Aero Engines
- Comments
-
Glasgow Museums has a collection of four aero engines which date from 1910 to 1917. The three experimental aero engines in the collection are very important. Two of the engines reflect developments in technology between the first powered flight in 1903 and the Great War and the third is the test engine for Britain’s first supersonic aeroplane, Concorde. The first two were built in Scotland by A.B. Baird and Robert Black in 1910 (only seven years after the Wright Brothers first flew) and 1913 respectively. The Gnome Rhone Rotary Engine was made by W.H.Allen Sons & Co. Ltd, a British company licensed to produce these engines, many of which were used in First World War aeroplanes. The Olympus 593 engine is almost certainly the only one of its kind to survive. It was used to test the effects of bird strike as part of the Concorde development programme. Its significance has been recognised by Rolls Royce, whose apprentices worked with Glasgow Museums to create a better interpretation for the engine.
- Broader term