The sight and sound of a B-36 passing overhead was awesome, especially in the landing approach .. Nothing else flying even came remotely close the the sound made by the B-36 .. I still remember it all these years later .. If memory serves me correct, if the war had gone into 1946 the US plan was to base B-36 bomber groups on east coast bases and fly missions across the Atlantic to drop bombs on Germany, then return round trip to their US bases .. I'm not sure how many B-36's survive in various aircraft museums .. There's a B-36 at the Castle Air Force museum, near Merced, CA
The British were significantly ahead of the US in inline liquid cooled piston engine development, while the US mainly concentrated on radial engined aircraft .. The Merlin V-12 engine was license built in the US by Packard and was transformed the performance of the P-51 Mustang, with it's great airframe design into the best all around fighter plane of WW 2, by most accounts .. The first generation Allison powered Mustangs perfomed well at low altitude, but ran out of air without a supercharger at about 14,000 feet altitude .. A great Allison engined plane was the twin engined P-38 Lightning, which was turbocharged, I believe .. The leading US ace of the war, Dick Bong, racked up his 40 aerial kills with the P-38, again, if memory serves ..
While the P-51 was a great all around fighter, if you lost your coolant for whatever reason the engine would soon overheat ... Translation: you are going down .. :eek: .. That was one big advantage of the P-47 in being air cooled .. Complete cylinders were shot off and yet the big bird continued on, usually bringing back it's pilot ..
It would seem much of post WW 2 engine technology flowed from that era, the height of piston engine development .. Nitrous, water/alcohol injection, turbo's, superchargers, fuel injection ... Ain't exactly "new" tech but at least they didn't have them dang puter chips .. ! ..


:smash:
mrg

 

The North Star was a Canadian built aircraft produced in the years immediately after the war by Canadair Ltd in Montreal. The shape etc greatly resemble the DC-6/DC7 airliners made by Douglas. Along with airlines, the RCAF owned a fleet of North Stars and used them for troop transport to/from Korea in the early fifties. BTW, the 'Merlin' was also used in the British-designed and built 'Centurion' heavy tank, which also saw service with the Canadian Army until replaced by 'Leopards' in the late 1970's. As you can imagine, a tank fueld by high octane gasoline ain't the safest place to be... When I was a young infantry officer on an exercise in 1973 I was shocked to see the rear deck of a Centurion burst into flames while it was being refuled by jerry can; only to watch the crewmen calmly put out the flames with a fire extinguisher and go back to refueling. apparently spilled gas would often ignite when it dripped onto the still hot mufflers. One of those days when being a 'ground pounder' didn't seem so bad...

 

Hey Mark,

You gonna try and put the B-36 into your vette..... guarentee you won't have any radiator problems.... :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

That pic is of an R-3350 in a B-29 nacelle - must have been taken some time ago. One of my favorite reads is "Aircraft Piston Engines Of World War II", published by the SAE - goes through the design and development of all the significant aircraft powerplants of the era, including the air-cooled radial Bristol Centaurus supercharged sleeve-valve engine used in the Hawker Sea Fury, seen every year at the Reno Air Races, which was considered the ultimate (and most complex) development of the air-cooled radial engine.

Jack Roush is a warbird enthusiast - owns three P-51D Mustangs - one flying, one almost ready, and another just starting restoration. He was interviewed several months ago, and the reporter asked him what he was going to do when he ran out of Rolls Merlin engine parts and couldn't fly them any more; Roush said that wasn't a problem, as he had plenty of spares. The reporter said "I thought the unlimited hydroplane guys bought up all the Merlins left in the world", and Roush replied "No, they didn't - I did - I have sixteen brand-new Rolls Merlins, still in crates, wrapped in cosmolene, and enough loose spare parts to build four more" :eek: Must be some truth to that, as the only two piston-powered unlimited hydroplanes still running are both using Allison V-1710's with HUGE turbochargers, not Merlins.

Another little-known use for them was the "PT-Boats" - they were powered by two Packard-built Merlins.

