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Info Eduard - August 2010
Info Eduard - August 2010
Introduction
This article is intended as a reference for modellers
who will be building the 200HP Austro-Daimler engine
in 1/48 as part of their WWI aircraft builds. I will describe
the engine, discuss the kit parts and walk the modeller
though the build steps, adding suggestions for simple
additions to the supplied parts for extra authenticity/
detail. References are given below.
WORKSHOP
History
The A-D 200HP engine was designed by the legendary
Dr. Ferdinand Porsche and produced by Austro-Daimler
in Wiener-Neustadt and also under Licence by MAG.
It was a very efficient engine, with a high compression
ratio, comparable to the Maybach Zeppelin engines
of the time, which A-D were building under licence,
and far in excess of the contemporary fighter engines of
the Central Powers. It gave over 200BHP at 1400RPM
with extremely little fluid leakage. In fact a captured
engine tested in 1918 by the RAE showed no oil or water
leakage at all. It also was not prone to the overheating
problems of the Mercedes engines, which, combined with
summer weather had caused accidental “cooking off” of
phosphorous ammunition. Even the high compression
200HP Mercedes D.IIIa engine and the high altitude
version of that engine built by BMW to power the Fokker
D.VII fighter didn’t match the performance of the A-D
engine, and Fokker was determined to marry his D.VII
airframe with the A-D engine. He got his wish right
at the end of the war when MAG, in which Anthony Fokker
was a shareholder, was given a contract to produce
Fokker D.VIIs for the Empire. However this came too
late and the 30 or so single and two seater versions that
were produced only saw service for the various air forces
involved in the strife brought upon by the collapse of the
Empire. Marek Mincberger has produced a splendid
history of these aircraft which comes with the Eduard
Limited Edition Fokker D.VII (MAG) dual combo kit.
(Cat.No. 1147)
Eduard Austro-Daimler
1/48 engine
by Rob Stewart
Austro-Daimler, Mercedes D.IIIa and BMW III.
Left side view
(photo: Flight, 1918) Right side view (photo: Flight, 1918)
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