Company:Green Engine Co

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Short description: British engine company


The Green Engine Co was a British engine company founded by Gustavus Green in Bexhill to sell engines of his design. He flourished especially as a designer of aeroplane engines during the first two decades of the 20th century. The engines were actually manufactured by the Aster Engineering Company.

History

The firm produced a range of water-cooled, mostly inline engines up to about 1915. Green engines powered many pioneering British aircraft, including those of A. V. Roe, Samuel Cody, and Short Brothers. They had several advanced features in common; cast steel single-piece cylinders and cylinder heads, two valves per cylinder driven by an overhead camshaft, white metal crankshaft bearings and copper and rubber-sealed water jackets.[1][2] Manufacture was at the Aster Engineering Company of Wembley.

When the Great War broke out, the company was known for its motorcycle engines and particularly associated with a "pannier honeycomb" radiator design.[3] It was already involved in aero-engine design. In 1909, the C.4 had been the only motor to complete the tests for the Patrick Alexander Competition but was not awarded the £1,000 prize, because the rules called for a 35 hp (26 kW) engine while the C.4 only averaged 31.5 hp (23.5 kW).[4] The competition was re-run the following year for more powerful engines: this time, Green gained the prize with the D.4.[5] Up to 1912 Green was the only source of all-British aircraft engines capable of producing 60 hp (45 kW) and so the only choice when prizes were offered for all-British aircraft. The best known case is John Moore-Brabazon's winning the £1,000 Daily Mail prize for a circular 1 mi (0.87 nmi; 1.6 km) flight by a British pilot in an all-British aeroplane in his D.4-powered Short Biplane No. 2 in 1910.[1]

In 1914, the company was awarded a £5,000 prize by the Army Council in a Naval and Military Aeroplane Engine CompetitionCite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag

Aircraft engines

Data from Gunston 1986, p. 72 and Lumsden 1994, pp. 154–6

  • V-8, 100 hp (1908–1909)
  • Green C.4 4-cylinder inline, 105 mm bore × 120mm stroke, 30–35 hp (1908–1910)
  • Green D.4 4-cylinder inline, 140 mm bore × 146 mm stroke, 50–60 hp (1909–1910)
  • 6-cylinder inline, 140 mm bore × 146 mm stroke, 82 hp (1912–1916)
  • Green E.6 6-cylinder inline, 140 mm bore × 152 mm stroke, 90–100 hp (1912–1916)[6]
  • 6-cylinder inline, E.6 development, 140 mm bore × 152 mm stroke, 120 hp[7]
  • V-12, 275 hp (1914–1915)

Applications (grouped by engine power)

Source:Goodall & Tagg 2001

Aeroplanes

35 hp inline C.4

60 hp inline D.4

8Handley Page Type B[10]

  • Harper monoplane
  • Howard Wright biplane
  • Humphreys monoplane
  • Megone biplane
  • Northern Aircraft PB.1
  • Poynter monoplane
  • Short Biplane No. 2
  • Sonoda Tractor Biplane

100 hp inline E.4

Airships

35 hp inline C.4
Army Balloon Factory Beta I 80 hp V-8
Army Balloon Factory Gamma I (the first all-British airship)

Boats

The Defender II a 1909 racing boat owned by Fred May was powered by a 60 hp Green aeroplane engine.[12] In World War I, the well made, reliable but heavy (450 lbs or 204 kg) 82 hp Green inline engine was produced for fast boats rather than aircraft.[1]

References

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Gunston 1986, p. 72
  2. Lumsden 1994, pp. 154–6
  3. Anon, The Motorcycle, no. 695, Volume 13, 29 October 1914, p.482
  4. Flight 1911
  5. Flight 1913
  6. Jane 1969, p. 3c
  7. Flight 23 October 1914 p.1062
  8. Barnes 1967, p.52
  9. 9.0 9.1 Bruce 1992, p. 260
  10. Barnes & James 1987, p. 64
  11. Lewis 1962, p. 476
  12. "The Motor-Boats at Monaco". The Times (London) (39242): col C, p. 18. 9 April 1910. 

Bibliography

External links