The de Havilland Gipsy Major or Gipsy IIIA is a four-cylinder, air-cooled, inverted inline

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ...

used in a variety of light

aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to flight, fly by gaining support from the Atmosphere of Earth, air. It counters the force of gravity by using either Buoyancy, static lift or by using the Lift (force), dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in ...

produced in the 1930s, including the famous Tiger Moth

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a ...

. Many Gipsy Major engines still power vintage aircraft types. Engines were produced by de Havilland in the UK and by the Australian arm of the company, de Havilland Australia, the latter modifying the design to use imperial measures rather than the original metric measurements.

Design and development

The engine was a slightly modified Gipsy III, which was effectively a

de Havilland Gipsy The de Havilland Gipsy is a British air-cooled four-cylinder in-line aircraft engine designed by Frank Halford in 1927 to replace the ADC Cirrus in the de Havilland DH.60 Moth light biplane. Initially developed as an upright 5 litre (3 ...

engine modified to run inverted so that the cylinders pointed downwards below the

crankcase In a piston engine, the crankcase is the housing that surrounds the crankshaft. In most modern engines, the crankcase is integrated into the engine block. Two-stroke engines typically use a crankcase-compression design, resulting in the fuel ...

. The Major was also bored-out (118 mm from 114 mm) compared to the Gipsy III, increasing displacement from 5 L to 6.1 L. The inverted configuration allowed the

propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...

shaft to be kept in a high position without having the cylinders blocking the pilot's forward view over the nose of the aircraft. One initial disadvantage of the inverted configuration was the high oil consumption (up to four pints per hour) requiring regular refills of the external oil tank; this problem improved over time with the use of modified piston rings. First built in 1932, total production of all Gipsy Major versions was 14,615 units.

Further development

In 1934, when Geoffrey de Havilland needed a more powerful engine for his twin-engined transport aircraft, the four-cylinder Gipsy Major was further developed into the 200 hp six-cylinder

Gipsy Six The de Havilland Gipsy Six is a British six-cylinder, air-cooled, inverted inline piston engine developed by the de Havilland Engine Company for aircraft use in the 1930s. It was based on the cylinders of the four-cylinder Gipsy Major and w ...

. In 1937 even more power was needed for the new D.H.91 Albatross four-engined transatlantic mailplane, and so two Gipsy Six cylinder banks were combined to form one Gipsy Twelve 12-cylinder inverted Vee. In military service, the Gipsy Twelve became known as the Gipsy King and the Gipsy Six the Gipsy Queen. The advent of World War II cut short all civilian flying and after the war de Havilland was too busy concentrating on jet engines to put much energy into its piston engines. The Gipsy did not go without a fight though. In Canada the Gipsy Major was the engine of choice for the DHC1 Chipmunk trainer, which replaced the Tiger Moth trainer in RAF service after the war. By then however, the Gipsy Major was eclipsed by the Blackburn Cirrus Major in Britain and the American Lycoming and Continental horizontally opposed engines abroad. (In a twist of irony, the Blackburn itself was based on

Frank Halford Major Frank Bernard Halford CBE FRAeS (7 March 1894 – 16 April 1955) was an English aircraft engine designer. He is best known for the series of de Havilland Gipsy engines, widely used by light aircraft in the 1920s and 30s. Career Educate ...

’s old ADC Cirrus engine; Blackburn had bought the licence in 1934). In its final

supercharged In an internal combustion engine, a supercharger compresses the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to produce more power for a given displacement. The current categorisation is that a supercharger is a form of forced indu ...

form, the Gipsy Major used in helicopter applications delivered 220 hp (164 kW). By 1945 the Gipsy Major had been cleared for a world record 1,500 hours

time between overhaul Time between overhauls (abbreviated as TBO or TBOH) is the manufacturer's recommended number of running hours or calendar time before an aircraft engine or other component requires overhaul. On rotorcraft, many components have recommended or ...

