ID for fun

[bdk]

I've got the White book, perhaps I should reread it. I recall it was very hard to get, in fact I think I ordered it through a friend that was a member of SAE.

Napier sure wasn't afraid of complexity. The Napier Nomad was an aero diesel with an axial flow supercharger, almost a hybrid piston/turboprop. Was it a supercharged piston engine or a turboprop with a piston engine for a combustion can? A 3350 with a PRT is nothing by comparison!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napier_Nomad (I had no idea that a Nomad had survived, and in the US no less!)

And of course there was the Deltic…

This link is to a page at the NASM with eight views of a Napier Sabre IIA engine.

https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/napier-sabre-iia-horizontally-opposed-24-engine/nasm_A19670111000

Randy

P.S. for bdk: Two sources for more on the Sabre are "Allied Aircraft Engines of World War II" by Graham White with about eleven pages on the engine and its primary aircraft, and the second is "British Piston Aero-Engines and their Aircraft" by Alec Lumsden which has about four pages on it. Both have info on earlier Napier engines. Just FYI. Randy

P.P.S. - forgot one, "Major Piston Aero Engines of World War II" by Victor Bingham, has a whole Chapter 9 on the Sabre and its aircraft of nine pages. It has an interesting discussion of the issue of manufacturing sleeve valves for the engine, also touched on in the two above.

[Randy Wilson]

A bit of follow up on my 3rd ID for fun, the Friedel-Ursinus B.1092/14. Here is a second image where the serial number is clearer, and it is just the German font that makes it hard to read in the first image. The design was based on the early 1914 plans by German aviation authorities for three types or classes of military aircraft. The Typ III became known as a battleplane or Kampffugzeug. Oskar Ursinus was a civil engineer, and in August 1914, proposed building a twin-engine battleplane to Major Friedel. It was powered by two 100 hp Mercedes D.I engines. I've provided a couple of published works that provide more details. A production license was issued to Gotha in March 1915, and they produced an initial batch of six aircraft designated the Gotha G.I powered by two 150 hp Benz Bz.III or two 160 hp Mercedes D.III engines. References are "German G-Type Bombers of WWI" by Jack Herris, 2014 and "Gotha G.I" by P. M. Grosz.

Randy

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[Aeronut]

The Napier Nomad is a beast of an engine. I had to ask my friend to stand by this one in Scotland's National Museum of Flight to give it some scale. (He's hiding one row of the contra-rotating prop)

[Randy Wilson]

ID for fun #4. This is an aircraft of which only two were built. It had several unusual features. Fire away! Randy

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[airnutz]

The Parnal Possum! A single engine fuselage mounted Napier Lion with shaft drive to the twin propellers.

[Randy Wilson]

Yes, the Parnall Possum, very good sir! If I may ask, do you, or others, know what it shared with the Bristol Type 37 Tramp, Boulton & Paul Bodmin and Westland Dreadnought monoplane? Maybe a trick question, sorry. Randy

[airnutz]

Yes, the Parnall Possum, very good sir! If I may ask, do you, or others, know what it shared with the Bristol Type 37 Tramp, Boulton & Paul Bodmin and Westland Dreadnought monoplane? Maybe a trick question, sorry. Randy

Dunno similarities off the top of my head Randy, except for the Bodmin being another Napier-powered, engine(s)-in-fuse bird...it's a Napier thang.
I've always wondered who was responsible for naming it the Possum and why? Suppose it's because the engine is buried in the fuse? The gigs at the pilot lounge must have been merciless? "I fly the Throckrush Cloudsnatcher, which one is yours, Sir?"...."Is your Possum parked normally on the ramp, or do ya'll hang it by its' tail?"...

[Randy Wilson]

I'll let the question stand until morning. You don't have to go so far back to have an aircraft model name be a problem. Imaging the guy to flew into a fly-in or air show even today in his North American T-28 and announces, "Oh, I came in my Trojan!" In his book "Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft since 1913", author Oliver Tapper actually has a chapter titled "The Ugly Sisters". Perhaps more on them later.

Randy

P.S. I have flown a Trojan to a fly-in but didn't wear the T-shirt - there is one!

[airnutz]

Yes, the Parnall Possum, very good sir! If I may ask, do you, or others, know what it shared with the Bristol Type 37 Tramp, Boulton & Paul Bodmin and Westland Dreadnought monoplane? Maybe a trick question, sorry. Randy

This is quite the headscratcher! In 2 cases, three of them would have similarities that the 4th didn't. I'll venture they were all intended as "postal" aircraft?

[bdk]

Wow, how cool! Too bad those didn't end up on the Shackleton.

The Napier Nomad is a beast of an engine. I had to ask my friend to stand by this one in Scotland's National Museum of Flight to give it some scale. (He's hiding one row of the contra-rotating prop)

IMG_2181.JPG

[Randy Wilson]

Well done airnutz, yes, all four designs, including the Possum, were described or justified as "Postal Aircraft"! The source I quoted for the ABC Dragonfly engine, Bill Gunston's "Plane Speaking", has a short chapter titled "9 May 1923, What Were They For?" that discusses these designs and similar designs. He says "I wonder if anyone in the Treasury ever checked up to see how much mail was actually being carried by Britain's armadas of 'postal' machines?" Talking about some other designs from the inter-war period, he mentions how Britain would spend large sums to "prove that an idea works. Then, having proved that the idea works, forget all about it." One example he gives is the Short-Mayo Composite aircraft built in 1937. Another that you will just have to look up or Google was "a series of Hillson Bi-Mono aircraft during World War Two which showed that you can take off as a biplane and jettison the upper wing" I hope everyone is staying well. Thanks for your contributions.

Randy

P.S. Here is a link about the Hillson Bi-Mono, which was intended to let a Hurricane take off with a second wing, it seems.

http://www.vintagewings.ca/VintageNews/Stories/tabid/116/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/448/Biplane-Hurricane.aspx

Here is the Short-Mayo Composite on its beaching cradle in May 1938, from "Shorts Aircraft since 1900" by C. H. Barnes.

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Last edited by Randy Wilson on Thu Apr 23, 2020 11:38 am, edited 1 time in total.

[LysanderUK]

Please delete, duplicate post

[Randy Wilson]

ID for fun 5. Something post-WWII and with underwing rockets, too. Randy

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[Mark Sampson]

is that a SAAB?

[Clifford Bossie]

SAAB J29 Tunnan. With rockets...