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Aviation History
1941
1941 - 1909.PDF
AUGUST 2IST, 1941. FLIGHT FORD AERO ENGINE HERE is the "mock-up" of the projected Ford 12-cylinder aero engine mentioned previously inFlight. Outstanding features of it will be petrol injection, exhaust-driven turbo-supercharger, and the ex- tensive use of castings instead of machined forgings to reduce the amount of machining. From an inspection of the exterior of the mock-up it is possible, with a reason- able amount of certainty, to make some deductions as to the design of the engine. This 12-cylinder vee liquid-cooled engine has two ex- haust and two inlet valves per cylinder directly operated from two overhead camshafts on each bank of cylinders. The valves are inclined to the axis of the cylinder and the cylinder heads are detachable. As the space in between the two banks is taken up by the large intake manifold, the injection nozzles are probably between the camshafts, though they cannot be seen. The cylinder block is a cast- ing in light alloy, but whether the liners are of the " wet " or " dry " type cannot be determined. A circulating pump for the coolant is mounted on the front end and driven off the crankshaft. The coolant pipes are arranged along the outer sides of the two banks and probably between the banks on each side of the intake manifold. The bulky affair at the lower left is the exhaust-driven turbo-super- charger and the small starter-motor on the sump may pos- sibly be for starting and accelerating the supercharger before the engine is started. The unit on the reduction FORD BUT NOT FLIVVER: This is the mock-up of theprojected Ford 12-cylinder aero engine. Some of the modern features of its design are petrol injection, exhaust-driven super-charging and the extensive use of castings instead of forgings. gear casing may be either the governor unit for the constant- speed airscrew or the engine starter-motor. Large-diameter gears are used in the reduction gearing and the crankshaft is probably cast. "Supercharged" Ignition Harness p advance in flying exacts its price, a price which is •*-' paid not only in the lives of some of the pioneers but inincreased engineering complexity. High-altitude flight is with us, but it is going to complicate the ignition system of theengine as the insulating property of the air decreases with the decrease of density at altitude. This makes ignition break-downs more likely. Particularly is this so in the "shielded" ignition harness, of which the dead air spaces tend to becomecontaminated with various substances. These may be rain, oil, anticer fluid, or products from spark plug core leakage orelectrical corona discharges and they tend to cause deterioration of the rubber insulation. The problem cannot be solved bythe construction of airtight shielding, since the products are generated inside the shielding, so the other way is to blowa continuous stream of air through it. This can be done by maintaining a supercharge air pressure to the ignition harnessand something like 5 lb. per sq. in. may be needed. Venti- lation of the harness can thereby be assured and the harmfulsubstances removed. Probably the Wright brothers did not foresee this development. UNFORTUNATE FORTUNA : A general view of the daylight attack by Blenheims of the Bomber Command on the Fortuna power station at Cologne.
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