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David Garside
David W. Garside is an inventor and former project engineer at BSA's Umberslade Hall research facility. He is notable for having developed an air-cooled twin-rotor Wankel motorcycle engine which powered the Norton Classic road bike. Although the Classic was not the first production rotary-engined bike, it was significantly lighter, smoother, more powerful and better-handling than the contemporary Suzuki RE5. Personal history In his book "Norton Rotaries", Kris Perkins states that "David Garside could rightly be called the father of the Norton Rotary". Garside studied mathematics and mechanical engineering at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he obtained a first class degree. He served an apprenticeship with Rolls-Royce, and after a spell at the CEGB, he returned to Rolls-Royce to work on diesel rotaries. He later moved to BSA as a development engineer at Kitts Green. After BSA was subsumed into NVT, over 90% of BSA's research projects were cancelled, but Garside managed to per ...
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Birmingham Small Arms
The Birmingham Small Arms Company Limited (BSA) was a major British industrial combine, a group of businesses manufacturing military and sporting firearms; bicycles; motorcycles; cars; buses and bodies; steel; iron castings; hand, power, and machine tools; coal cleaning and handling plants; sintered metals; and hard chrome process. After the Second World War, BSA did not manage its business well, and a government-organised rescue operation in 1973 led to a takeover of such operations as it still owned. Those few that survived this process disappeared into the ownership of other businesses. History of the BSA industrial group Machine-made guns BSA began in June 1861 in the Gun Quarter, Birmingham, England. It was formed by a group of fourteen gunsmith members of the Birmingham Small Arms Trade Association specifically to manufacture guns by machinery. They were encouraged to do this by the War Office which gave the BSA gunsmiths free access to technical drawings and to the W ...
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BSA C15
The BSA C15 was a 250 cc single-cylinder ohv motorcycle manufactured by the British company BSA from September 1958 until 1967, and was BSA's first four-stroke unit-construction bike. For most of that period, after the introduction of 'Learner Laws' in 1961, a 250 cc was the largest capacity solo machine that a learner could ride unaccompanied when displaying L-plates in the United Kingdom. A road-going ''Sports'' derivative was added in 1961, and off-road versions, for Trials and Scrambles, were also available in the range. ''Motor Cycle'', 22 April 1965, pp.508-511 ''C15 Riders Report'' collated by ''Mike Evans''. Accessed 2014-10-18 Producing only , the C15's lack of power meant that it was hard for the BSA to compete with the more sophisticated Japanese motorcycles (such as the Honda C71 and CB72) which began arriving in the UK in the 1960s. Development BSA acquired the Triumph marque in 1951, and the BSA C15 250 cc four stroke was derived from the 200 ...
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Year Of Birth Missing (living People)
A year or annus is the orbital period of a planetary body, for example, the Earth, moving in its orbit around the Sun. Due to the Earth's axial tilt, the course of a year sees the passing of the seasons, marked by change in weather, the hours of daylight, and, consequently, vegetation and soil fertility. In temperate and subpolar regions around the planet, four seasons are generally recognized: spring, summer, autumn and winter. In tropical and subtropical regions, several geographical sectors do not present defined seasons; but in the seasonal tropics, the annual wet and dry seasons are recognized and tracked. A calendar year is an approximation of the number of days of the Earth's orbital period, as counted in a given calendar. The Gregorian calendar, or modern calendar, presents its calendar year to be either a common year of 365 days or a leap year of 366 days, as do the Julian calendars. For the Gregorian calendar, the average length of the calenda ...
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MidWest AE Series
The MidWest AE series are lightweight, liquid-cooled, single- and twin-rotor Wankel engines, with dual ignition, designed for light aircraft. They were produced by Mid-West Engines Ltd. at Staverton Airport, Gloucestershire, UK. History This engine design traces its origins to the Birmingham Small Arms Company Umberslade Hall research unit in Birmingham. David Garside, a BSA engineer, designed an air-cooled twin-rotor motorcycle engine that was based on the Fichtel & Sachs motor later used in the Hercules motorcycle. Wankel engines produce large amounts of heat, so Garside gave this air-cooled motor interior cooling air that was drawn first through the rotors and into a large plenum chamber before entering the combustion chambers via the carburetors."Cycle World" magazine February 1971 Only 100 of the air-cooled Norton Classics were produced. The later Norton Commander had liquid-cooling, but with the same air-cooled rotors as the Classic model. These Norton engines had a tota ...
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Gloucestershire Airport
Gloucestershire Airport , formerly Staverton Airport, is a small airport at Churchdown, England. It lies west of Cheltenham, near the city of Gloucester and close to the M5 motorway. Its operator claims it to be Gloucestershire's largest general aviation airfield, and it is regularly used for private charter flights to destinations such as Jersey and Guernsey. History An airfield was opened in 1931, named after the local village of Down Hatherley; the change of name to Staverton followed relocation to the present site, near Staverton village. The airfield served as a training base for pilots during the Second World War and was known as RAF Staverton. It was later used by Alan Cobham as he developed in-flight refuelling. A pillbox that was part of the British anti-invasion preparations of the Second World War can still be found opposite the main airfield entrance. With its proximity to Cheltenham, it was also used extensively by the U.S. Army, particularly the Servic ...
