DIESEL ENGINES

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 July 1937, Page 10

DIESEL ENGINES

BRITISH BUILDERS VIEWS. SAN FRANCISCO, June 8. The future of the Diesel engine is assured in both the marine and aircraft fields, in the opinion of Sir Ernest Petter, foremost British de-signer-builder of Diesels and a leading manufacturer of military aircraft since 1914. With Lady Petter he arrived in California from London I aboard the Danish East Asiatic motor liner Canada, en route to their salmon fishing lodge at Coniox, on Vancouver Island. Sir Ernest, for 40 years the head of the great engine-building firm of Petters, Limited', of Yeovil, and also founder-executive of Westland Aircraft, thinks that the Diesel is certain to supplant the gasoline aircraft engine within the next decade. He also believes that the marine Diesel will soon find its niche in the Diesel electric drive, wherein a ship will have perhaps 10 Diesels generating current for her electric driving motors.

“No other type of engine, either steam or internal combustion, approaches the Diesel in efficiency,” he declared, “while from tlie standpoint] lot safety alone it is certain to supplant the gasoline motor in driving' aircraft. The enormous strides in gas aircraft engine design of the past live years have made the Diesel pro-* blent more difficult for us, but our' day is certain to come. | “Simplicity and economy are both I in the Diesel’s favour, and the per-, fection of several super-light new! metals promise that the weight ob-( stacle can be overcome. Commercial j airlines will be the first to use the I Diesel.” *

Sir Ernest, who is a past-president of the British Engineers’ Association, was a life-long friend of the German inventor of the Diesel engine and took over Professor Diesels research when he was lost at sea in 1913.