Dooling .61 7 fin

These Doolings are classics in their own right. The quality of the castings is superb.

I have only ever seen one running (not many made their way to England as new) and, from what I remember, it was an easy starter. The chap who ran it uses it in an enormous vintage (even for the time - 50 years ago). He used a mixture of petrol, methanol and castor oil.

The 10 fin version is quite rare as only about 1,000 were made but the engine was contraversial in Britain. Most were smuggled in (on request) by US servicemen.

Quote from Model Engine News:

"The Impact of the Dooling 61 in Britain

In the previous section, we noted the British tethered hydroplane speed record of 70.1 mph established by George Stone in 1949. It's actually quite interesting to look at the effect which this record had upon both hydroplane and tethered car racing in Britain. Thanks to the kindness of our good friend Hugh Blowers, who is associated with the outstanding model hydroplane and car racing website at http://www.onthewire.co.uk/index.htm , we are able to step across the Atlantic ocean to review this matter in some detail for the benefit of our British readership.

Hugh tells us that the somewhat precipitate arrival of the Dooling 61 on the British tethered hydro scene had an immediate and quite controversial impact, albeit very short-lived. It's difficult to appreciate in today's open market that in the early post-war period in the UK, importation of American engines by any legitimate means was impossible. Anyone wishing to obtain an example had to persuade one of the many US servicemen still stationed in Britain to "obtain" motors for them, or had to rely upon equally philanthropic people Stateside sending them over as "gifts". As a well-known example, Wilf Rowell's 1947 acquisition of a Hornet 60 as a "gift" from a relative in America led directly to his development of the famous Rowell 60 introduced in mid 1948.

During this period, the tethered hydroplane scene in Britain was the domain of the home-built two and four stroke motor, primarily in the larger 15 cc and 30 cc classes. The outright hydroplane speed record had been continuously held by home-built 30 cc four-strokes from 1936 onwards, steadily increasing by small increments from 47.5mph to 51.7mph by 1948.



In 1949, having somehow got hold of an example of the Dooling 61, George Stone installed this unit in his diminutive "Lady Babs II" hydroplane. Using this combination, he immediately extended the existing British outright speed record from 51.7 mph to 70.1 mph, an increase of some 35%. Not only was this by far the largest incremental increase in the record ever seen up to that point, but it remains so to this day!

Unfortunately, Stone's establishment of this record set up a strong backlash against imported US engines, which were seen by many as representing unfair competition. Users of such engines were widely viewed as having "bought" any success that came their way. Combined with some unfavorable comments by Stone regarding British venues which appeared in "Model Engineer", this greatly soured the achievement and caused resentment which has not fully subsided even to the present day. The use of an imported commercial motor, especially one as fast as the Dooling, created a sizeable schism among the racing establishment, to such an extent that the C Class for 10 cc engines was subdivided into Class C for home-built motors and Class CR for those of commercial origin.

This of course amounted to an open admission of the superiority of the American imports. However, it accurately reflects the depth of the resentment held by those using home-built engines at having to compete with the superior commercial products of American industry with its far greater development capabilities. Certainly, the superior speed potential of the Dooling and other American motors changed tethered hydroplane racing forever in the UK, with the 10 cc class having retained the outright record to the present day.

George Stone continued on his record-setting path, raising his own top speed to 74 mph at the 1949 Swiss international meet. It was following this event that he wrote his infamous letter of October 6th, 1949 to the editor of "Model Engineer" comparing British racing venues unfavourably with those on the Continent. However, his Swiss performance did not count as a new British record since these runs did not comply with British Model Power Boat Association rules. It was not until 1951 that George was finally able to raise his own official British record to 75.6 mph—his all-time best speed with his Dooling-powered equipment.



Setting aside the records set by Stone, the Dooling 61 as such did not have a lasting presence in British tethered hydroplane racing, as one of its great virtues was also its fatal Achilles heel. The motor was both powerful and light, but these very qualities also combined to render it extremely fragile. Any hint of water being ingested, which was not unusual with hydroplanes, would result in the top half of the engine parting company with the bottom in a catastrophic failure. Even George Stone experienced this with his second hydroplane "Rodney", which blew the record-breaking Dooling apart in spectacular fashion. This led directly to his installing a Rowell 60 in "Rodney", along with his well-publicized "try and beat me with a British motor" challenge to his detractors. The speed of 54.74 mph which he achieved with this combination was a new record for a British motor, although it fell far short of the results achieved earlier with the Dooling.

This type of failure could happen even without the addition of water, as a number of model car and aircraft competitors also discovered. It was this tendency for the cylinder block to part company with the main crankcase that led to the development in the USA of the famous "Yellow Jacket" crankcases and (later) complete engines by Bruce Underwood. We will examine this aspect of the story in a later section of this article.

Of course, Stone's success with his Dooling, however short-lived, led to other leading American racing engines being tried by British competitors. The McCoy and Hornet were quickly found to be far more durable than the Dooling and nearly as fast. Although Hornet production had ceased by early 1950, the McCoy remained available for many years, leading to the McCoy 60 Series 20 becoming the standard 10 cc hydro motor in Britain right through to the mid 1960s.

Turning now to the field of tethered car racing, the Dooling took a while longer to become established in that activity in the UK, due in part to the fact that there were a number of rapid home-brewed 10 cc cars around as well as numerous fast Hornets. However, when Doolings did become more freely available, they dominated both the 10 cc and 5 cc classes until the sport more or less died out.

As in the case of George Stone's injection of the Dooling 61 into British hydroplane racing, this resulted in another serious ideological clash. There was a strong school of thought which held that British records should be just that—all-British. This eventually led to a division of classes in car racing, just as with the hydros. The Open class would be just that—open to all comers—whilst the British classes were restricted to home-produced or commercial products of British origin. Again, this was as open an admission as one could find of the superiority of the American imports.

