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From the Editor - June 2021
We’re now well into the second year of fighting this dratted COVID pandemic which has affected all of our lives so profoundly. I truly wish that I could share a vision of the end of the crisis with you, but sadly the unwillingness of far too many people to do their part to deal with this issue by acting responsibly in the collective interest as opposed to responding to their own selfish desires precludes that. The evident willingness of governments to pander to such behaviour by “reopening” things isn't helping one bit. With over 25% of the North American population openly stating that they will refuse to be vaccinated and at least another 5% still undecided, the development and spread of new and potentially more deadly mutants is assured and herd immunity cannot be achieved, at least in my part of the world. For decades now I’ve considered it to be inevitable that some kind of deadly global pandemic would develop at some point in time. I always naively hoped that when it did, society as a whole would set aside its differences and come together to respond appropriately to any such crisis. Sadly, I can no longer believe that. Even if we do eventually get on top of this pandemic (and at present that looks like a big “if”), another even more virulent pandemic is inevitable, and we are showing that the deep divisions within our society prevent us from dealing effectively with such crises. Sad ………don’t these people have children and grandchildren?!? Meanwhile, life goes on at various levels, as indeed it must. For my valued readers, this very much includes a continued interest in model engines! The site usage stats show that many of you have continued to take an interest despite other distractions, evidently using this website to help fill the hours of isolation forced upon many of us by the COVID situation as well as a desire to take a break from the political and environmental realities which bedevil our lives. I’m with you guys!
These figures confirm that despite the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing political distractions, a good number of folks are clearly remaining very much engaged with our hobby. I seem to be maintaining a relatively stable level of reader interest! Further confirmation comes from the fact that the mail box has remained quite active. I heard from quite a few of you during May, including (in no particular order) Luis Petersen, Tim Dannels, Allan Brown, Peter Valicek, Peter Rathke, Maris Dislers, Chris Murphy, Alan Strutt, Miles Patience, Ronald Valentine, Lyndon Bedford, Greg Kamysz, Dave Zwolak, Tom Coletta, Steve Webb, Phil Alvirez, John Whigham, Bill Wells, Chris Ottewell and Neill McRae. Apologies to anyone whom I may have inadvertently missed in the crowd, and apologies also to those whose messages went unanswered. The blog site has continued to justify its existence by contributing a small but steady flow of relevant traffic - thanks for that.
During May, I was very pleased to hear from reader Allan Brown of England, who wrote in to defend the reputation of one of last month’s subjects, the D-C Bantam. Although admittedly it wasn’t his first choice, circumstances led to the Bantam ending up being Allan’s first model engine. One’s first engine inevitably retains a special place in one’s memory - for the same reason, I hold the E.D. Bee in higher regard than it perhaps deserves simply because it was my first new engine back in 1959. Allan found the Bantam to be every bit as anaemic as my article described - I loved his comment that “if you launched the model at head height, that’s where it stayed for the rest of the flight!’ However, Allan also recalls that the engine started encouragingly easily and served as an “adequate” powerplant for his first couple of free flight models. For that reason, he holds the Bantam in fond remembrance despite its woeful under-performance! I’ve added Allan’s anecdote to the “Personal Recollections” section of the Bantam article, with my sincere thanks.
Chris also supplied an additional Cobra .049 serial number along with further confirmation that the Cobra glow heads were not Cox items but were made in England by (or for) Cobra manufacturer John Rodwell. My friend Alan Strutt of England also wrote in to provide some additional background to the Cobra story, an example of which he once owned. I’ve added both of these contributions to the Cobra article, with my sincere thanks to Chris and Alan. On a personal note, I had some fun in May examining and testing an example of the very rare Rauch 3.2 cc stationary diesel from early post-WW2 Germany which had been very capably converted to aero configuration. The I’ve now added the Rauch 3.2 cc diesel to my “Gallery” listing. A full review and test of this very rare unit will appear on this website at some point in the future, but I expect a condensed review to be published fairly shortly in the pages of Tim Dannels’ outstanding “Engine Collector’s Journal” (ECJ). As I've said before, not all of my writing appears on this website - to get it all, subscribe to ECJ and "AeroModeller"!! Apart from playing with the Rauch, I also decided to try out Maris Dislers' procedure for converting a glow-head to accept a Turbo plug. Maris's excellent article on this topic appeared here last A subsequent test of the engine confirmed that with this modified head fitted it ran on all props within 100 rpm of its performance with a standard glow-head fitted. Further experiments with plug heat ranges might well pull it level or even ahead. I'd say that this represents pretty persuasive confirmation of the validity of Maris's suggestions! Turning now to this month’s lead articles, long-time readers will be well aware of my keen interest in model diesels from America. That country is very well-known for its leadership role in developing and refining the model spark ignition engine as well as for being the birthplace of the miniature glow-plug motor. It’s far less widely recognized that America was also well to the fore in developing the model diesel prior to the late 1947 appearance of the commercial This month’s lead article highlights an American diesel which I’ve hitherto managed to overlook. This is the dieselized Arden .099 unit fitted with the excellent commercially-available D-E variable compression diesel conversion head of 1947. It turns out that this combination constitutes a highly useable model diesel, albeit one which is perhaps a bit on the fragile side in structural terms. Nevertheless, the fact that this unit represents a joining of forces by two independent manufacturers by no means disqualifies it from inclusion in the list of American diesels - indeed, dieselized Ardens appear to have enjoyed a period of fairly widespread use back in the day. I think that you’ll really enjoy learning about this very interesting contribution to America’s diesel heritage! I certainly enjoyed testing it!
