Online Catalogue last updated 25th of June 2012
Charles Benjamin Redrup, the engineer and inventor, was born in Newport, South Wales in 1878. Raised in Barry, he designed and manufactured the unusual "Barry" motor cycle and went on to design a prodigious range of engines for First World War aircraft, 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 was the inventor of the unique "Wobble-Plate" axial engines which powered a motor launch and a Crossley Motors motor car in the 1920's. A variant of the engine flew in a Simmonds Sparton aircraft in 1929. Several variants of his engines powered vehicles of the Bristol Tramway and Carriage Company in the 1930s. During the Second World War he worked on top-secret armaments projects for the Lancaster and other aircraft. After the war he designed more motor-cycle engines and a large 2,000 horse-power axial aero engine. His name appears fleetingly in many reference works but no full description of his extensive and innovative work has been previously written.
Durham-born William Fairney is a Charted Engineer and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He is Managing Director of FairDiesel Limited, a company which is developing an axial diesel engine. He has spent most of his career in the power-generation industry and was Director of Engineering and then of Construction, for National Power plc prior to his retirement from the industry. He is a Visiting Professor in Engineering at Durham University. This book is his first excursion into literature and his other interests include his family, flying, mathematics and cosmology.
Code No. 012911, 319 pages, $54.00