Air-Britain Archive 1989-02

In the last issue we raised the problem of the Burgoyne-Stirling Dicer "G-AECN". Jack has again contributed some notes and a drawing on the type. He comments that it might reasonably be described as an ultra-light single-seat development of the British Klemm Swallow and in fact it used many BK Swallow parts and can be seen to have many similarities. This was probably due to the availability of Swallow remains to the builder but the finished result nevertheless looked quite professional. Like the Swallow the slab-sided fuselage was ply-covered and all the control surfaces were fabric-covered. The Y-shaped exhaust of the 37/40 hp Aeronca E113 horizontally opposed 2-cyl air-cooled engine (which was also built in Britain by J.A.Prestwich Ltd as the JAP J99) can be seen projecting prominently in front of the cowling, although it was reported that a Mikron was fitted initially.
In a letter to Air Pictorial, Arthur Ord-Hume said that the wings were fabric-covered which was a difference from the BK Swallow's ply-covered wings though they had a similar thick section. He said that the wing area was 118 sq ft and the all-up weight in the region of 800 lb. The registration G-AECN was taken out for Mignet Pou du Ciel DCB1 (for D.C.Burgoyne) which was not built. The Dicer was owned by the other half of the partnership, F/O Stirling, and the regn was swapped over to the Dicer without approval and was not official - but it did exist as an historical fact on a flying aircraft.