Warbird Information Exchange

I went out to American Wings Air Musuem today for engine runs of a 1909 Gnome Omega Rotary. Gnome engines were used on a number of WWI aircraft, however this particular engine is from a 1911 Steco Aerohydroplane. The engine was crated in 1914, packed in grease and oil, when it was unpacked, an amazing discovery was made, it was almost entirely free of corrosion! I will post an audio clip of the run in the next few days when I get a chance to do some editing


Gnome Omega Serial #755


control panel


priming.


starting.


running


running

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Dan Johnson

WOW! How cool!sounds like great fun! however, looking at the test stand you're using and going by the stories that I've heard about the torque and gyro effect that those engines produce.Isnt the stand just a little on the light side for running one of these?Did it provide any unwelcome "excitement"?.........Thanks, Tim...............

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"WHAT ME WORRY?"

Actually, the test stand held up quite nicely, with no visible deformation. The only excitement during the run was for the operator when the prop wash took his sun glasses an threw them about 20 feet.

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Dan Johnson

Gyroscopic effects only come into play when the airplane is maneuvering. Also, at 110 HP there isn't much torque. Most replicas use either a small 4-banger or a small radial (a 220 HP Continental is an overkill for a WW1 replica).

The specs I can find state that the Gnome Omega only produces 50hp.

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Dan Johnson

Here are three 30 second clips from the engine run. The full engine run was about 5 1/2 minutes, email me if you would like the whole run, it is about 5mb as an mp3. I will leave these short clips up as long as bandwidth isn't an issue.

Startup
Running
Shutdown

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Dan Johnson