Bristol F.2B Fighter - Engine runs with Hucks Starter
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- Опубликовано: 10 июл 2021
- The Shuttleworth Collection's original 1917 Bristol F.2B Fighter, receiving some attention to it's engine and carburettor mixture settings from the mechanics on Tuesday 6th July 2021. The aircraft is seen being started using an original Hucks Starter.
Bristol F.2B Fighter, G-AEPH, B1162 (formerly D8096) was built in 1918 and saw no operational wartime service. It did serve with No 208 Squadron based in Turkey in 1923.
Its remains were acquired in 1936 by Captain C P B Ogilvie who intended to restore it to flying condition, but failed to complete it.
The Bristol Aeroplane Company restored the aeroplane and it flew again in 1951, in the care of the Shuttleworth Collection. The engine and airframe underwent a complete refurbishment during 1980-82. In 1992 the engine (the oldest working Rolls-Royce aero engine in the world) was replaced by an overhauled unit. The original was rebuilt and is kept as a fully working spare.
The aircraft was given another overhaul and re-covering between February 2019 and December 2020 and was repainted to represent an aircraft of 22 Squadron, Royal Air Force (RAF) with serial number B1162, which was based at Villeneuve-les-Vertus, France in March 1918. It wore the code F on the fuselage sides and the undersides of the wings, along with a large letter on the central part of the top wing.
During the refurbishment all of the fabric covering from the wings and fuselage was removed. The wooden structure of the wings was cleaned and stripped and repaired where needed. Many of the light ply rib bracing strips and all of the wing trailing edges had warped, so were replaced.
The fuselage wooden structure was stripped and refurbished. The original wooden longerons that run along the fuselage and associated uprights were in good condition and were retained.
In the cockpit area, the decking around the Lewis gun ring was replaced with new plywood. A new instrument panel was made and fitted. The cockpit was stripped and all instruments and controls checked, prior to reinstallation. All fabric on the aircraft was replaced.
The Rolls Royce Falcon engine was removed and overhauled. Some cylinders were taken off in order to look at the engines internal parts. The crankshaft and conrods were in very good condition. The piston rings were a bit worn, so new ones were made. This meant that all of the cylinders and the camshaft and gears were removed. Wear was found on the rollers on the camshaft rocker arms which were replaced with spares.
The reduction gear was in good condition but a few ball bearing races needed reconditioning or replacing. The radiator was completely overhauled.
Most of the metalwork on the aircraft was removed, cleaned, re-protected and refitted. The lower fin needed corrective work for some minor corrosion. Both firewalls were removed, cleaned and reinstated. The undercarriage was taken out, cleaned and re-covered before refitting with new bungees and red-painted wheel covers.
This Bristol Fighter is the only airworthy original example in Europe.
Hucks Starter :-
In the early days of aviation, aero engines had low power output and low compression and were relatively easy to start by swinging the propeller by hand. However, throughout the First World War rapid advances were made in the size and power of engines and compression ratios increased considerably. Man power alone was no longer sufficient.
Several devices to bring the engine into life were produced - with varying degrees of success - but one example, the Hucks Starter, was favoured for use with military aircraft.
The starter is based on the Model T Ford car chassis. A chain, driven by the car engine, drives a rotating shaft which is telescopic with vertical adjustment to accommodate the different heights of various aircraft and has a claw bar at its front end to engage with a dog fixed to the boss of the propeller. The starter is positioned in front of the aircraft and adjusted until the claw can be engaged with the propeller dog. It rotates the aircraft engine and when the pilot turns on his magneto switches and the engine fires, the telescopic shaft disengages itself from the propeller dog and retracts.
The Hucks Starter began its operational life with the RAF in 1920 and remained in use until the 1930’s when various other starting methods were introduced.
Bentfield Charles Hucks was an early aviator, generally credited as being the first British pilot to loop the loop (in a Bleriot monoplane) in 1913 and an early member of the Royal Flying Corps but was discharged from service on the Western Front to become a test pilot at Hendon.
This was built in 1920 by the de Havilland Aircraft Company and rebuilt by the London Aero Club in 1952 when it joined The Shuttleworth Collection.
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The videogame Battlefield 1 made me aware of this beautiful piece of aviation history.
This is THE BEST video showing the Hucks starter sequence. The second start gave even more information. Fantastic video. Wish I had one of these. Fantastic & Cheers!!
Ed, Thanks, it's always good to see the Hucks starter in use. They use it regularly for many of the WW1 and between the wars types. Last week they used it with the Polikarpov PO-2, the film for which I'll add here in due course!
That is really awesome. Thx for showing such a neat procedure.
Very many thanks for posting this one Steve!!! I have often wondered how the starter shaft disengaged from the hub when the Hucks was used, the telescopic shaft makes that easy, it must have been a huge asset over hand swinging, some wonderful close up ground shots here, you know just what to focus on to answer peoples questions ! Stay safe ! Chris B.
Thanks Chris, my pleasure. I bet the Hucks Starter saved many a hand or arm or more? I was lucky to visit the museum just as the rain stopped and they were able to wheel her out!😊🏴
Have just finished reading 'Fire in the Sky' by Michael Molkentin a story about the men of Australian Flying Corps in WW1, both on the western front and in Egypt and Palestine. The Australian airmen were full of the praises of the Bristol Fighter so I decided to get some information on the aircraft.
That sounds like a good book that I haven't yet read. Thanks for your comment and recommendation.👍
We love old english planes, and cars. ♥️ 🇬🇧 🇭🇺
That car can not be edible anymore. It expired 87 years ago.