ANY WW2 Historians here??

Hi Ranigirl,

I'm glad you have an interest in the old warbirds. They are truly cool. There is nothing cooler than large cubic inch piston aircraft engines.

Typical wartime powerplants were the wright aviation cyclone R1850 , and R2380 the numbers stand for the cubic inches of engine size. These things had pistons the diameters of large coffee cans.

I believe if my memory is correct is the R 1850 was a 9 cylinder single row radial engine displacing 1,850 cubic inches

The R 2350 was an 18 cylinder radial with 9 cylinders per row displacing 2,350 cubic inches.

These giants went all the way up to the R4360, and R4430. The R4360, and R4430 had 4 rows of 9 cylinders each row, pressure carburetion , and triple power recovery turbines. These were the pinnacle of the radial engines. Thats a lot of cubic inches.

There were also V12 liquid cooled engines. Rolls Royce made the Merlin V12 liquid engines. They used these in the supermarine spitfires.

Allthough allison aircraft made the first V12 liquids for the north american aircraft corp P-51 mustang, Packard also made the Rolls Royce Merlin under licence in the states and when installed in the successive versions of the north american aircraft corp P-51 Mustang it allowed this aircraft to really run.

The final version of the mustang was the P-51 D model of which had a bubble canopy giving the pilot a full 360 degree view. Mustangs were mainly used as bomber escorts. The nazis would wait until the mustangs peeled off to go back to base as they didnt have the fuel range of the bombers. At this point the nazi air force would attack the bombers.

Speaking of bombers. The boeing B-17 superfortress was just bad ***. 4 radial engines, hamilton standard hydromatic variable pitch propellers. The problem was getting on target for the bomb run. The captain and first officer would get the aircraft there, then the bombadier in the nosecone took over and made small flight adjustments while looking through a norton bombsight, until in target then they dropped their payload. This required the bomber to fly straight and level, all the while german fighters trying to shoot the american bombers out of the air

I have seen video footage of B-17s flying back to bases in England with half their tails shot off. One land with only one engine running at 100 percent power and the other 3 engines shut down. I think if your bomber crew flew 25 missions and didnt get shot down you got to go home. The memphis belle was one such aircraft that beat the odds.

Allison aircraft engines also made a V12 liquid that eventually found use in the Lockheed P-38 twin engined Lightning fighter. This engine was mechanical fuel injected , and was turbo supercharged. This allowed the lightning to have sea level war rated power at full throttle while at altitude. The turbo supercharger force fed air into the engine so the engine would get oxygen dense air above 10,000 feet. The lightnings props turned opposite directions or counter rotation to prevent prop torque induced yaw.

The Allison V12s were also used in PT boats in WW2. These boats though made of wood to keep weight down still displaced 8 tons fully loaded with armament. The allisons were not turbo supercharged for these applications. Each PT boat used 3 of these engines. They could go from a standing start to top speed of about 50 mph in approx 8 seconds. And burned about 100 gallons of fuel per hour per 10 hour tour. Thats pretty quick and thirsty for an 8 ton deep Vee boat.

Since these used AV gas it was delivered to PT boat bases in 55 gallon drums, and had to be transferred to the boats tanks via hand cranked pumps. Remember these boats burned 100 gallons per hour, and were usually at sea for 8-10 hour tours. The tanks held a reserve so your looking at about 1,200 gallons of fuel.

PT boats had to make a banzai run toward their intended target, get the torpedo (fish) props started then roll em off the side of the boat into the water headed towards the target, then they would turn away from the target and haul *** to get away hoping they dont get hit by enemy shells.

The B-24 Liberator was made in Ft Worth. A 4 engined bomber with twin rudders it never seemed to capture the imagination like the B-17 did. These came off the assembly line at the rate of 1 per hour during the height of the war. Lots of women worked in these factories riveting this stuff together. I was able to see the memphis belle in person at mud island in memphis. Looking at the riveting that was done to build these you can tell that these things were definitely built in a hurry.

Theres lots lots more. I figured you would be interested in the powerplants and mechanical stuff first. Feel free to pick my brain for more. I love this stuff.