David Helber

I was rummaging through the effects of my great-uncle, Major-General Tremorden Rederring, KCB, and found this photo of Bart. Capt. Isidore Dunn-Spagthorpe, late of the Royal Flying Corps., testing the Spagthorpe unirotor at his seaside villa near Tintagel in 1931. Both Capt. Dunn-Spagthorpe and the prototype came to an unfortunate end when the Captain’s trademark silk aviator scarf fouled an idler wheel, breaking his neck and pitching the machine over a cliff edge into the crashing surf of an outgoing tide. Neither the Captain nor the prototype was ever recovered. This ended Spagthorpe’s interest in the monowheel concept. The machine, according to pencilled notes on the back of the photo, had been given the developmental title “Mongrel,” but, had it endured to production status, would undoubtedly have been provided with a more marketably euphonious appelation. What appears to be the word “Rottweiler” is faintly inscribed in a lower corner of the back, and it is possible that this was the projected product name.

Beyond this, not much is known about the Spagthorpe Rottweiler except that it had a chain-driven oil filter.