The Knife and Fork Man: The Life and Work of Charles Benjamin Redrup
- ISBN-10
- 0955445507
- ISBN-13
- 9780955445507
- Pages
- 319
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2007
- Publisher
- Diesel Publishing
- Authors
- Bill Fairney, William Fairney
Description
A very early designer of axial engines was Charles Benjamin Redrup, the engineer and inventor, who was born in Newport, South Wales in 1878. Raised in Barry, he first designed and manufactured the Barry motor cycle with an unusual rotary supercharged engine. He went on to design engines for Vickers for their First World War aircraft, and for motor cycles, cars, boats and buses. He carried out most of his development work in a simply-equipped home workshop, and often said that he made most of his engines with little more than a knife and fork. He designed radial engines for Avro in the 1920s and an aircraft powered by one of his engines landed on Helvellyn in the Lake District in 1926. He was the inventor of the unique Wobble-Plate axial engine using a Z-Shaft which powered a motor launch and a Crossley Motors motor car in the 1920s
