance gives the impression of an excellent book, much in the style of the Bill Gunston Development book, although a larger format. I'll have to have a long read on Sunday, but it looks like 21 pounds well spent.
There is a section on conrod-less engines: not much, but a few good pages. Soviet built Libertys, Hispano V-8s, and some interesting homebuilt engines.
The V10 book is on it's way, but still no news on the Steam in the Air book.

[wallan]

Another new book I have seen advertised is

Flygmotor Volvo Aero. (in English)

I can't get my Google reviews to open just now, so can only say it appears to be a history of Volvo aero engines: anyone else managed to read the reviews, or even buy the book?

[jjuutinen]

Neither can I open the google review. However, at another site I found some details about the Swedish edition. The book covers years 1930-2005 and should have some 168 pages in A4 format with 210 illustrations. Unfortunately it seems that the publisher´s site isn´t working right now...

[wallan]

I got the google review to work. It says that a limited number are being printed in English, and that Midland Counties Publications, (Ian Allan Superstore) are selling them in the UK for 22.50 pounds.

[pshort]

I have been away from home for 3 months, so a bit late to be of much help...

The V12 book by Karl Ludvigsen is really excellent, packed with info, diagrams, photos, an incredible amount of work has gone into this one it seems to me. Note that it is about car engines, not aero engines, except where they have been fitted into cars.

The Russian Aero Engines book is pretty good - I don't much like books that just list model after model in dry sucession, but this one seems to include enough 'story' to make it interesting.
More than once the interesting bits include designers and teams who disappear or move to Siberia when results are inadequate...gulp...

The V10 Book (Bamsey) seems over priced and not worth buying in my opinion. The main problem for me is that there seem to be no photos or diagrams of anything interesting. I suppose this is not surprising, but it makes a big problem when you are trying to sell a book on these engines....I only had a brief look, so am willing to be corrected on the above. The recent book that examines the 2000 Ferrari looked better to me (by Peter Wright, "Ferrari Formula 1: Under the Skin of the championship winning F1-2000)

Ricardo has recently reprinted "The High Speed Internal Combustion Engine", the 1968 edition. It is very nicely done, good quality and has the fold out pages. Well worth the £35

http://www.ricardo.com/

German aircraft engine books - back in the late 1990's when I first started to look for for such books there was a book advertised in (I think) the Zenith catalogue (part of Motorbooks), it was about German aero engines, I think it had a black cover (could be wrong). When I inquired, it had just gone out of stock, so I never got one. Unfortunately I just threw out all my old book catalogues recently, so can't give any better details. I am sure it was not the Junkers book mentioned, it was about engines of all makes.

I picked up another new book while away - "The Power To Fly: from deHavilland apprentice to Chairman of General Electric Aircraft Engines" by Brian Rowe. I need to read it again, but it was only reasonably interesting to me. It is mostly set in the turbine age. Not a lot of technical interest.

[wallan]

You're quite correct about the V10 Formula One engine book. Way too expensive for what you get. However, as a limited edition, signed by the author, I'll keep my copy tucked safely away. Thanks for the tip on the Ricardo book.

[pshort]

I wonder if anyone has the newish book about Hispano Suiza aero engines? I have heard that it is not worth buying because of inaccuracies. I can hardly resist having such a book, but is it so bad that one is better to ignore it? What a great shame if this is so.

I saw a new slip-cased book on Hispano Suiza cars recently in Foyles, but I wasn't that impressed, too many photos of car bodies, not enough on technicalities, the usual problem. (The Legendary Hispano Suiza by Johnnie Green is even worse, hardly any text)

I bought another book at Foyles - "Race Against The Odds; The Tragic Success Story Of Miss England 2" by Kevin Desmond, Sigma Liesure, 2004. This is a good book, plenty of good photos and info collected over many years. This boat ran twin 'R' engines.

[wallan]

I think Kim or Graham already spoke about the Hispano-Suiza book. It really is atrocious. It looks like someone with a Spanish-English dictionary was trying to make some extra money on their days off.

[wallan]

I must have missed Mr Short's message. The two major books I have on German Aero Engines are

Deutsche Triebwerke Flugmotoren und Strahltriebwerke ISBN 3-925505-49-0

Kolben-Flugmotoren: Geschichte und Entwicklung in Wort und Bild (this one was by Motorbuch Verlag) ISBN: 3613010895

[pshort]

Wallan,

Thanks for that info.

Jerry Wells told me about the first one you mention, but I haven't heard of the second.

Jerry also told me of another he has - "Flugmotoren und Strahltriebwerke", still available through Amazon.de apparently.

I wish someone would publish English language versions!

BTW, the book I remember seeing in the Zenith catalogue was an English language book about German aero engines, I am almost certain.

Another book Jerry recommended as a good basic reference (for France) was "Les Moteurs A Pistons Aeronautiques Francais (1900/1960)" by Alfred Bodemer and Robert Laugier, pub 1987

[wallan]

Sorry, I forgot that I have the other German book you mention.

addall.com are showing 3 copies of the Kolben Flugmotoren book, at around 25 US dollars

http://used.addall.com/SuperRare/RefineExact.fcgi?id=060217051955996290&order=TITLE&ordering=ASC&dispCurr=USD&exaAuthor=Giger,+Hans.&match=Y&exaTitle=Kolben-Flugmotoren.+Geschichte+und+Entwicklung+in+Wort+und+Bild.

The French book is actually 2 volumes, and they are magnificent. Wish I had bothered during French lessons. They are quite expensive second-hand, but I haven't seen them advertised recently.