Aeroplane Engine [ABC Scorpion]
Maker and role
ABC Motors Limited, Manufacturer
Production date
Circa 1923
See full details
Object detail
Accession number
1969.17.3
Maker
Production period
Description
An ABC 'Scorpion' engine fitted to the 'Flying Flea'.
Brief History
In the late 1920s Aucklander Leo Tercel decided to build his own light aircraft. He was a trained cabinet and pattern maker and had worked with his brothers on several boat building projects, including the famed record-setting Ranger yacht he would go on to help build in 1936.
Tercel imported an A.B.C. Motors Ltd.’s Scorpion II in 1929, intending to fit this engine to his homebuilt aircraft. A.B.C., previously All British Engine Company (London, 1912), employed Granville Bradshaw who designed the horizontally opposed Scorpion aircraft engine by converting motorcycle engines into low-powered aero engines. The Mark II was manufactured between 1924 and 1926 and was a two cylinder, 34HP engine with dual ignition. Dual ignition made the engine more fuel efficient and safer if one ignition system was to fail.
When the Mignet Pou-du-Ciel ‘Flying Flea’ build-an-aircraft instructions were published in 1935 by Frenchman Henry Mignet, Tercel began his own Flying Flea project. However, by 1936 several fatal crashes had led these aircraft to be banned in France and Britain. New Zealand soon followed in banning Fleas and Tercel abandoned the project.
Tercel loaned out the engine before and after his homebuilt project and it was used to power other light aircraft. The engine logbook shows it was fit onto Dunlop Erikson Mark I Experimental aircraft in 1932, ten days before this aircraft crashed on the 13th of July. The engine survived and was later attached to Flying Flea ZM-AAB in 1936 where it was flown by Alan McGruer of Auckland Aero Club.
The engine was donated to MOTAT in 1969 and fit onto the Flying Flea in the MOTAT Collection registered ZM-AAA.
Tercel imported an A.B.C. Motors Ltd.’s Scorpion II in 1929, intending to fit this engine to his homebuilt aircraft. A.B.C., previously All British Engine Company (London, 1912), employed Granville Bradshaw who designed the horizontally opposed Scorpion aircraft engine by converting motorcycle engines into low-powered aero engines. The Mark II was manufactured between 1924 and 1926 and was a two cylinder, 34HP engine with dual ignition. Dual ignition made the engine more fuel efficient and safer if one ignition system was to fail.
When the Mignet Pou-du-Ciel ‘Flying Flea’ build-an-aircraft instructions were published in 1935 by Frenchman Henry Mignet, Tercel began his own Flying Flea project. However, by 1936 several fatal crashes had led these aircraft to be banned in France and Britain. New Zealand soon followed in banning Fleas and Tercel abandoned the project.
Tercel loaned out the engine before and after his homebuilt project and it was used to power other light aircraft. The engine logbook shows it was fit onto Dunlop Erikson Mark I Experimental aircraft in 1932, ten days before this aircraft crashed on the 13th of July. The engine survived and was later attached to Flying Flea ZM-AAB in 1936 where it was flown by Alan McGruer of Auckland Aero Club.
The engine was donated to MOTAT in 1969 and fit onto the Flying Flea in the MOTAT Collection registered ZM-AAA.
Marks
A.B.C. / SCORPION / M.K.II / DESIGNERS & MAKERS / A.B.C. MOTORS LTD. / WALTON-ON-THAMES / SURREY, ENGLAND Maker's Mark
Media/Materials
Collection
Credit Line
ABC Motors Limited. Circa 1923. Aeroplane Engine [ABC Scorpion], 1969.17.3. The Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT).
![Aircraft [Mignet HM-14 ‘Pou de Ciel’ (‘Flying Flea’) ZM-AAA]; Henri Mignet; 1933; 1936](https://collection.motat.nz/records/images/medium/54091/4e28a3d217c5e658772af76e158130755575faec.jpg)
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