In my usual manner when thinking about the next article I go and trawl through the product files in the archive to find a series of advertisements for a company or product that says to me “there is a story here for the telling”. In this case I came across a series of advertisements for the company Zwicky featuring aircraft refuelling equipment. Ha, I say, this should be interesting to write about so off I go to the internet to gather lots of facts and useful information.

And what do I find; precious little is the answer (the internet shows Zwicky in operation from c1910 to 1959 when it becomes part of G. and J. Weir Holdings Ltd.).

I am therefore left with gleaning what I can from the material I have to hand.

The earliest item in the product file is an advertisement from 1935 for the Zwicky Portable Unit capable of refuelling at the rate of 100 gallons per minute. An interesting feature of this vehicle is that it is a 3-boom unit enabling it to service several aircraft at the same time (in the advert it can be seen to be fuelling two aircraft simultaneously).

By 1937 they have introduced a new three-wheeled model which features an ingenious design giving it a small turning-circle of only 21 ft. 6 in. (ideal for the confines of fuelling smaller aircraft). The advertisement states that the vehicle chassis components are of Ford manufacture and therefore easy to maintain and repair. There are two 250-gallon storage tanks on board which are completely isolated from each other, enabling this tender to serve two fuels of different octane rating from the one vehicle, while the fuel is delivered at the rate of forty gallons a minute.

A further advertisement in July 1937 states that over 400 mobile units have already been delivered that year across over fifty aerodromes. I do wonder whether this is part of the country’s efforts to re-arm prior to the start of World War II?

Some very evocative and artistic advertisements appear during World War II while post-war advertising shows that technical developments have pushed fuel delivery up to 600 gallons per minute.

Apart from re-fuelling equipment Zwicky also made airfield road sweepers, valves, nozzles, reels and pumps. The last advertisement that appears in the product file is from November 1958, just prior to them becoming part of the Weir group.

Richard Roberts