Hucks starter
A Hucks starter is an auxiliary power unit, almost always a lorry or truck, that provides initial power to start up piston aircraft engines. Hucks starter trucks are a mechanical replacement for the groundcrew members who would have spun an aircraft's propeller by hand as a part of the starting process, on aircraft engines not fitted with starters.
They were commonly used in the 1920s and 1930s, when aircraft engines had become too large to be easily started by hand, but before starters became common.
Operation
The power is transmitted to the aircraft via a power take-off shaft, much like those used to run winches on tow trucks, or on agricultural machinery. The shaft of the starter fits into a special protruding hub incorporating a simple projecting claw clutch on the center of the airplane's propeller assembly. When engaged, the power of the truck's engine is transmitted to the aircraft engine until start up, whereupon the faster speed of the now-running engine disengages the clutch, and then the starter truck clears the area prior to take-off.
The device was named after its inventor Bentfield Hucks, who was a captain in the Royal Flying Corps at the time.[1]
In Royal Air Force service, Hucks Starters were based on Ford Model T trucks, which were in widespread use and familiar to ground crew. One original Hucks Starter built in 1920 by de Havilland is known to survive at the Shuttleworth Collection in Bedfordshire where it is regularly used to start the vintage aircraft based there, and a number of working reproductions have been built, based on original Ford Model T chassis.[2]
References
- Aeroplane Monthly One good turn article in the March 1979 issue. p. 125.
- "The Moment - First Hucks Start in 70 Years". Vintage Wings of Canada. Retrieved 30 June 2015.