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Really Big Aircraft Engines

Whitebear

Whitebear

Silent Prop
R. I. P.
Has anybody ever seen any of the Packard or Rolls Royce 12 cylinder engines on an airboat? They were used in the P-51 Mustangs and others. I think the Britt Spitfire might have had a version if it in it.

250px-RR_Merlin_labeled.jpg


Seen a lot of them in Tractor Pulls in the past but "I" have never seen one in an airboat.

Seen a bunch of Radials but never a compound Radial that I know of either.

Compound_Radial.jpg


Maybe these old engines are just too physically big and heavy for boats, especially airboats.

Scotty :wink:
 
It would have a bitch of a torque roll :shock:

Ironically someone mentioned having an affiliation with "Miss Budweiser" (Burnie Little's boat) I thought of the old race boats with the V12 Allisons, and thought that would make a stupid-power boat....bet it would run dry. :lol:
 
I am thinking if I was younger.....I sure would like to try an airboat with one of them monsters just once!!!!
 
grant":1zgjcww2 said:
I am thinking if I was younger.....I sure would like to try an airboat with one of them monsters just once!!!!
Click to expand...

Grant, I am sure that would send you to thread heaven.. :lol: :D
 
Only Ranger I have ever seen personally was an inverted 6 that was 200 HP in the CAP's old PT-26 when I was in High School. Maybe the 12 cylinder makes 400 HP.

Scotty :wink:
 
pemberton has a 12 cylinder at his shop its huge. you would need a 20 ft boat 10ft wide with big props. probably run the hill though
 
Scotty, the R-4360 radials had FOUR banks of nine cylinders ....... 72 spark plugs. Always wanted to hear one run up close.

If I'm not mistaken, they were developed for the military but found a home after the war on the old Lockheed Super Constellations.

olf
 
Olf Art":1z08g82h said:
Scotty, the R-4360 radials had FOUR banks of nine cylinders ....... 72 spark plugs. Always wanted to hear one run up close.

If I'm not mistaken, they were developed for the military but found a home after the war on the old Lockheed Super Constellations.

olf
Click to expand...

http://www.enginehistory.org/r-4360.htm

4 banks of 8, according to that...

still an impressive frigging machine.
 
Doc, I honestly think that site is incorrect. The 4360 had 36 cylinders, and it took 2 men, four hours just to change the plugs. The Wasp
was a smaller version.

olf
 
I dont remember where I got it from, and whether it was tradition or science, but I heard radials have to have odd number of cylinders in a bank.

Of course there is always a HArley with 2 cylinders which is an even number. Having said that, Harley is just two (2) cylinders of a radial engine. Thats an even number so maybe it don't apply to mnotorcycles, or maybe HArley just never got the word.

Scotty :lol:
 
Sorry Olf, but Doc is correct. The Pratt and Wimpey R-4360 was four rows of 7 cylinders. They used them on the KC-97. They were so slow in the F-100 I'd have to put out the speed brake and light minimum burner to stay flying. I was sure happy when they went to the KC-135 and then the KC-10.
 
I'm stubborn enough to wait for JIM (moderator) to log back on. He has research skills I can only dream of.
I still say that a 4360 had 36 cylinders.

olf
 
xr7755b.jpg

This behemoth is the largest piston aircraft engine ever built in the free world. From 7,755 cubic inches (bore of 6.375", stroke of 6.75") and 7,050 lbs it gave 5,000 horsepower under test in 1944; 7,000 horsepower was the development target. Nine liquid cooled inline four cylinder engines about a common crankshaft. Two contra-rotating prop shafts. The camshafts each consisted of two sets of lobes. One set of lobes for takeoff, the other for economy cruise. The camshafts were shifted axially to switch lobe sets. 580 gallons of fuel per hour at takeoff power, BSFC of 0.43 at cruise. Paul McBride of Lycoming says it was for the B-36 but political pressures caused the B-36 to be fitted with the Pratt & Whitney R-4360 instead. Awesome. A survivor still exists at the Smithsonian's Garber facility. See it if you can. Circa 1944.
 
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