How many cylinders on Scout C 1611's Gnome?

I'm always amazed at what research can turn up - and what it can't.

Having been lucky enough to be given two of Gavia's mostly-splendid 1:48 Bristol Scout C kits for me birthday in November - bless Her Lioness - I set to and gathered up the references to build 'em as Lanoe Hawker's 1611 VC-winner and Fowler's 1255 of the RNAS that made the world's first launch of a military landplane from a dedicated flight deck under way at sea. No problem about the kit's horizontal tail surfaces representing the later larger-area version, it can be easily cut down to size; and the general standard of moulding and accuracy is first-class. However, both had the 80-hp Gnome engine - but what type?

Reason for the confusion is that the kit item is a stunted seven-cylinder thing that cries out for replacement with the appropriate Aeroclub version. All my available references, which comprise most if not everything ever published in book form on the type, state that the early Scouts C for Army and Navy employed the same model of 80-hp Gnome as standard. Fine, but there were different types of 80-hp Gnome, according to the literature: the 7-cylinder Gnome Lambda of 1912-13 that actually delivered about 62-hp, according to eminent engineer William Morse in his excellent 'Rotary Engines of World War One'; its stablemate, the 9-cylinder Delta of a nominal 100-hp but developing nearer 80; the 7-cylinder Type A Monosaupape of a nominal 80-hp of 1914; etc.

Windsock Datafile 44 'Bristol Scouts' by J.M. Bruce lists the 80-hp Gnome Lambda as a NINE-cylinder engine. In January 1916, Scout designer Frank Barnwell stated that " . . . machines Nos. 1602 to 1613 inclusive . . . were fitted with 80-hp Gnome motors, with Cowl to Drawing No. XD 780 (dated 5.1.15) . . . The well-known picture of 1611 is no good because, being shot from the port quarter, the engine can't be seen. A clearer picture of 1607 taken at Farnborough in May 1915 reveals a 9-cylinder Gnome that appears to be an early Mono.

Help!

Simba.

[PeterL]

Simba, whatever the engine both kit options should have the smaller tailplane and Hawker's machine a semi-circular centre section cut out. And I beleive the Lewis supplied is a later model of French manufacture. It's a jungle out there

hth

Couldn't agree more, hth. No problem, re: the Lewis, I've got plentiful supplies of accurate stripped Mk.1s. But me squadmates will never forgive me if I stick the wrong number of cylinders on the great Hawker's trusty steed - HELP!

(8;¬)}

S.