Even while still working on the Briggs engine, I had occasion to meet via email and through another forum a gentleman by the name of Larry DuFour. It was Larry's father who had spent years researching Charles Taylor as well as the Wright Brothers and co-authored the book
Charles E. Taylor: 1868-1956 The Wright Brothers Mechanician. At the same time Larry had access to copies of the engine drawings commissioned by the National Air and Space Museum and graciously offered to make copies of these for me for the purpose of making a model of this engine in 1/4 scale.
The process of making the working model drawings has now begun and the first few chips made and I hope to document the build here on MEM.
This is not the first such model made however. Another 1/4 scale model shown here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/15794235@N06/5338320658/in/set-72157602933346098/ was build By Lloyd Butler of Ohio sometime during the 1980's. In addition a full size replica was built prior to the centenial anniversary of the Wright Brothers first flight at Kitty Hawk, NC and can be seen here in in a short you tube video:
There are many unusual features to this engine including: 1) One of the first uses of an aluminum casting for an engine crankcase (presumably to lighten the weight), 2) The use of igniters in each cylinder (spark plugs of the time were not seen as reliable enough), 3) lack of any type of carburetor, 4) Tubular connecting rods (again for weight savings I assume), and 5) combustion chambers fitted onto the ends of the cylinders rather than an integral part of them.
In 1903 of course, this was all "new ground" at least so far a adapting an IC engine to powered flight. At the same time, and given the Wright Bros. underlying business of bicycle making, many of the chains, sprockets, and thread types were gleaned from what they had available in the bicycle shop. The wonder of this engine is that Charles Taylor built it in in about 10 weeks, in time for the brothers to ship the airframe and engine from Dayton, Ohio to North Carolina's outer banks where the first flight took place when weather conditions were more favorable.
With that as some of the background, so begins another journey in model engineering and one which will no doubt be filled with new challenges. As much as possible, I hope to be faithful to the original design and materials though certain compromises will be made as required of necessity. The crankcase will be aluminum but not cast for example. The basics of the model will be: 4 cylinders in a horizontal configuration, 1" bore and stroke.
More to follow.....
Bill