BHP engines

[leo]

Andy:

Only those members over 67 are allowed to make mistakes. You will have to have your chaplain card punched,

erm Leo who`se the chaplain in this sorry outfit

[leo]

I m not sure who the Chaplain is for the Forum, but I would suspect it is his Holiness the Webmaster.

Thanks Leo

[Dan_San_Abbott]

Andy Fox:
Do not despair, it is all in the process of learning, I am 78 and I am still learning. :
Bluest of blue skies,
Dan-San

[AGO]

Hi all

I bet this is a matter already discussed here thousands of times.

In the course of the war Britain produced no doubt a number of very good indigenous engines, as the Eagles or the BRs.
One is unavoidably brought to feel, however, that in terms of engine design that Country's motor industry generated less than it was undoubtely capable of (after all Britain was, if I am not wrong,the leading industrial Power at the start of WWI, under a technical point of view).
When one reads the technical histories of many of the most famous WWI British aircraft it's impossible not to wonder what 'd had been of that wonderful a/c without the availability of the French engines.
Even Austria-Hungary managed to produce a very good engine relatively early in the war: the Hiero 200hp.
There was some reason of industrial policy behind that?Or the explanation is the same for the substantial lack of good Italian single seat land fighters (France already produced them,so it was easier to produce
French designs)?
Cheers
AGO

[Dan_San_Abbott]

AGO:
I would have thought the most technically advance country in aeronautical and engine design was France. Both Germany and Britain manufactured French aircraft and engines . To my point of view the best engine that came out of WW1 was the Hispano-Suiza series of engines. In airframe design Germany moved to the fore in 1916 with the Alb. D. series, and lost their initiative in the middle of 1917 to Great Britain with the S.E.5/5a and the Sopwith 1F1 Camel and regained it with the Fok. D.VII. England and France regained the advantage with the improved S.E.5a and the SPAD XIII, even when plagued with engine problems. Germany never came up with an engine that could match the power/ weight ratio of the Hispano-Suiza engines. The Hisso 8Ba weighed around 450 lbs and the Mercedes D.IIIaüv 668 lb. The great BMWIIIa weighed in at 692 lb., and they all had the same relative performance. France built more aircraft and engines than any other nation. I think had the war continued through 1919, Great Britain would have surpassed France in both categories.
What British Air Ministry did, was to take an engine that displayed promise during developement and then seek airframe manufacturers to commit to design aircraft for the "promising engine". When prototypes seemed to confirm this "promise," the Air Ministry ordered huge quantities of those engines and airplanes. This is the story of the 320 hp ABC Radial engine, which was committed to huge production programs and for a several fighter and bombers for 1919 air war. Some of the fighters involved in this fiasco were the Sopwith 7F1 Snipe, Nieuport Nighthawk and Armstrong Siddeley Siskin, all in the 150mph class. Another fisaco was the BHP 300 hp which turned out as the Siddeley-Deasy 230 hp 'Puma and the Galloway "Adriatic". The D.H.9 was committed to large scale production to replace the D.H.4, powered with the "Puma" or "Adriatic". It turned out to be a disaster in 1918, the German fighter shot the D.H.9 out of the sky like flies. It was bad decisions, followed by the failure to stop the programs, when it was discovered they were wrong. It is called politics and protect your a--!
Blue skies,(sometimes.)
Dan-san :