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South Australian
Aviation Museum
New entrance 16 Bedford Street, Port Adelaide



merlin run

SAAM has a large and historically significant collection of Aircraft Engines. Many are in storage but if you visit SAAM, you will be able to see some of them on display. Once or twice a year, SAAM holds an engine run and open cockpit day, where visitors could see (and especially hear) some of these engines run and also sit in some of the cockpits normally closed to the public. Check our facebook page for latest news. Also look at the videos of our 'runners' doing their thing (below).


The First Aircraft Engine built in Australia

Wittber Engine
On 13 March 1910, Carl (Bill) Wittber was conducting taxiing trials in a paddock at Bolivar in a Bleriot X1 monoplane imported by Adelaide businessman Fred Jones, when the aircraft rose about 5 feet and travelled for about 40 yards. This was the first aircraft flight in Australia. The Bleriot, piloted by Fred Custance, crashed 4 days later. Bill Wittber bought the wreck and was planning to use the Anzani engine in a bi-plane he was building but it was not powerful enough. He built a 6 cylinder engine based on the 3 cylinder Azani design. The engine was completed in 1915, but the government stepped in and banned any further civilian attempts at flying. This so disheartened Wittber that he burnt the timber frame and covering of his aircraft and sold the engine. In his retirement, however, he did seek out the remaining parts of his engine, and reconstructed it. You can see this engine at in Hangar 1 at SAAM.




Engines at SAAM (some on display, some in storage)

Allison Allison
Turbo Prop
ASCheetah Armstrong Siddeley
Cheetah
ASLynx Armstrong Siddeley
Lynx Radial
Blackburn Blackburn
Tomtit
BSViper Bristol Siddeley
Viper Turbojet
DHGypsy de Havilland
Gipsy Major
DHGypsy de Havilland
Gipsy Major 140
(Skeeter Helo)
DHGypsyQueen de Havilland
Gypsy Queen
Gnome Gnome Monosoupape
Rotary c.1914
HSViper Hawker Siddeley
Viper Turbojet
Lycoming Lycoming
 
Lycoming Packard
Merlin
PWJT3 Pratt & Whitney
JT-3 Turbofan
PW-R985 Pratt & Whitney
R-985
PWWasp Pratt and Whitney
R-1340 Wasp
RRAvon Rolls Royce
Avon Turbojet
RRDerwent Rolls Royce Derwent
RD8 Turbojet
RRKestrel Rolls Royce
Kestrel V-12
RRMerlin Rolls Royce
Merlin MKIII
RRNene Rolls Royce
Nene Turbojet
Walter Walter
Minor 6-111
WestinghouseJ34 Westinghouse
J34 Turbojet
Witber Wittber Aero Engine
Sth. Aust. 1914
WrightR2600 Wright
2600 Radial


Running Engines

Please Note:
The videos are large files and may take some time to download.