(TBO), surpassing its previously held world record of 1,260 hours TBO achieved in 1943. 1,000 hours TBO had earlier been achieved in 1938.

Variants

;Gipsy Major I: ;Gipsy Major IC:Higher

compression ratio The compression ratio is the ratio between the volume of the cylinder and combustion chamber in an internal combustion engine at their maximum and minimum values. A fundamental specification for such engines, it is measured two ways: the stati ...

(6:1) and maximum RPM for racing use. ;Gipsy Major ID:Fuel pump added, plus screened ignition harness and priming system. ;Gipsy Major IF:Aluminium

cylinder head In an internal combustion engine, the cylinder head (often abbreviated to simply "head") sits above the cylinders and forms the roof of the combustion chamber. In sidevalve engines, the head is a simple sheet of metal; whereas in more modern o ...

s, 5.25:1 compression ratio. ;Gipsy Major II:Variable pitch propeller ;Gipsy Major 7:Military version of Gipsy Major 1D, increased climb RPM. ;Gipsy Major 8:Sodium cooled exhaust valves, cartridge starter for DHC Chipmunk. ;Gipsy Major 10:Electric starter option. ;Gipsy Major 30:Major redesign, bore and stroke increased. 6.5:1 compression ratio. ;Gipsy Major 50:Supercharged. 197 hp. ;Gipsy Major 200:Designed as a light helicopter engine. 200 hp. ;Gipsy Major 215:Turbo-supercharged helicopter engine. 220 hp. ;

Alfa Romeo 110 The Alfa Romeo 110 was an Italian four cylinder air-cooled inverted inline engine for aircraft use, mainly for trainers and light aircraft. The Alfa Romeo 110 was based on the de Havilland Gipsy Major, with approximately 500 units produced. Deriv ...

:Alfa Romeo licence production/derivative ;de Havilland L-375-1:US military designation for the Gipsy Major I ;IAR 4-G1: IAR licence produced in Romania

Applications

''Application list from Lumsden unless otherwise noted.''

Surviving engines

Many Gipsy Major engines remain in service today worldwide, in the United Kingdom alone approximately 175

de Havilland Tiger Moth The de Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth is a 1930s British biplane designed by Geoffrey de Havilland and built by the de Havilland Aircraft Company. It was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and other operators as a primary trainer aircraf ...

s were noted on the

Civil Aviation Authority A civil aviation authority (CAA) is a national or supranational statutory authority that oversees the regulation of civil aviation, including the maintenance of an aircraft register. Role Due to the inherent dangers in the use of flight vehicles, ...

register in September 2011 although not all of these aircraft were airworthy.G-INFO, UK CAA database - DH.82
Retrieved: 10 September 2011

Engines on display

Examples of the Gipsy Major are on display at the following museums: * de Havilland Aircraft Museum *

Fleet Air Arm Museum The Fleet Air Arm Museum is devoted to the history of British naval aviation. It has an extensive collection of military and civilian aircraft, aero engines, models of aircraft and Royal Navy ships (especially aircraft carriers), and paintin ...

Shuttleworth Collection The Shuttleworth Collection is a working aeronautical and automotive collection located at the Old Warden Aerodrome, Old Warden in Bedfordshire, England. It is the oldest in the world and one of the most prestigious, due to the variety of old ...

* Royal Air Force Museum Cosford

Specifications (Gipsy Major I)

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Bransom, Alan. ''The Tiger Moth Story, Fourth Edition''. Shrewsbury, UK: Airlife Publishing Ltd., 1991. . * ''Jane's Fighting Aircraft of World War II''. London. Studio Editions Ltd, 1989. * Lumsden, Alec. ''British Piston Engines and their Aircraft''. Marlborough, Wiltshire: Airlife Publishing, 2003. . * *

External links

Royal Air Force Museum - Gipsy Major
{{US military piston aeroengines Gipsy Major Air-cooled aircraft piston engines 1930s aircraft piston engines Inverted aircraft piston engines