A Westbury Kittiway 15 c.c. single cylinder overhead-valve race engine, designed in Edgar T. Westbury in 1944.

Inclined valves and enclosed pushrods, carburettor with barrel type throttle and aluminium float chamber, fitted with Delco coil ignition contained within the base.

Height: 29.5 cm.

Width: 17.5 cm.

Depth: 25 cm.

Edgar T. Westbury known as a pioneer in the field of internal combustion engine design for model use, and a major contributor to the magazine Model Engineer. He contributed under his own name, and also under the pseudonyms ‘Artificer’, ‘Ned’, ‘Kinemette’ and Exactus. Beginning in 1925 until his death in 1970.

Westbury was born in 1896. He served in the Royal Navy during the latter part of the First World War. In the late 1920s he was an instructor in the RAF. His “Atom Minor” engine of 1926 was the first of his to fly a model aeroplane in collaboration with Colonel C. E. Bowden breaking a new model flight endurance record, it later broke a model hydroplane speed record in one of Bowden’s boats. During World War Two, he developed a number of small petrol driven generators for use by the armed forces. Westbury died on 3 May 1970.

A collection of Westbury’s engines are held by the Society of Model and Experimental Engineers and are currently undergoing restoration by students of West Dean College.

His era spanned what might be called the ‘late industrial period’ in Britain, a time when Britain was in the throes of austerity and manufactured goods were expensive, mechanical skills were relatively common, and the only way to obtain extra luxuries was to make them yourself. His aptitude, and the mechanical craftsman ethos he represented, was eulogised in the fictional character based on him in Nevil Shute’s last novel, Trustee from the Toolroom.