Mercedes DIIIa

[IBob]

Out at the airfield yesterday, they were running up one of these, on a test bed on the back of a truck. The fourth one they have built, I was told. Wonderful sound.

 

Mercedes 180hp DIIIa Engine Reproduction | The Vintage Aviator

 

 

[Litespeed]

Pity you do not have a video of the 900cube inch beasty

 

 

[kaz3g]

Out at the airfield yesterday, they were running up one of these, on a test bed on the back of a truck. The fourth one they have built, I was told. Wonderful sound.Mercedes 180hp DIIIa Engine Reproduction | The Vintage Aviator

Really interesting read, thank you. I am a bit obsessed about military aviation history and am in awe of what young men did in two World Wars in the air.

 

Kaz

 

 

[IBob]

Pity you do not have a video of the 900cube inch beasty

Yep, wish I could have provided that too. I guess the work and resource that goes into something like this, I felt one should ask permission...and there were 2 guys in overalls focusing very hard on what they were doing, the lovely bass blatting of the exhaust...and nobody else to ask. They have an airshow here, though, where they get all this WW1 stuff out and fly it, and I'll see if I can get sound and film of one of these things flying when that comes round.

 

 

[IBob]

Really interesting read, thank you. I am a bit obsessed about military aviation history and am in awe of what young men did in two World Wars in the air.Kaz

Thanks, Kaz. Take a look around the rest of that site, it may interest you: they build and fly exact replicas of WW1 aircraft.

 

 

[onetrack]

That's a mind-blowing bit of restoration and reconstruction work. We tend to think that engine technology was fairly primitive during WW1, but it wasn't.

 

They knew substantial amounts about high-tech metals and alloys, and they used them regularly.

 

I've been repairing a 1920 Brockway truck engine block for a friend, and the engineering and casting skills, and metal quality, even in that engine (and era) is quite amazing.

 

It's a huge old 4-lunger with two separate cylinder castings, and a separate crankcase, and has a 4.5" bore and a 5.5" stroke.

 

The engine is actually a Continental engine, it was quite common for smaller manufacturers to just buy their engines in, from an established engine manufacturer.

 

Photograph - Brockway Motors Ltd, Tipping Truck, Sydney, New South Wales, circa 1927

 

The power output of all these old engines is nothing spectacular for their displacement, because they were limited to low compression, due to the poor-quality fuels of the era.

 

Once better fuels (higher octanes) became available, and the engine manufacturers were able to raise the compression ratios substantially, the power outputs went up substantially.

 

Once the Americans invented 100 octane, just before WW2, they took great pains to keep it secret, because they didn't want the formula falling into German or Japanese hands.

 

It has been said that if the Germans or Japanese had acquired 100 octane at the start of WW2, it could have had a major and very negative impact on Allied successes and possibly altered the course of the War.

 

There are reports that have outlined how a number of shiploads of the new 100 octane avgas, rushed in from America to the U.K., helped win the Battle of Britain.

 

RSC Press Release: The secret fuel that made the Spitfire supreme

 

 

[IBob]

That's a mind-blowing bit of restoration and reconstruction work. We tend to think that engine technology was fairly primitive during WW1, but it wasn't.They knew substantial amounts about high-tech metals and alloys, and they used them regularly.

I've been repairing a 1920 Brockway truck engine block for a friend, and the engineering and casting skills, and metal quality, even in that engine (and era) is quite amazing.

 

It's a huge old 4-lunger with two separate cylinder castings, and a separate crankcase, and has a 4.5" bore and a 5.5" stroke.

 

The engine is actually a Continental engine, it was quite common for smaller manufacturers to just buy their engines in, from an established engine manufacturer.

 

Photograph - Brockway Motors Ltd, Tipping Truck, Sydney, New South Wales, circa 1927

 

The power output of all these old engines is nothing spectacular for their displacement, because they were limited to low compression, due to the poor-quality fuels of the era.

 

Once better fuels (higher octanes) became available, and the engine manufacturers were able to raise the compression ratios substantially, the power outputs went up substantially.

 

Once the Americans invented 100 octane, just before WW2, they took great pains to keep it secret, because they didn't want the formula falling into German or Japanese hands.

 

It has been said that if the Germans or Japanese had acquired 100 octane at the start of WW2, it could have had a major and very negative impact on Allied successes and possibly altered the course of the War.

 

There are reports that have outlined how a number of shiploads of the new 100 octane avgas, rushed in from America to the U.K., helped win the Battle of Britain.

 

RSC Press Release: The secret fuel that made the Spitfire supreme

I agree. It seems to me there is a tendency to think most science and engineering took place in the latter half of the 20th century.

 

I have read that the golden age of mathematics (for instance), that is the period when huge advances were made was actually the late 1800s.

 

While the first known measurement of the speed of light took place in 1675: they were out by 27%, but by 1729 they had it just about crack on.

 

Consider also (for instance) that the huge ships built by the likes of Brunel had bronze props on them...and the huge prop shafts were forged.

 

And so on: there must be endless such examples.

 

 

[IBob]

Pity you do not have a video of the 900cube inch beasty

This won't run on my dog of an old workshop laptop, but maybe it will on yours?:

Mercedes DIIIa Engine Reproduction Timelapse | The Vintage Aviator

 

From the same website, Movies section. There are several other engines there too, for the petrolheads!

 

 

[Litespeed]

I am on NBN it would not run for me either?

 

 

[onetrack]

No, the movie link is not installed on the page that IBob linked to, it doesn't show for me either, and I'm on ADSL2. There's a programming fault on the webpage, the webmaster has screwed it up.

 

If you click on "Motion Pictures" in the LH menu, all the video thumbnails appear, and every video link works, except for the one showing the Mercedes DIIIa.