Last Tuesday I was able to visit Kerikeri airport to meet up with Steve Wynne, and I was delighted to find that Allan Fillery was up from Wellsford working on his Dedalius Model 1 ZK-SVR (c/n 109-731-788).
Allan kindly taxied out in ZK-SVR for a photo. The engine sounded great and quite throaty. Allan told me that the Dedalius is essentially a Zenith CH-701 with rounded corners on the fuselage and automated slats on the leading edge of the wings.
The really unique feature of Allan's Dedalius is the radial engine, that Allan designed and built himself including producing all the castings. It is a 7 cylinder side valve engine of 4 litre capacity with Subaru pistons and Allan told me that it produces 130 HP. I reckon it could be the first own design and built engine to fly on a sport aircraft in New Zealand - can anyone think of another? It is certainly the only one in recent times.
Allan is working his way through the test flying schedule.
Alex Radford's Lincoln Sportplane was originally powered by an engine he built himself
ReplyDeleteRichard Pearse designed and built his own engine.
ReplyDeleteThe Pither had a V4 reputedly built by the constructor & the Replica engine was built from various parts which would come close to qualify as an original build.
ReplyDeleteI have a copy of an early newspaper article which claims Pither imported his engine. I'm unable to access the item at present but believe it was either British of French
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