Just a thought. The ABC Dragonfly was a three-valve 9 cylinder radial engine that appeared as a proposal during the wind-down of WWI. The Ministry fell in love with the promise and ordered it into production in a large number of factories, and also took over development. There was only one big catch. It would never work at all, without an effort similar to that which brought the P&W R-2800 to fruition. Nobody thought of designing a dynamic balancer to un-resonate the beast. By the time they gave up, most future aircraft had been designed to use the beast, and large numbers of useless engines had been produced, in what was to become typical of gummint-run operations.
Meanwhile, Roy Fedden was fiddling away at a company that was about to become bankrupt, designing and building an engine that promised even better performance and which, in fact, eventually became a cornerstone on which international engine builders based their designs. The gummint was too busy playing their gummint games to notice, although, in their largesse, they did ask Bristol Aircraft to buy the company, they did nothing else to save it. I was just wondering what would happen if gummints weren't so darn stupid.
Meanwhile, Roy Fedden was fiddling away at a company that was about to become bankrupt, designing and building an engine that promised even better performance and which, in fact, eventually became a cornerstone on which international engine builders based their designs. The gummint was too busy playing their gummint games to notice, although, in their largesse, they did ask Bristol Aircraft to buy the company, they did nothing else to save it. I was just wondering what would happen if gummints weren't so darn stupid.
