Sleeve valves - Napier Sabre
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- Опубліковано 18 вер 2024
- An old video showcasing a stripped-down Napier Sabre engine (notably used in Hawker Typhoon & Hawker Tempest warbirds) showcasing the mechanism of the atypical sleeve valves system. This was shot at the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace in Paris - Le Bourget and posted long ago on the channel at the request of some friends
I was an engineering student during the mid 1960s and we had a lecturer who had been a senior figure at Napiers . He obviously still had some influence as one day a large crate arrived , containing a Sabre He oversaw us as it was dismantled . He also told us about the problems during manufacture , like the man who hand finished the gears that linked the two crank shafts and the need to centrifuge air bubbles from the lubricating oil . Apparently, a the end of ww2 they had , in development , a version that delivered a staggering 3500hp .
the mk7 already had that. rolls royce purposely put a spanner in the works as it were as it made their merlin engines look rather weedy by comparison. there was a version after the mk7 that was intended to have 4200hp. napier went on to create the amazing line of deltic engines that powered many of the UK locomotives after the war.
To make more powerful versions, Napier just had to emulate the compound, two speed supercharging of the Merlin. That would have ensured superior high-altitude performance. Note that the Sabre was used in Tempests for low altitude combat and ground attack.
@@mrrolandlawrenceМK-7 had never nearly reached Sabre's power to weight and power to displacement ratio.
This is a really useful video to see how the sleeve valves are driven.
I really like the ball connection from the crank style actuator to the sleeve itself, much better than the baby crankshaft/connecting rod arrangement of the Willys-Knight.
My grandfather flew Hawker Typhoons and this was that amazing power plant that safely powered him through the war and home. He passed away in January 1991 and I don’t think there’s been a day since I don’t think about him...
know exactly how you feel ❤️🔥 grandad had a framed painting above the coal fire in the living room. most upset I insisted it was a spitfire, the first time visiting him as a grown boy. one went down under him with fuel feed issues. he spoke highly of the local dutch farmer and of how scary night navigation had been above lake Ontario during training. he willed his logbook to me, bound in a pilots map.
@@bobdinwiddy that’s pretty awesome…… and when we realise how young they were it becomes incredible
Was your Grandfather Frank "Dutch" Holland. I read his book recently, a great read.
Incredible work from Napier.
If you can have a favourite aero engine, to me the Napier sabre is it. Years ago I visited the Napier Acton works where these engines and earlier ones were made, it was then just another big warehouse storage unit, ho hum, but
a large part of the early factory, the design block was still there, think it was built near the end of ww1.
I did a large part of my fitting and turning apprenticeship at Napier’s in the early sixties till Rolls Royce absorbed us. The Sabre was a bit of a legend even then!
Top vidéo merci.☺
Fascinating to see , it's unfortunate that it takes a war to accelerate the design and manufacturing process of these fabulous power units . And as suddenly , post war , they become obsolete ! Thankyou
Birmingham Science Museum also have one but I'm not sure if it has any internals in it. It's not currently on display but can be seen on storage warehouse open days apparently.
someone needs to build one of these and put it in a reno racer ;)
Fantastic stuff.
I wonder if it could be made reliable with contemporary materials and technologies🤔
check out this project : hawkertyphoon.com/
I can see how it would work at low RPM, but at higher RPMs, the pressure from that crank arm on the side of the sleeve, will be like bending a wire back-and-forth at a single spot = it will lead to the metal cracking in no time. Metal fatigue failure in just a few hundred hours of flight-time. No, if you want to boost engine power, go for an opposed-piston engine design instead, that way the power of the exploding gas is pressing against 2 moving surfaces instead of just one.
Sleeve valves have their problems but give better breathing and a reduced frontal area. Just contrast the early radials with the later designs. As to your point about side thrust, that has little to do with speed but is minimised by having a short stroke and relatively long connecting rod.
The Sabre was the highest-revving large aircraft engine of WW2, and when not coupled to a propeller, could be blipped up and down its rev-range like a car engine.
I agree with you about opposed-piston engines. So did Napier, they made the Culverin, a development of the '30s Junkers 205 engine, and the Deltic which started off as a three-crank three bank development of the Culverin. It was rather successful as a train and marine engine, powerful and economical.
super demo !
That seems like it would have a lot of friction
Hi, Nice video. I am a volunteer at the Montreal Aviation Museum and would like to ask your permission to use this video for visitors to view at the museum. Please let me know if this would be OK
of course you can, no problem with that
@@GreenDent0 Thank you!
😮
In one of Kermit Weeks' Hawker Tempest V videos he mentions there are supposedly only about 10 Napier Saber engines on the "whole planet" and that several of them are cutaways. So which one of the remaining few is this and what's the story on it being in the video? Going to be another "cutaway" or is someone "returning it to flight ready condition"? Looks mighty clean inside. Almost brand-new. So what's the story?
this video was shot in the works of a restoration team based in air and space museum , Paris- Le Bourget, France. I was there when this video was shot, but I don't remember where the engine comes from (perhaps a discover in Normandy, where many Typhoons where lost...). The speech in the video isn't about the engine, just a general talk about the team :)
Kermit Weeks has 2 complete engines and a couple more incomplete engines. The Hawker Typhoon restoration team in the UK was gifted a complete and only briefly run engine by Cranfield University. Ricardo in Shoreham, england has another complete engine and there is another complete engine at the RAF Museum in Hendon, London
There was another sabre in the Solent Skies museum in Southampton, when I went to about five years ago. Externally it looked complete. The museum is well worth a visit.
Speak 🗣️ English ⛽️🇬🇧🇬🇧😱
Dialog in the back is not that important. And the scene was filmed in France so we speak French. What's the problem with that?