Hewland

Hewland is a British engineering company, founded in 1957 by Mike Hewland, which specialises in racing-car gearboxes. Hewland was the first company to manufacture a bespoke racing-car gearbox. The first product, the Hewland Mk1, was a minor modification of a Volkswagen box for Lola for their Formula Junior cars. Within a few years the company moved to manufacturing sideplates and gear clusters, only using the VW main case. These gearboxes became widely used in Formula Junior and Formula Three. The first gearbox designed by Hewland was the HD4 in 1963, where the HD stood for Hewland Design. By removing the synchronizers from the original VW Beetle transaxle module, room was created for a 5th forward speed. All gears are straight-cut, constant-mesh type with dog (motorcycle-type) engagement rather than sliding engagement. The driver quickly gets used to the crash type operation since rotating masses are small. In addition to the advantage of the 5th speed with close ratios, the gear ratios may quickly be changed in the field to match the needs of a particular track. Many models of racing cars built in Britain and the U.S. since 1962 have used this transmission.

ARV Super2

After an approach from Richard Noble, Hewland were persuaded to design and build the AE75, a 75 bhp aero-engine for Noble's forthcoming ARV Super2, a novel British 2-seater light aircraft. This engine, an inverted three-cylinder water-cooled two-stroke unit with dual ignition and a 2.7:1 reduction gearbox, was developed from Hewland's existing two-cylinder microlight engine. The AE75 was very light at 49 kg (108 lb), thereby contributing to the overall lightness of the aircraft, so that the ARV Super2 weighed 40% less than its competitor, the Cessna 152.

See also

• ZF Friedrichshafen

External links

• Official website