VINTAGE SMOKE
THE TINY DEEZIL RC AIRCRAFT ENGINE
Tiny houses. Tiny cars. Tiny diesels. Now you’ve seen it all. We’ll bet you didn’t know that diesel engines have long been a part of the model aircraft world. In the early days of the hobby before World War II, the intricate spark-ignition engines were the most costly part. Simplified engines didn’t enter the market in a big way until after WWII, and here comes the diesel content. WWII saw advanced diesel engine technology and exposed many more people to it, so it was no wonder the model aircraft engine hobby took a stab at downsizing it once the war was over.
Among the many companies working on diesel model aircraft engines was Gotham Hobby of New York City. Gotham Hobby was founded by two WWII veterans, brothers who had once been part owners of a long-running New York hobby store, America’s Hobby Center (AHC). AHC was founded in 1931 by the four Winston brothers, but for whatever reason the two veteran Winston brothers were not welcomed back to AHC after their service. After a little family feuding, the brothers started Gotham Hobby. The Gotham Hobby diesel story begins soon after, although ironically AHC was also working on a diesel at nearly the same time but never got past the prototype stage.
The Gotham Hobby “Deezil” made it to production in 1947 and was initially sold at the outrageous price of $12.95 (about $135 in 2018). According to various model engine historians (yes, the model aircraft hobby has its own history geeks), this was not out of line for a quality engine of the period. Too bad the Deezil didn’t remain a quality product. In fact, it’s become notorious in the model aircraft community as one of the worst model engines of any type ever built.
The Deezil was a good design and of decent quality when first built. Model engine guru and historian Adrian Duncan says this engine was likely designed and initially built by someone outside Gotham Hobby, someone with more than a little knowledge and skill. It displaced 0.124 cubic inches from a 0.473-inch bore and a 0.708-inch stroke and weighed 5.22 ounces. It was advertised for 8,000 rpm using a 6x10 propeller (6-inch diameter/10 pitch). It had a variable compression ratio, which you could tune as the engine ran or for starting. Induction was