The ADC Airdisco is a British V-8 aero engine that first ran in 1925.

Design and development

The 'Airdisco' was developed from the French

Renault 70 hp The Renault 70 hp or Type WB was a French V-8 aero engine that first ran circa 1907. It was also manufactured under license by Renault Limited of West Brompton, London between August 1914 and December 1918, three other companies, including ...

aero engine by

Frank Halford Major Frank Bernard Halford CBE FRAeS (7 March 1894 – 16 April 1955) was an English aircraft engine designer. He is best known for the series of de Havilland Gipsy engines, widely used by light aircraft in the 1920s and 30s. Career Educated ...

of the Aircraft Disposal Company, the main difference being the use of

aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in AmE, American and CanE, Canadian English) is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately o ...

cylinder head In an internal combustion engine, the cylinder head (often abbreviated to simply "head") sits above the cylinder (engine), cylinders and forms the roof of the combustion chamber. In sidevalve engines, the head is a simple sheet of metal; whereas ...

s. Halford later used one bank of cylinders to create the

Cirrus Cirrus may refer to: Science *Cirrus (biology), any of various thin, thread-like structures on the body of an animal *Cirrus (botany), a tendril * Infrared cirrus, in astronomy, filamentary structures seen in infrared light *Cirrus cloud, a typ ...

engine.

Applications

* Avro 548A * Cierva Parnall Gyroplane * de Havilland DH.51 *

Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5A The Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5 is a British biplane fighter aircraft of the First World War. It was developed at the Royal Aircraft Factory by a team consisting of Henry Folland, John Kenworthy and Major Frank Goodden. It was one of the fa ...

Survivors

A de Havilland DH.51 owned and operated by the

Shuttleworth Collection The Shuttleworth Collection is a working aeronautical and automotive collection located at the Old Warden Aerodrome, Old Warden in Bedfordshire, England. It is the oldest in the world and one of the most prestigious, due to the variety of o ...

Old Warden Old Warden is a village and civil parish in the Central Bedfordshire district of the county of Bedfordshire, England, about south-east of the county town of Bedford. The 2011 census shows its population as 328. The Shuttleworth Collection of ...

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council ...

remains airworthy and is powered by an original ADC Airdisco engine.Shuttleworth Collection - DH.51
Retrieved: 1 September 2009

Specifications (Airdisco)

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Lumsden, Alec. ''British Piston Engines and their Aircraft''. Marlborough, Wiltshire: Airlife Publishing, 2003. .

External links

{{ADC aeroengines 1920s aircraft piston engines

Airdisco The Aircraft Disposal Company (ADC) or Airdisco, was a British firm established in March 1920 to take advantage of the large number of World War I-surplus military aircraft on the market.Gunston 2005, p.7. The company changed name in 1925 to ADC ...