 

Heh John,
That picture was taken two weeks ago at the Cape May County Airport here in New Jewsey. It was a Pancake Breakfast Fly In. In Fact I Do have Several other pics that I did not Post yet from that show including a MIG 15
When I return from Carlisle I will try and Post some shots of the other aircraft and even a "A" Bomb That was on Display................

 

Duke,

Yup, I have a copy of that print, "Not my turn to die", which is signed by Robert Johnson.

http://www.jimlaurier.com/frames/artwork/die.htm

I also commissoned John Sarsfield to paint a picture of my father's P-47...
http://www.sarsfield.com/comm_jugs.html





[Modified by achapman, 3:04 PM 8/22/2002]

 

I believe that Arias still makes hemi heads for the BBC...........
:chevy :chevy
P.S.
I love the WW II fighters, too!
:yesnod: :yesnod:

 

Closest thing to a Corvette in the Forties.... :D :flag


[Modified by achapman, 11:02 AM 8/23/2002]

 

One of my most vivid memories of tractor-pulling was watching a "modified" class rig, one night, that had 2 Allison V-12's mounted in it. Left unit was turned ccw and the right unit turned cw until each had 6 pipes sticking straight up. The engines were also centrifically supercharged. That night, the other modified's (with multiple supercharged dragster engines) were getting stopped at 250 to 275 ft. on a 300 ft. track. The Allison driver hooked up to the sled, brought the revs up a bit and took off. Once he got hooked up, he got on the throttle causing bright alcohol flames to come out of all 24 header pipes--quite a sight at night only about 50 feet from the tractor. He wasn't even slowing down at the 300 ft mark and had to dump the clutch to avoid running over people that were standing at the end of the track.

Sure are lot's of ways of playing with engines aren't there!!!!

 

Now, if you could fit this in a pull tractor (V-20 twin-turbodiesel, 18,500 lb-ft. of torque, with a gallon of Mother's to shine the valve covers):

 

John - What's the make and model of that engine and whats the application? Locomotive? Electical power generator?

Duke

 

John, I never thought I'd ever have to challenge one of your posts but I'm pretty sure that it'll take closer to two gallons of wax :). I'd also like to know it's intended use. My guess is a power yacht, one of those that cost more than the last 6 homes I've owned combined :).

 

The largest engines I have ever worked on, were back up elect generators
at SONGS Unit 1. (there gone now) They were originally from an Ocean liner. (I think the biggest made, were for that application)
Twin Turbo Diesel V 24 as I recall, about 40' long. Got a picture some where with a piston and con rod on a pallet while moving it with a fork lift.
I do have a valve in my garage, about 2 1/2" long.
(Looked like land of the giants) Remember that 60's show?
Really wanted a couple used pistons for garage stools though.
They don't build 'em like that anymore. Have gone to power packs.
Anyway, cool thread!
:smash: :smash: :smash: :smash: :smash:


[Modified by 396 RAT, 7:48 AM 8/27/2002]

 

This is the latest in a new line of modular industrial turbodiesels from MTU (Mercedes subsidiary) - used in ships, large yachts, locomotives, and standby stationary generating systems and fire pumps. MTU is the world's largest manufacturer of BIG industrial and marine diesel engines.

 

Right modular, we call 'em power packs as you can rebuild
one cylinder & set of valves, etc., or swap it out with a complete rebuilt unit.
That style is used at SONGS 2 & 3 for back up power.
Neat! But not as impressive as the old style "Giant" engines.
I think the big ones were at their hey day in the 40's & 50's.
Not 100%????
Will find out more when I get back to work.

 

Here's my GIANT engine contribution. This V-16, twin turbocharged, 9700 horsepower monster spins a 7000 KW backup generator. There's 3 more just like it here on site.





These are back up generators for our nuclear power plant.

Here's a little nuclear trivia for ya.
One nuclear fuel assembly (193 total) is equal to about 16.5 million gallons of gasoline. In fact, for one Unit (1150 MW), if we used gasoline, we would have to unload about 20 tanker trucks per hour to keep up..........( that's one every 3 minutes)
During the summer of 2000 gasoline was about $1.50 per gallon. At nuclear fuel prices and gasoline equivalent, nuclear gasoline would be about 4 cents per gallon.