Shortstripper,
Thank you for the picture of what, undeniably, is a very beautiful aircraft. Oh! it's back to nylons again!!! So much better looking than the Proctor which superseded it and was seamless stockings by comparison. I have always thought that well-engineered metal-framed windscreen/cabin windows looked so much nicer than the blown Perspex ones. Puss and Leopard Moths come to mind . . The Vega Gull is a cracker.
Some years ago, I had the privilege of sitting in Jean Batten's Gull before it was restored and hoisted into the roof at Auckland Airport.
Speedbird48,
Thanks to you too for the info. I presume from the designation that the Continentals were 125hp; that seems a relatively small increase in power for what I suspect was an appreciable increase in weight given that they were six cylinders and the Cirrus Minor was pretty light.
These threads can be terrible time-wasters but such fun! I too had forgotten the Scion with it's little Pobjoy engines. There can't be many old fogeys like me who have a Monospar ST25 in their log. This also had a couple of Pobjoys which, if I remember correctly, were the 90hp "Niagara", being a souped-up version of the "R" type used in the Comper 7. I always thought their "art deco" front plates rather quaint. They were very smooth under load but the reduction gears used to chatter a bit at idle but they were unusually efficient. Forgive me if I get the figures wrong - it's been a long time - but the "R" type gave 90hp from something like 2,75 litres and the "Niagara 5" which I think was the last of the Pobjoys, produced 130hp from less than 3,5 litres. That's a lot better than today although I suspect TBOHs might be a little shorter. I always thought that leaf spring holding down the rocker covers was a clever idea.
And as one things tends to lead to another, mention of the "Aerovan" reminded me of the unbeautiful Edgar Percival "Fossicker", "Golddigger" or some such name but that was a single (Gipsy Six?).
Enough of this but thanks for the memories . . . time to get back to the C150.