Herod,
one of the locals who was there on Saturday remarked the last time any Radial Pistons flew out from Topcliffe whilst under the Blue Flag, was in fact a Varsity.
As we were only a hard thrown cricket ball's distance from there, anyone on that field would have been able to hear the mellow trumpeting of the Hercules breathing out through the Bristol Freighter Tubes...
Another thing I was shown was the simple way a quick cylinder and piston, cyl head and sleeve valve cylinder could be changed, I really didn't appreciate whilst it was a Devil of a complex engine to design and manufacture the Hercules was so simple to work on "on site", .. a cylinder head , cylinder, sleeve valve and piston could all be removed and replaced very quickly owing to the lack of overhead valve and valve gearing gear, and yet another brilliant piece of design was the porting on the Sleeve Valve which had 4 holes to mate up to 5 ports, 2 exhaust ports and 3 induction ports meant the movement and timing of the sleeve valve on induction allowed the sleeve valve to cover three breathing in...and two exhausting, the sleeve valve acted as the cylinder for the piston to make its compression and power, but also moved around a in a known circle to revolve the ports to do their job, and was held vertical by an ingenious means of two piston rings set into the cylinder head which the sleeve fitted over, the man who designed the Hercules engine must have been a proper genius.. for it was all done with a pencil and slide rules...not a PC in sight
Peter R-B
Lancashire