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DKW Wankel 2000
DKW (''Dampf-Kraft-Wagen'', en, "steam-powered car", also ''Deutsche Kinder-Wagen'' en, "German children's car". ''Das-Kleine-Wunder'', en, "the little wonder" or ''Des-Knaben-Wunsch'', en, "the boy's wish"- from when the company built toy two-stroke engines) was a German car- and motorcycle-marque. DKW was one of the four companies that formed Auto Union in 1932 and thus became an ancestor of the modern-day Audi company. In 1916, Danish engineer Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen founded a factory in Zschopau, Saxony, Germany, to produce steam fittings. That year he attempted to produce a steam-driven car, called the DKW.Odin, L.C. ''World in Motion 1939 – The whole of the year's automobile production''. Belvedere Publishing, 2015. ASIN: B00ZLN91ZG. Although unsuccessful, he made a two-stroke toy engine in 1919, called ''Des Knaben Wunsch'' – "the boy's wish". He put a slightly modified version of this engine into a motorcycle and called it ''Das Kleine Wunder'' – "the litt ...
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Volumetric Efficiency
Volumetric efficiency (VE) in internal combustion engine engineering is defined as the ratio of the mass density of the air-fuel mixture drawn into the cylinder at atmospheric pressure (during the intake stroke) to the mass density of the same volume of air in the intake manifold. The term is also used in other engineering contexts, such as hydraulic pumps and electronic components. Internal combustion engines Volumetric efficiency in an internal combustion engine design refers to the efficiency with which the engine can move the ''charge'' of fuel and air into and out of the cylinders. It also denotes the ratio of air volume drawn into the cylinder to the cylinder's swept volume. More specifically, volumetric efficiency is a ratio (or percentage) of the mass of air and fuel that is trapped by the cylinder during induction divided by the mass that would occupy the displaced volume if the air density in the cylinder were equal to the ambient air density. The flow restrictions in the ...
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Latent Heat
Latent heat (also known as latent energy or heat of transformation) is energy released or absorbed, by a body or a thermodynamic system, during a constant-temperature process — usually a first-order phase transition. Latent heat can be understood as energy in hidden form which is supplied or extracted to change the state of a substance without changing its temperature. Examples are latent heat of fusion and latent heat of vaporization involved in phase changes, i.e. a substance condensing or vaporizing at a specified temperature and pressure. The term was introduced around 1762 by Scottish chemist Joseph Black. It is derived from the Latin ''latere'' (''to lie hidden''). Black used the term in the context of calorimetry where a heat transfer caused a volume change in a body while its temperature was constant. In contrast to latent heat, sensible heat is energy transferred as heat, with a resultant temperature change in a body. Usage The terms ″sensible heat″ and ″l ...
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Ariel Arrow
The Ariel Leader was a British motorcycle produced by Ariel Motorcycles between 1958 and 1965. A radical design, the Leader was fully enclosed with an integral windscreen and was the first British motorcycle to have optional flashing indicators. Ariel could not compete against Japanese imports and the last Ariel Leader was produced when the company closed in 1965. Development Designed by Val Page and Bernard Knight, The Ariel Leader featured a 250 cc two-stroke engine suspended from a monocoque 'backbone' fabricated from 20-gauge pressed steel panels. The fuel tank was hidden inside this structure and accessed by lifting the hinged dual seat. A dummy petrol tank was used for storage and was large enough to fit a spare crash helmet. It was the fully enclosed bodywork (first developed by Phil Vincent for the innovative Vincent Black Prince) that was most prominent, as none of the working parts of the motorcycle were visible. As well as a full body, the standard Leader fe ...
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Monocoque
Monocoque ( ), also called structural skin, is a structural system in which loads are supported by an object's external skin, in a manner similar to an egg shell. The word ''monocoque'' is a French term for "single shell". First used for boats, a true monocoque carries both tensile and compressive forces within the skin and can be recognised by the absence of a load-carrying internal frame. Few metal aircraft other than those with milled skins can strictly be regarded as pure monocoques, as they use a metal shell or sheeting reinforced with frames riveted to the skin, but most wooden aircraft are described as monocoques, even though they also incorporate frames. By contrast, a semi-monocoque is a hybrid combining a tensile stressed skin and a compressive structure made up of longerons and ribs or frames. Other semi-monocoques, not to be confused with true monocoques, include vehicle unibodies, which tend to be composites, and inflatable shells or balloon tanks, both of which ...
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Semimonocoque
The term semi-monocoque or semimonocoque refers to a stressed shell structure that is similar to a true monocoque, but which derives at least some of its strength from conventional reinforcement. Semi-monocoque construction is used for, among other things, aircraft fuselages, car bodies and motorcycle frames. Examples of semi-monocoque vehicles Semi-monocoque aircraft fuselages differ from true monocoque construction through being reinforced with longitudinal stringers. The Mooney Aviation Company, Mooney range of four seat aircraft, for instance, use a steel tube truss frame around the passenger compartment with monocoque behind. The British ARV Super2 light aircraft has a fuselage constructed mainly of aluminium alloy, but with some fibreglass elements. The cockpit is a stiff monocoque of "Supral" alloy, but aft of the cockpit bulkhead, the ARV is conventionally built, with frames, longerons and stressed skin forming a semi-monocoque."Pilot" magazine, June 1985 pages 5-6 ...
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Plenum Chamber
A plenum chamber is a pressurised housing containing a fluid (typically air) at positive pressure. One of its functions is to equalise pressure for more even distribution, compensating for irregular supply or demand. It is typically relatively large in volume and thus has relatively low velocity compared to the system's other components. In wind tunnels, rockets, and many flow applications, it is a chamber upstream on the fluid flow where the fluid initially resides (approximately at rest). It can also work as an acoustic silencer. Examples of plenum chambers include those used with: * Superchargers * Hovercraft * Corliss steam engines * Raised floors and false ceilings in equipment rooms * Some organs (to supplement the bellows) * A number of aerophones, such as the bag of bagpipes and the ''slow air chamber'' of the Native American flute * Plenum chamber anesthetic vaporizers * Rocket motor combustion chambers, which may have a section near the nozzle that is free of the ...
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