Edgar Westbury

[JAParticipant @ja]

First I must apologize because I cannot find the thread with the recent reference to Edgar Westbury and Frank Whittle. Therefore I have started a new thread.

The reference said that Whittle's autobiography mentions Westbury in connection with Cranwell.

I have a copy of Edgar Westbury's book "The Model Petrol Engine" which was published in 1936. While there have been a number of reprints there was never a second edition. The chapter on future developments in model petrol engines makes very interesting reading. He discusses sleeve and rotary valves, compression ignition engines and petrol turbines. He says he has some knowledge of the latter and goes on to very clearly discuss the jet engine as we know it. The problems he mentions are poor compressor efficiency (he gets confused between mechanical and thermal efficiency) and combustion chamber and turbine cooling problems. The second half of the article becomes speculation, if such a model engine would ever be practical and that the gestation period would be very long.

I take my hat off to Edgar. Sure a simple biography is required.

JA

[JAParticipant @ja]

[AjohnwParticipant @ajohnw51620]

There is one on the Wiki

**LINK**

I love the austerity reasoning. That aspect might be explained more clearly by the absence initially of Taiwan and later China with India raising it's head as well at one point. It is true that there was plenty of people about in the UK that had both practical and theoretical mechanical skills.

John

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[Ady1Participant @ady1]

I read somewhere that his small model engine stuff ceased in the mid to late 1940s because he was the (or one of the) first people in the UK to get a noise abatement order from a local council

Testing aero engines after 11pm wasn't too popular with the neighbours

Urban myth or truth? I know not.

edit: Or was that Sparey?… tsk tsk tsk

Edited By Ady1 on 08/08/2016 10:47:56

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

Posted by Ady1 on 08/08/2016 10:46:48:

I read somewhere that his small model engine stuff ceased in the mid to late 1940s because he was the (or one of the) first people in the UK to get a noise abatement order from a local council

It was Lawrence Sparey, see ModelEngineNews

For convenience, the MEN biography of Westbury is here

Rod

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

The interesting comment about his testing materials 'being of a lower order' so they changed to a magnetic dynamometer.

I recall reading in an old Aeromodeller that the power figures were got by fitting various different sized props and recording the RPM with an estimate of pitch being used to 'calibrate' each prop.

Neil

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 08/08/2016 14:26:57:

I recall reading in an old Aeromodeller that the power figures were got by fitting various different sized props and recording the RPM with an estimate of pitch being used to 'calibrate' each prop

This curious equation gives pretty good results:

D is prop diameter and P is the pitch, both in inches. It agrees pretty well with some Peter Chinn reviews of various engines. A well as the maximum power Chinn also gives rpm figures for various props and there is some variation between nominally identical diameter and pitch props from different manufacturers. But I think the equation is good enough to give you a warm feeling that your home-made engine is not too dis-similar to a commercial offering

Rod

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