Sadly, the arrival of the American motors in general and the Dooling in particular had the unfortunate effect of fragmenting the sport in Britain—indeed, it actually resulted in the retirement of several established competitors, thus doubtless accelerating the decline of tethered car racing in Britain which was already underway. However, it's difficult to argue with success, and in the capable hands of Peter Hugo and American servicemen Joe Shelton and Lt. White the Dooling products soon showed their full capabilities. The inevitable consequence was that as soon as it became possible to obtain them both legally and relatively easily, the Dooling motors and Arrow cars (of which more below) became highly sought-after, to the extent that they became more or less the "standard ware" among front-running competitors in Britain. The results achieved were vastly superior to those obtained in the all-British class, leading to the further marginalisation of that category and the accumulation of further resentment.

Be that as it may, from 1949 onward the Dooling name was ubiquitous on the British tethered car scene, being used by virtually all of the Open class competitors, including Ian Moore who set national and European records with his Dooling-powered model. Moreover, it was not only the front-runners who were taking advantage of the availability of the complete Arrow package, as a perusal of any British results lists of the period will show. As an example, at the 1949 Austin Trophy race, Doolings occupied seven of the top eight spots. The odd one out was none other than Gerry Buck with "Topsy" and its home-built motor based on the Hornet 60.

The Arrow cars were in such demand that one competitor from the Sunderland Club rode his motorcycle all the way from Newcastle to Maidstone in Kent to pick up his Arrow from Bennett's of Maidstone, who were the importers at the time. However the popularity of tethered car racing at club level was soon in sharp decline and it was not long before Arrows began to appear for sale as owners tried to recoup some of their huge (by the standards of the day) investment.

By the mid 1950s, tethered car racing in the UK had retreated from its former mainstream status to that of a highly specialised sport enjoyed by just a few dedicated racers. Consequently, surplus cars and engines were offered for sale every month at a fraction of their original cost. The sport has continued to this day, albeit at a fraction of its late 1940's levels of participation. Amazingly, two of the original Arrow cars imported and run by Bennett and Ed Rogers are still being run in vintage competitions at the same speeds they were achieving in the 1950's!

In the control-line speed model aircraft arena, the Dooling engines were equally successful. With the sole exception of the ETA 29, none of the British-made racing engines could even come close to matching either the Dooling or McCoy racing models. In particular, the Dooling 61 simply buried its British-made Nordec and Rowell competition, although a well-prepared example of the ETA 29 could give a Dooling 29 a reasonable run for its money.



Naturally, the tuning gurus of the day soon turned their attention towards the Dooling. Following an initial effort with his own racing "Special" based upon the Nordec 10 cc model, the legendary tuner Fred Carter soon came up with his own Dooling 61-based "special", which actually ended up more Carter than Dooling. Using this engine, Davenport established a new British record of over 160 mph at the British National Championship meet held at Cambridge. Further success followed when Carter teamed up with Ray Gibbs to establish a British mark of over 146 mph using the 5 cc Carter Special based on the Dooling 29. This was later topped by the establishment of a new 5 cc world record at 152 mph.

Overall, the injection of the Dooling engines and the resultant "specials" contributed greatly to the raising of standards in the British speed-flying arena. Their introduction also appears to have created far less dissention in the aeromodelling field than it had done in the cases of British car and hydroplane racing."

Cribbs74 wrote:That's a busy looking engine!  Very cool though. The CL Doolings are a real sight to behold and from what I hear the perform quite well.

Ron

It was easy to convert the engine to fly an air model by removing the flywheel and installing the prop drive. you would have to loose the magneto and run batteries, coil and condenser.
Not sure if the magneto needed a condenser, maybe an electrical whiz like Rusty would know.

Bruce Underwoods Yellow Jacket was a nice looking engine also, I think you could swap parts between the two, not sure though. You can see how he improved the case.
A nice Yellow Jacket will bring big bucks.

Or go miniature!

ian1954 wrote:Or go miniature!

Is that one of Woodys repros?

Tis a Arne Hende

I needed a decent stand to display the Dooling so thought I'd try acrylic. Never worked with it before so with a router, sander and buffing wheel I finished one edge just to see if it would work.
In just a few minutes the test edge was beveled and polished, I was surprised how easy it sanded and polished. The first photo shows the 3/4 stock, one has the raw edge the other the finished edge. I took the edge down with 340 grit paper and Novus #2, I think with 400 grit it would be even better. All the edges would be beveled and polished. These could be scaled down for Cox 15s, 09s, 049s or a different shape for Bees.
Enough acrylic stock to make 4 stands was 50$ but the labor was free. Going to set up shop and run off a few. Still have to work on the glue part.

I finished the prototype, man acrylic is a PITA to work with. It holds the Dooling well, got some ideas for Cox .049s next, even a display that holds 2, 3 or even 4 bee type engines.
Also idea for TDs and Medallions.

That does make a nice display piece but I hadn't realised acrylic was so expensive.

ian1954 wrote:That does make a nice display piece but I hadn't realised acrylic was so expensive.

It looks like there is an error, the total should be $10 more on the invoice. I also screwed one up, any mistake and the stand is toast.
So instead of four wound up with three.
Just got my Yellow Jacket repro mounted for a pair of .61s. Boooyyaaa!

Don't see many of these for sale, a genuine Yellow Jacket       http://www.ebay.com/itm/161338838979?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

crankbndr wrote:

ian1954 wrote:Or go miniature!

Is that one of Woodys repros?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MINI-DOOLING-61-06-IGNITION-MODEL-ENGINE-TETHER-CAR-NIB-NEW-/221470989514?pt=Radio_Control_Parts_Accessories&hash=item3390b31cca