Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Common Interests odd ww2 aircraft engine

Check these out

how did they get it to work, or is there something plainly obvious that I am missing.

http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/engines/eng36.htm

also how would you like to work on this??

http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/engines/eng34a.htm

the first pic is of a inverted V type engine. The inline and V engines were built becasue they offerd less frontal area for the aircraft than with a radial engine. Only problem with an inline or V engine is that the engine cowling had to be very tall and it obstructed the pilots view. So they turned them upside down and solved the problem.

The second pic is of the Pratt and Whitney Wasp Major engine,(28 cylinders, 4,360 cubic inch displacement, making 3500 horsepower) a 4 row radial engine with 7 cylinder per row. The reason for these monstrous piston engines was that at the time the jet engine was comming of age and beginning to see wide spread use in aviation. But big piston engines still had their place since they were much less expensive and eons more fuel efficent than a comperable turbine engine. The only reason piston engines lasted so long is that the power to weight ratio was able to be maintained at or near that of the early turbine engines.

I'm going to search for a site that is all about aviation history. IT has links that explain the theory of operation of the radial engine and how an inverted engine can run without having oiling problems.

http://www.aviation-history.com/
http://www.aviation-history.com/engines/db605.htm
http://www.aviation-history.com/engines/pr-2800.htm
http://www.aviation-history.com/engines/xr-7755.htm
http://www.aviation-history.com/engines/radial.htm
http://www.aviation-history.com/engines/4stroke.htm
http://www.aviation-history.com/engines/theory.htm

Living so close to the Wright Patt Air Force Museum you'd think I'd go there more often - haven't been there in a couple of years, I think its time to go back.

BTW, the WPAFB AF Museum is the oldest and largest in the world - and they are adding another hanger wing to it right now which will add another 33% of available space!!!

USAF AF Museum at WPAFB, Dayton, OH

Been meaning to get put to Wright-Patt... primarily to take a look at one of my favorite planes, the XB-70.

mmmmm, a 4-row wasp, though I must say, the Rolls (or Packard) Merlin V12 is my favorite . . .

That plane is the ****! I fell in love with it when I saw a Discovery channel special on it...that thing is just awsome!




Pictures taken from this VERY informative XB70 webpage: http://www.labiker.org/xb70.html

I still fly the XB70 today on FS2002

Still nothing, in my mind, compared to the SR71-A BlackBird... I LOVE that plane...



Maximum Speed: 3.2 Mach above 75,000 feet
Operational Ceiling: over 85,000 feet
Maximum Unrefueled Range: 3,200 nautical miles
Powerplant Data:
2 Pratt & Whitney J58 (JT11D-20A) High-bypass-turbojets with 34,000 pounds thrust

Did you know that the tires are filled with nitrogen to keep from exploding in flight.The pilots are so high up that they must where a space suit. The planes skin gets so hot that it actually extends 2 to 4 inches and the paint actually turns blue. The fuel tanks aren't even sealed until it reaches operational altitude.

Semi-informative link....

EDIT: I LOVE FS2K2

Ray

those performance numbers are estimates and are the numbers released by the government. Actual performance characteristicts are classified.

The engine is equiped with a system which allows air to bypass the engine's compressor assembly and directly enter the combustor section. This in part allows the engine to perform as a ram jet at high speeds allowing it to produce more net thrust as its speed increases, in other words, the faster it goes the faster it goes. It is rumored that the engines have the capability to propell the aircraft to speeds exceeding the airframe's structual limits, but there has been no documented proof released to proove this.

The term high bypass means that the engine is a turbo fan engine and not a turbo jet. The bypass ratio is the ratio of thrust produced by the fan to the thrust produced by the core engine. For an engine to be calssified as a high bypass engine the bypass ratio of thrust mae by the fan to thrust from the core engine must be greater than or equal to 4:1.

I work with a few people who had the opportunity to work on the aircraft as civilian contractors, and they, along with others say, for an aircraft built in the 50's it was way ahead of its time and that we could not build an equal today only becasue of the incredible costs.

Here's a good bit of info on the complicated inlet of the SR 71.

SR-71 @ Air & Space

...Ed