CHARLES BENJAMIN REDRUP
"The Knife and Fork Man" ISBN 978-0-9554455-0-7
biography by William Fairney
Diesel Publishing Tel. 44 (0) 1454 238 553
A very early designer of axial engines was Charles Benjamin Redrup, the engineer and inventor,
who was born in Newport, South Wales in 1878.
In about 1898 he went to work briefly for Richard Stephens of Clevedon in Somerset, where he acted as after-sale engineer and chauffeur for Stephens' motor car business.
After the war he stayed in Leeds and designed engines for motor cycles, cars, boats and buses.
He carried out most of his development work in a simply-equipped home workshop,
and often said that he made most of his engines with little more than 'a knife and fork'.
In 1919 he designed a three-cylinder radial engine for motorcycles in partnership with Leeds motorcycle builder Monty Beaumont, and also sold the engines for industrial use.
He designed radial engines for Avro in the 1920s and an aircraft powered by one of his engines landed on Helvellyn in
the Lake District in 1926.
He was the inventor of the unique Wobble-Plate axial engine using a "Z-Shaft" which powered a motor launch
and a Crossley Motors motor car in the 1920s.
A variant of the engine specifically designed for aircraft flew in a Simmonds Spartan aeroplane in 1929,
and was exhibited at the Olympia Air Show in July of that year.
As a result of this exhibition he was engaged by the Bristol Tramways and Carriage Company to design a 7-litre bus engine and
several variants were used in Bristol buses in the late 1930s. One of these engines was until recently on display in the Bristol Industrial
Museum. (now closed for major re-construction).
During the Second World War Charles Redrup worked on top-secret armaments projects for the Lancaster and
other aircraft, including the hydraulic drive
After the war he designed more motor-cycle engines and large 1,000 and 2,000 horse-power axial aero engines. 1946 Axial Motorcycle engine Three-Cylinder Redrup
1948 Radial Motorcycle, now in the Sammy Miller Museum
1953 Axial Cam-drive 1,000HP Aero Engine
Charles Redrup's name appeared fleetingly in many reference works but no full description of his extensive and innovative
work had been previously written.
The enlarged Second Edition has 40 more pages, 33 colour plates,over 200 black and white pictures, and is now with an Index. Since the First Edition was published three more Redrup engines have surfaced and there is now an exhibition of several of his engines in the Aerospace Section of the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry. The book is available by cheque
for £18.95 plus £2.80 p&p UK, (£6 Europe, £9 Rest of the world) from DIESEL PUBLISHING 2, THE TITHE BARN HAWKESBURY UPTON
BADMINTON SOUTH GLOS GL9 1AY ENGLAND Tel. 44 (0) 1454 238 553
and from the same Publisher, or by Mail Order through Bristol Books and Publishers :-
Joseph Johnson Fairney (1869-1953) received a classical education through the Cambridge University Education Extension Scheme and wrote essays and poems throughout his life. He was a keen observer of the economic effects of the First World War and wrote whimsically about the rise of Hitler and the follies of mankind. He was modest about his work, saying it was ‘Just my Doggerel’
© FairDiesel Limited 2006
Raised in Barry,he first designed and manufactured
the"Barry" motor cycle with an unusual rotary supercharged engine, (below) and went on to design a range of engines, including a wobble-plate motorcycle engine.(Above)
;
This side-valve engine had a T-head and was fitted with two epicyclic gearboxes to operate the tappets. Note the extra tappet at the three o'clock position to drive the oil pump.
.
for the spinning "Dam Busters" bombs.
This omission has been rectified by the publication of his life story,
"THE KNIFE AND FORK MAN", by William Fairney (Diesel Publishing) 
