WWII Aircraft Motors

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sleddriver

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Was culling through some old photos today and found these. The motor that helped win the war for the Allies: The RR Merlin:
105_0515_zps4b664586.jpg


Here's another great motor: The P&W R-2800:
105_0514_zps1748ffb9.jpg


It powered the Corsair (and some bombers):
105_0512_zps5303f700.jpg


Amazing the difference in sound between the Merlin & the 2800. The former purrs like a big cat while the later sounds like a big bucket of bolts being violently shaken. It does idle, but awkwardly. Smooths out well on throttle-up though.

Here's a variant on the 2800 with two extra cylinder banks in a corkscrew pattern. Not sure if it ever went into production. (Can you imagine one of these in a Corsair?)
105_0516_zps05134c0e.jpg


Sweat music!
 
That big motor is the Pratt & Whitney R4360 Wasp Major,affectionately known as the "Corncob." 18,697 were built and each Convair B-36 Peacemaker had 6 of them mounted turning pusher props. 4 additional jet engines supplied a further power boost. "Six Turnin' and 4 Burnin." There are many stories questioning the reliability of these complicated motors. Several other aircraft used these as well.
 
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A couple days ago I was outside and heard a low rumble coming over the hill, there was a 4 engined WW2 bomber, and a twin engined plane and single engine plane, that I think were also WW2 era flying in a loose formation. 3 planes and 7 engines sounds kind of neat! I think there was an Avro Lancaster, a De Havilland Mosquito, and maybe a Spitfire. They were loafing it but I can imagine what a formation of bombers would've sounded like. Not good they were flying over your city!
I live sort of near CFB Trenton so its not uncommon to see newer military planes overhead but this was the first time I've seen historic planes, and 3 together was neat.
We seem to be on some sort of flightpath as I've seen a groups of crop sprayers fly over a couple times too. They sound sort of ominous too, coming over the horizon towards you.
 
The Pratt & Whitney R4360 28 cylinder engine was used on several aircraft. The Boeing C97 & Stratocruiser, C124 Globemaster, B50, B36 come to mind. The engine was prone to pyrotechnics on start up. I still work on a Lockheed Constellation that has Wright R3350 turbo compound engines which produce 3400 hp on take off which is close to the output of the corncob engine.
 
Originally Posted By: hal2626
That big motor is the Pratt & Whitney R4360 Wasp Major,affectionately known as the "Corncob." 18,697 were built and each Convair B-36 Peacemaker had 6 of them mounted turning pusher props. 4 additional jet engines supplied a further power boost. "Six Turnin' and 4 Burnin." There are many stories questioning the reliability of these complicated motors. Several other aircraft used these as well.

Sometimes it wasn't the turbines which burned in those beasts.
 
RR Merlin, used in the spitfire, was also built under license by Packard and used in the P-51 Mustang,
then the Brits developed a naturally aspirated and detuned(making only 600bhp) version,called the Meteor, which they put into tanks.
Meteor engines used heavier components than the Merlin since weight isn't as much of an issue in a tank, and also parts that were rejected for use in Merlins, "Merlin scrap" otherwise fine bits, that just weren't up to aero standards.

somewhere in the back of my head i had the idea, completely impractical, of finding a way to fit one of those Packard Merlins into an older Ford mustang, and give the car a P-51 themed paint scheme.
I could never actually do it, heck, just imagine how much you'd have to extend the front of the vehicle..(aside from having none of the skills, funds or equipment that would be needed..)
 
Originally Posted By: earlyre
somewhere in the back of my head i had the idea, completely impractical, of finding a way to fit one of those Packard Merlins into an older Ford mustang, and give the car a P-51 themed paint scheme.
I could never actually do it, heck, just imagine how much you'd have to extend the front of the vehicle..(aside from having none of the skills, funds or equipment that would be needed..)


Rod Hadfield, an Aussie whoi had a shop near where my parents grew up put a Merlin in a '55 Chev...he needed every cubic inch of the chev to fit the merlin in.
 
Originally Posted By: Shannow
Originally Posted By: earlyre
somewhere in the back of my head i had the idea, completely impractical, of finding a way to fit one of those Packard Merlins into an older Ford mustang, and give the car a P-51 themed paint scheme.
I could never actually do it, heck, just imagine how much you'd have to extend the front of the vehicle..(aside from having none of the skills, funds or equipment that would be needed..)


Rod Hadfield, an Aussie whoi had a shop near where my parents grew up put a Merlin in a '55 Chev...he needed every cubic inch of the chev to fit the merlin in.


I have seen a story on that car, and it did take every last inch of the car to fit the ~ 1700 pound engine.
 
A super Corsair. . . wow. As if the nose isn't long enough already. What a beast! Amazing the amount of innovation during that time.
 
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