'Santa's Present'

I'm reopening this thread because new info came to light about the 1913 A.B.C. V8.
 

I completly overlooked a letter in David's collection at Brooklands. This is a recollection of events from Sam Dalziel Heron who worked at Armstrong Whitworth before WWI.

"In 1912-1913 I was a draftsman on an aircooled aircraft engine at Armstrong-Witworth in Newcastle-on-Tyne, Armstrong-Witworth were building this engine to Bradshaw's design and I was only a very junior draftsman. At this time I knew nothing about air-cooled cylinder design and it was not then obvious to me that Bradshaw only knew a little more than I did. The engines were not successful although I never saw them run. These engines were either eight or twelve cylinder Vees and the crankcase was made by boring out a billett of nickel gun steel, the walls being about one-tenth of an inch thick."

Nothing more than that but I'll try to get a copy of Heron's Personal Papers which still exist in the States (whish me luck!).
Regardless of that, this note gives me the idea Bradshaw might have completed the V8 prototype and I would be really surprised if he sent it to Armstrong-Withworth for production without ever getting the engine to run.
Is anybody aware of any archive for Armstrong-Withworth or any paperwork for that matter related to people who worked there?

Ta

Giovanni,

ABC did very little machining at Brooklands with most of it it being carried by outside contractors, hence the Armstrong Whitworth invovlement as they were manufacturing the production V8 water cooled engine..  There is no evidence that I can find that the air cooled engine was ever completed which is not surprising as it had a 6:1 reduction gear for the propeller shaft which also functioned as the camshaft.   The reduction gear was required as propellers were designd to run at less than 2,000 rpm and this was designed to run at much higer revs to get the power from such a small capacity engine.   
Even the more conventional water cooled engine produced by AW was not a success with only a single flight recorded if my memory is correct.
Regards,
 Roger