Sopwith triplane! Lurvely! Ran on a complete-loss oiling system that relied on castor-bean oil to stick to the cylinders and spinny-twirly bits and made the pilots incontinent and have to land behind enemy lines to take a dump - but so did most of the enemy rotary machines until the Fokker D-VII with the BMW 6-cyl inline engine showed-up. I used to work with a descendent of Tony Fokker.
Yes, these did run on castor oil lube. I'd like to find it again but I recall reading about an incident in which a pilot was essentially stranded until he aquired enough castor oil to safely fly again. He had to convince a nurse at a hospital that he was perpetually... well... uncomfortable, and collect the doses for his aircraft.
I think Arch Whitehouse wrote about that but my memory could be faulty.
I just have to catch a flight first.
6 comments:
Rotarian 'splodey motor!
I have a special rotary motor to share when I get back. Just a hint, there are no pushrods involved.
I think that would fit in your carry on. If you can bring it home, I can fly it.
Too bad the triple seven has such lousy overhead bins. Of course the gypsy moth...
Sopwith triplane! Lurvely! Ran on a complete-loss oiling system that relied on castor-bean oil to stick to the cylinders and spinny-twirly bits and made the pilots incontinent and have to land behind enemy lines to take a dump - but so did most of the enemy rotary machines until the Fokker D-VII with the BMW 6-cyl inline engine showed-up.
I used to work with a descendent of Tony Fokker.
Yes, these did run on castor oil lube. I'd like to find it again but I recall reading about an incident in which a pilot was essentially stranded until he aquired enough castor oil to safely fly again. He had to convince a nurse at a hospital that he was perpetually... well... uncomfortable, and collect the doses for his aircraft.
I think Arch Whitehouse wrote about that but my memory could be faulty.
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