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Yet another flattie

These flat wins just keep turning up to find me. On eBay recently there was this ...

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a Coventry-Victor "Neptune". Being in Brighton (I'm in Bristol) and apparently sans flywheel, fan & tin ware, I looked at it, thought about it, vacillated - and then when it was at the point of sale, Hazel was writing a difficult report & I could hardly shove her out of the way so I could bid on " ... yet another engine - surely you must have one of each by now?" unquote.

Ho-hum, I thought, there will be others.

Anyway, for courtesy's sake, I dropped the vendor a note to say thanks for the extra pictures he'd sent me & explained I could not be on line when the sale completed. I received a swift response saying the sale had fallen through & it was mine for the £31.00 it had reached.

It seems I was destined to have it & nothing I could do could rescue me from ownership, so reluctantly - yeah, sure! - I dropped off the M25 on my way back from Saxon house building in Kent at the weekend. I found the house without too much gnawing of the steering wheel.

The engine was actually complete with the flywheel, the rim of which was decorated with the most rudimentary fan I've ever come across, just little blades an inch high or so set at widely spaced intervals around the OD. It was pretty heavy in it's own right, so it was useful that it wasn't attached.

It was moved to the rear of the house without drama, fuss or discovery (!) on Monday & received a good staring. I'm pretty sure it has never been equipped with a cowl, or if it was, it hung in space from a skyhook. The exhausts are neatly trimmed off at an angle, obviously designed to run like that & a right noisy neighbour it would make in a line up. Here's the pictures.

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Missing only its fuel pipe and aluminium magneto magnet cover, it has obviously been restored for exhibition, I'd judge at least twenty years ago. The points were stuck open and corroded, but, sad to say, a thorough clean and oiling failed to produce a spark, although it appears to be little used. I've several spares, but it will need the timing cover removing to get at the sprocket - no rubberised canvas discs here, I'm afraid.

I assume that this is a modified marine engine from its name on the oil pump housing. The plate describes the unit as an "Engine Starter" for a Whipple engine & some quick Googling indicates that they now make superchargers, most for marine use. As it was used for starting only, I assume it was only used briefly & this would explain the lack of tinware.

Regards,

Kim Siddorn

Reply to
Kim Siddorn
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IIRC Whipple made aircraft engine starters incl. those beasties, which one sometimes sees in old pictures, looking like a pick-up truck with a gantry mounted shaft on the back which presumably engaged with a dog on the prop spinner.

Reply to
Nick H

Only pic I can find on www is of this Japanese version:-

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Reply to
Nick H

Following a good clean & bit of a polish, the manufacturer's plate pic is now at

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I then went on to look up the Patent number & found a PDF of the original patent, complete with drawings. It shows an electric motor (although the text refers to both electric & ICE power sources) fitted with a cone clutch which drives a system of gearing, universally jointed shaft & a sprag clutch. The original patent (1922) speaks of starting large lorries and a slightly later one of a similar starter used for starting aero engines.

The flywheel which came with the engine has a truncated conical ID virtually identical to that pictured in the patent drawing.

Any ideas how to date a Coventry-Victor Type 14, Serial number 247?

regards,

Kim Siddorn

Reply to
Kim Siddorn

You ain't looking hard enough! :-))

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Peter

-- Peter & Rita Forbes Email: snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk Web:

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Reply to
Peter A Forbes

"Peter A Forbes" wrote

Cheers Peter, don't know what the picture titles are but google images certainly didn't find then with various combinations of aircraft, starter, airfield etc etc. What a wonderful device, it it a Whipple job?

Reply to
Nick H

"Steve" wrote:-

Is 'Huck' not a generic name for this type of starter, rather than a particular manufacturer?

Reply to
Nick H

Looks very much like a Huck starter.

Steve

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Reply to
Steve

Sounds likely, after all 'Hoover' probably took some time to become generic. Do you know if these starters used a separate engine or some sort of PTO from the vehicle?

Reply to
Nick H

As Huck starters were first mounted on Model T Fords, perhaps this was an original "Huck" from which later versions acquired the generic term?

Steve

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Reply to
Steve

The Model T based ones had a dog clutched PTO off the prop shaft.

Regards,

Kim Siddorn

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Reply to
Kim Siddorn

Most of the titles for the aviation section were never done, that's why you couldn't find it on a serach.

Huck and Whipple made various starting devices, Huck made the original which was improved IIRC by Whipple who went on to use separate IC engines rather than the vehicle's own power.

When I get a minute (laughter off-stage!) I will get around to updating those early pages, but with nearly 5000 pages online it is a major job just keeping it working and doing updates. Peter

-- Peter A Forbes Prepair Ltd, Luton, UK snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk

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Reply to
Prepair Ltd

This particular vehicle resides in the Shuttleworth collection.

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that or there's two of them.

John

Reply to
John

Looks almost identical to the one we pictured at Duxford. I don't know if there are two in existence, but I'd guess this was brought from Old Warden for the show?

Peter

-- Peter & Rita Forbes Email: snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk Web:

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Reply to
Peter A Forbes

Looking at

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the mouseover 'alt' text for the picture of the Tutor being started by the Hucks starter refers to the starter as 'unique'.

I never heard tell of another Hucks during the time (22 seasons) when I was 'behind the scenes' on Flying (and various other) Days at Old Warden. I wouldn't be in the least surprised if another one turns up in a barn somewhere, though, just as engines do...

Reply to
Andrew Marshall

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