There was so much written about this famous Czech midget diesel engine. Designed by Vladislav Hruska in 1946 spread quickly and became one of the most popular and widely used engines during the late 1940s in Czechoslovakia.
I have got another original rare piece into the collection of Super Atoms a couple of weeks ago. Like any other great things, this too has come suddenly and unexpectedly. We’ve spent one fine day at the local aeroclub during our visit to the Czech Republic in the summer this year. I wanted to get a type of certification for another beautiful airplane so the instructor was needed to pass the examination. He is my good friend as we know us for a couple of years and there is no wonder he is an airplane model builder too. So we have more than real flying to talk about and enjoy.
My friend suggested we visit him and his wife after spent the two nice hours in the air. We have always many things to talk about and we accepted his invitation without any hesitation. As I mentioned above, perfect moments happen just suddenly. My friend brought the coffee, served it and left the house again to come back a couple of minutes later having something in his hand. I have only recognized an old wooden propeller. It had to be some piece of old aero-model item, maybe an engine…? Yes, it was an engine and my friend just said: “here you are, you will undoubtedly enjoy this engine further”. I was really surprised because this engine is an original diesel engine, built probably shortly after World War II has ended.
This engine is a bit different compared to the typical Super Atom from the production. The cylinder head on this piece is a cast magnesium alloy, which has never been used on a production model. I was told that this could have indicated to either pre-production type or engine built by some individual modeler. Another interesting thing is the name and serial number engraved on the slightly modified crankcase. I was told again that this “stamping” was mostly done on pre-production pieces during the testing.
Whatever the truth about this engine is, it is a nice addition to the collection and I am thinking about to keep the engine “as is” or perform a careful restoration to put the engine in the best shape possible and retain its historical taste.