Engineer seeks specific ABC aero engine left with college in Sixties

A MAN who lives in France but was originally from North Cornwall has appealed to readers for help in his quest for an aero engine.

Nick Cole, from Bude, is searching for an ABC aero engine which, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, powered the radio-controlled Queen Bee target planes at Cleave Camp Artillery Training Grounds, just north of Bude.

The engine has two cylinders, horizontally opposed, with a red crankshaft housing and aluminium cylinders, sometimes referred to as a flat-twin.

At the front of the crankshaft there is an unusual four-bolt bracket which secured the propeller.

"I used to attend Cornwall Technical College in the early Sixties, which was then little more than a couple of rooms at the Wadebridge High School," said Mr Cole, now 68, and living in Brittany.

"The head of the department was Ken Scully. As the engine was such a unique specimen I decided to leave it at the college for other students to see.

"I was given the engine by a Bude man, Jack Claire, who owned a motorcycle shop at Flexbury, so that I could further my work to try to build a man-propelled aeroplane.

"The ABC engine (All British Engine Company) would be a valuable addition to the Bude Museum and I would appreciate it if anyone who has any knowledge of its whereabouts would contact me.

"I would like to present it to the Bude Museum to exhibit and for safe-keeping."

The ABC company was based at Hersham in Surrey but was absorbed into Vickers in 1951.

Mr Cole can be contacted on 0844 2329635.