14 Dec 06
Royal Aircraft Factory SE5a
Irish-born Frederick York Wolseley was the first to make an electrical sheep-shearing device; not the most promising start for a luxury car-maker, but the beginning of a large manufacturing empire. Wolseley came to England in 1893 with young engineer Herbert Austin, and opened a factory in Birmingham before selling up (he died in 1899). Austin took charge, making bicycles, and then the first Wolseley car (1895). Wolseley's car-making division was sold off to Vickers in 1901; Austin continued to manage it for a while before leaving in 1905 to set up his own company.
Wolseley then took over the Siddeley Autocar Company, keeping its founder John Davenport Siddeley as manager. Subsequent cars were badged Wolseley-Siddleley for a while - at least until Siddeley himself departed to run Siddeley-Deasey, and then joining Armstrong-Siddeley. Siddeley instigated diversification and growth into new sectors, however, and besides a motorsport programme for the Wolseley-Siddeleys the company built buses, trucks and engines for ships, powerboats and even submarines in the run-up to World War I, as well as motorised sleighs for Scott's expedition to the Antarctic. Aero engines were a logical next step: Wolseley bought the licence to make a version of the Hispano-Suiza V8, and went into the aeronautical industry just in time for World War I.
Wolseley-built engines were supplied to companies including Voisin for prototype and experimental craft, but their best known application was in the Royal Aircraft Factory's SE5 (1917). A 150bhp version known as the Adder was initially fitted, but the much-improved 200bhp Viper was faster and more reliable; a number of planes with the original H-S engines had them replaced by the Viper. Wolseley is estimated to have made around 4,000 aero engines during the war, as well as components for around 1,500 more, 700 complete aircraft, 850 sets of wings and 6,000 propellors.
Post-war, large numbers of surplus or salvaged Viper engines were exported to Canada, where they were used in Avro 504-based planes for the Canadian airforce (built by Vickers' Canadian division) and, later, the Airspeed Oxford trainer plane. Later developments on the V8 engine were used in planes including the Airspeed AS.6 Envoy, a light six- or eight-seat passenger plane also used by the RAF. Wolseley Aries engines were used in Airspeed planes throughout the Commonwealth, going on into service for new airlines such as Australia's Ansett in the 1930s, until parts supply became difficult. A version of the Viper engine was even fitted in one of Cierva's experimental Autogiro craft, one of the earliest helicopters.
