Vintage Model Airplane Engines Running: 2016

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

The ETA 1.5 D's Final Production Run

The ETA name is synonymous with fine measuring instruments and model airplane engines.

ETA of Watford England manufactured measuring equipment and other precision things as well. As with the case of the Oliver engines, only the best was good enough for ETA .

In 1951 Ken Bedford and his brother Eric were also developing a small 1.5 cc diesel. There were already a few powerful 1.5 engines on the market like the:

The ETA 1.5's Specifications:
bore 12.95 mm;
stroke 11.20 mm;
weight 85 g;
power 0.15 BHP; with
Vandervell racing bearing.

The ETA 1.5 D was tested in 1952 and was found to be at least as powerful as the FROG 150 R, but powerful as it was this engine never made it to market and to this day; no one seems to know why it didn't.

The late Ken Bedford the brilliant creator of the ETA 1.5 D.

To read the full story of how a batch of parts and along with some production tooling survived after the cancelled in 1951 was transformed into a final batch of 10 new ETA 1.5 diesels.