ABC Motors Limited ("All British (Engine) Company") of

Hersham Hersham is a village in Surrey, within the M25. Its housing is relatively low-rise and diverse and it has four technology/trading estates. The only contiguous settlement is Walton-on-Thames, its post town. Hersham is served by Hersham and Wal ...

, Surrey, England was a manufacturer of cars, aircraft, motor scooters, and engines for road and air. Established by

Ronald Charteris Ronald is a masculine given name derived from the Old Norse ''Rögnvaldr'',#H2, Hanks; Hardcastle; Hodges (2006) p. 234; #H1, Hanks; Hodges (2003) § Ronald. or possibly from Old English ''Regenweald''. In some cases ''Ronald'' is an Anglicised ...

in Hersham, Surrey in 1912, its chief designer was the young and talented

Granville Bradshaw Granville Eastwood Bradshaw OBE, AFRAeS (1887–1969) was an English engineer and inventor who designed motorcycle, auto, and aero-engines. History Bradshaw was born in Preston, Lancashire in 1887 as the son of William and Annie Bradshaw. His ...

.Lumsden 2003, p. 51. It was absorbed into

Vickers Vickers was a British engineering company that existed from 1828 until 1999. It was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by Edward Vickers and his father-in-law, and soon became famous for casting church bells. The company went public i ...

in 1951 and the factory finally closed in the 1970s. Some of the premises survive today as part of the Riverdean Estate, Hersham and are occupied by a Lidl supermarket (opened February 2019)

Products

First flying and administrative officers of the Royal Flying Corps RAE-O790

The ABC radial aero engines of the World War I period were extremely advanced for their time, and were initially thought to be very promising indeed. Unfortunately they were all more or less plagued by problems – and although a number of types for the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

were designed around ABC engines (especially the ill-fated ''Dragonfly'') none saw squadron service with the RAF. ABC also made a large number of engines for electrical generators and other purposes – mostly with a

flat twin A flat-twin engine is a two-cylinder internal combustion engine with the cylinders on opposite sides of the crankshaft. The most common type of flat-twin engine is the boxer-twin engine, where both pistons move inwards and outwards at the same ti ...

cylinder layout and unusual exhaust-over-inlet valve configuration. These smaller ABC engine have the distinction of being possibly the first airborne

APUs Apus is a small constellation in the southern sky. It represents a bird-of-paradise, and its name means "without feet" in Greek because the bird-of-paradise was once wrongly believed to lack feet. First depicted on a celestial globe by Petru ...

- the

Coastal class blimp __NOTOC__ The Coastal Class (often known as the C-Class or simply the 'Coastals') were a class of non-rigid airship or "blimp" used by the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) during World War I. The C-class blimp operated by the United States Navy ...

(first flown in 1916) had a 1.5-horsepower unit installed to provide electricity for the onboard wireless set, whilst a similar engine was used to power the searchlight of the Supermarine Nighthawk '

Zeppelin A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp ...

killer' of 1917.

Aero engines

* ABC 6 hp Midge (1951) National Archives Kew (AIR 10/7172) *

ABC 8 hp The ABC 8 hp is an 8 hp (6 kW) two-cylinder aero engine designed by the noted British engineer Granville Bradshaw for use in ultralight aircraft. The engine was derived from a specially tuned motorcycle unit and was built by A ...

(1923) *

ABC 30 hp ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

(1912) * ABC 60 hp (1912) *

ABC 100 hp ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Televisio ...

(1912) *

ABC Dragonfly The ABC Dragonfly was a British radial engine developed towards the end of the First World War. It was expected to deliver excellent performance for the time and was ordered in very large numbers. It proved, however, to be extremely unreliable ...

(1918) *

ABC Gadfly ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

(1920) *

ABC Gnat The ABC Gnat was a 45 hp (34 kW) two-cylinder aero engine designed by British engineer Granville Bradshaw for use in light aircraft. The Gnat was built by ABC Motors, first running in 1916, production ceased in December 1918. 17 eng ...

(1916) * ABC Mosquito (1916) *

ABC Hornet The ABC Hornet was an 80 hp (90 kW) four-cylinder Aircraft engine, aero engine designed in the late 1920s by the noted British engineer Granville Bradshaw for use in light aircraft. The Hornet was effectively a double ABC Scorpion, S ...

(1929) *

ABC Scorpion The ABC Scorpion is a 30 hp (22 kW) two-cylinder aero engine designed by British engineer Granville Bradshaw for use in light aircraft. The engine was built by ABC Motors Limited and first ran in 1921.Gunston 1989, p.9. Variants ; ...

(1923) *

ABC Wasp The ABC Wasp was an experimental 170 hp (127 kW) seven-cylinder radial engine designed by the noted British engineer Granville Bradshaw, and primarily built by ABC Motors Limited. An order for twelve experimental ABC Wasp engines wa ...

(1918)

Aircraft

ABC Robin The ABC Robin was a British single-seat light aircraft designed by A. A. Fletcher in 1929 in aviation, 1929. It was a high-wing, single-seat monoplane of conventional Conventional landing gear, taildragger configuration. The cockpit was fully e ...

Automotive

ABC (1920 automobile) The ABC was an English car manufactured between 1920 and 1929 by ABC Motors. It was a light car (305 kg), powered by a 1203 cc flat-twin, air-cooled engine designed by Granville Bradshaw (the man who was also responsible for the ABC ...

ABC Supersports ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

ABC Skootamota ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

ABC motorcycles ABC motorcycles was a British motorcycle manufacturer established in 1914 by Ronald Charteris in London. Several British motorcycle firms started up with the name "ABC", including Sopwith. The All British Engine Company Ltd. of London was foun ...

References

Notes

Bibliography

*Lumsden, Alec (1994) 'British Piston Aero Engines and Their Aircraft' (Airlife, Shrewsbury) {{DEFAULTSORT:Abc Motors Defunct aircraft manufacturers of the United Kingdom Defunct aircraft engine manufacturers of the United Kingdom Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of England Defunct companies based in Surrey Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1912 1912 establishments in England Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1951 1951 disestablishments in England 1951 mergers and acquisitions British companies disestablished in 1951 British companies established in 1912