Although it was advertised as a British production, there’s a lot of persuasive evidence to suggest that the A-M .049 was only assembled in Britain using components largely made by Wen-Mac in America. Once again, there’s a bit of controversy involved here, greatly enhancing the interest of the story. I’ve added some all-new test results to the article to expand the coverage. Even if you’ve read the original text on MEN, you’ll still find plenty of new information here! Turning now to next month, I recently woke up to the fact that that it’s been a while since I reviewed a As its name suggests, the Melcraft venture stemmed from a partnership between two Mels - Mel Schmidt and Mel Bluemlein. The very well-made unit which they developed and marketed exhibited a few highly original design features, pulling it well out of the rut. On test, it also delivered an excellent performance, as next month’s article will confirm. It’s a story with a lot of human interest to it, and one which I think you’ll enjoy! The MEN transfer article for next month will present a historical and technical summary which I still consider to be one of my most important recovery efforts - the full saga of the Hill engines from Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, England. Absolutely nothing was known about the origins of this extremely Had it not been for this extremely fortuitous chain of circumstances, the full Hill story would undoubtedly have been irretrievably lost. Its near-miraculous survival by such a narrow margin makes it doubly imperative that it not now be lost again. It’s a fascinating story with a great deal of human interest, and one which I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading! I think that about does it for this edition. All being well, I'll be back to you with another edition on or about July 1st, 2021. Meanwhile, please accept my best wishes for continuing to rise above the current pandemic and political situations and getting the best of what life has to offer under present circumstances. The heady aroma of diesel fumes, sparkie smoke or burning nitro may be more challenging than usual to experience safely, but I hope that at least some of you find an opportunity to get your fume fixes! Take care and stay well - pay attention to the doctors and scientists, get vaccinated and trust your own informed opinions rather than those of the politicians and their uninformed self-serving supporters!! Cheers, Adrian Duncan British Columbia, Canada ___________________________________ Note regarding material to be found on this site - unless specifically otherwise noted, all images and text which appear on this site are my own work, and I hereby assert my right to be recognized as the originator of this material. For the record, this material is made freely available to all upon two firm conditions:
Adrian C. Duncan British Columbia, Canada
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Good grief, Charlie Brown, it’s already June again - almost half way through another year already! Where does the time go??! It’s certainly true that as you get older, time slips by at an ever-accelerating rate. 
The numbers for May 2021 showed a virtually unchanged level of activity on this site. The May total of 410,139 hits was a little down, but the number of visits was very slightly up at 4,580. Moreover, these visits came from a very slightly increased 2,469 unique visitors, who between them accessed a modestly increased total of 
Among my favourite contacts with my readers are those which result from their desire to contribute to articles which they’ve read on this site. Every month seems to throw up one or two such contacts, for which I’m immensely grateful. Keep 'em coming!
I also heard from Chris Murphy of New Zealand on the same subject. The Bantam was Chris’s first engine too. He tells me that he really enjoyed the article and plans to try the modifications which I described - hopefully I’ll hear from him in due course how it went. I anticipate that he’ll be very impressed with the results - I know that I was! 
reason for the almost complete lack of documentation in relation to this model is that it was never marketed as a “hobby” engine, being sold with a flywheel on a sheet metal stand as a stationary “table-top toy” unit alongside the many such steam and hot air engines of the period. Its manufacturer, Ernst Rauch of Nürnberg, was primarily involved in the toy business, hence the focus of his unusual table-top diesel.
The second article for this month continues the recently-established pattern, with another “transfer” article from MEN to accompany the all-new lead article. I’ve further extended the ½A theme of recent issues with a comprehensively revised look at the 
ephemeral range until by pure chance (for which I can claim absolutely no credit) I stumbled across the one surviving individual who retained first-hand knowledge regarding the development of the Hill engines. Indeed, he knew a lot about them thanks to having been a personal friend and club-mate of the two individuals who were responsible for the marque. He had also owned and used one of the Hill prototypes, which I was able to acquire for testing.| |