ABC Motors Limited ("All British (Engine) Company") of

Hersham Hersham is a suburban village in Surrey, within the M25 and the Greater London Built-up Area. It has a mixture of low and high rise housing and has four technology/trading estates. Hersham is contiguous with Walton-on-Thames, its post town, t ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

, England was a manufacturer of cars, aircraft, motor scooters, and engines for road and air. Established by Ronald Charteris in Hersham, Surrey in 1912, its chief designer was the young and talented Granville Bradshaw.Lumsden 2003, p. 51. It was absorbed into

Vickers Vickers was a British engineering company that existed from 1828 until 1999. It was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by Edward Vickers and his father-in-law, and soon became famous for casting church bells. The company went public in 18 ...

in 1951 and the factory finally closed in the 1970s. Last occupied by

Ian Allan Publishing Ian Allan Publishing was an English publisher, established in 1942, which specialised in transport books. It was founded by Ian Allan. In 1942, Ian Allan, then working in the public relations department for the Southern Railway at Waterloo ...

as Hersham's Riverdene Industrial Estate, the factory was demolished around 2017-2018 and redeveloped as a Lidl supermarket (opened February 2019) with flats above.

Products

First flying and administrative officers of the Royal Flying Corps RAE-O790

The ABC radial aero engines of the World War I period were extremely advanced for their time, and were initially thought to be very promising indeed. Unfortunately they were all more or less plagued by problems – and although a number of types for the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

were designed around ABC engines (especially the ill-fated ''Dragonfly'') none saw squadron service with the RAF. ABC also made a large number of engines for electrical generators and other purposes – mostly with a flat twin cylinder layout and unusual exhaust-over-inlet valve configuration. These smaller ABC engines have the distinction of being possibly the first airborne

APUs Apus is a small constellation in the Southern Celestial Hemisphere, southern sky. It represents a bird-of-paradise, and its name means "without feet" in Greek language, Greek because the bird-of-paradise was once wrongly believed to lack feet. ...

- the Coastal class blimp (first flown in 1916) had a 1.5-horsepower unit installed to provide electricity for the onboard wireless set, whilst a similar engine was used to power the searchlight of the sole Supermarine Nighthawk '

Zeppelin A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp. 155� ...

killer' of 1917.

Aero engines

* ABC 6 hp Midge (1951) National Archives Kew (AIR 10/7172) * ABC 8 hp (1923) * ABC 30 hp (1912) * ABC 60 hp (1912) * ABC 100 hp (1912) * ABC Dragonfly (1918) * ABC Gadfly (1920) * ABC Gnat (1916) *

ABC Mosquito The ABC Mosquito was a 120 hp (90 kW) six-cylinder radial Aircraft engine, aero engine designed by the noted British engineer Granville Bradshaw for use in light aircraft. The single Mosquito engine was built by ABC Motors, first runn ...

(1916) * ABC Hornet (1929) * ABC Scorpion (1923) * ABC Wasp (1918)

Aircraft

ABC Robin The ABC Robin was a British single-seat light aircraft designed by A. A. (Tony) Fletcher in 1929 in aviation, 1929. It was a high-wing, single-seat monoplane of conventional Conventional landing gear, taildragger configuration. The cockpit was ...

Automotive

* ABC (1920 automobile) * ABC Supersports * ABC Skootamota * ABC motorcycles

References

Notes

Bibliography

*Lumsden, Alec (1994) 'British Piston Aero Engines and Their Aircraft' (Airlife, Shrewsbury) {{DEFAULTSORT:Abc Motors Defunct aircraft manufacturers of the United Kingdom Defunct aircraft engine manufacturers of the United Kingdom Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of England Defunct companies based in Surrey Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1912 1912 establishments in England Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1951 1951 disestablishments in England 1951 mergers and acquisitions British companies disestablished in 1951 British companies established in 1912