Out for my morning walk early this AM
I was rewarded with a nice P-51D that came overhead, approaching the airport. He wasn't close enough to have his gear down yet, but he wasn't too high. I sure love the sound of that engine!
two different Rolls Royce merlin's
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from the GoodWood speed fest in 2013
Merlin's
The Spitfire had a Roles Royce Merlin. The Mustang had a Packard Merlin. Both were 1650 cu. in. same block and sohc heads. Small details were different, like supercharger.
Aircraft engines are totally nutty!
The darnedest thing I ever saw was at an Air Museum in FL. They had a cut-away of some Pratt-Whitney multi-radial. The block had to have been milled from a several thousand pound billet, all one piece. It had multiple radials stacked like pancakes. Something like 27 cylinders and it produced around 3,000 HP or close. The Aircraft that used them had multiple engines of this type.
I cannot imagine working on such a thing much less one with holes poked all in it from bullets or shrapnel! A huge dose of respect and hat tip to those Airmen on any involved level.
Radial aircraft engines
Radial aircraft engines were more durable than liquid cooled engines. The 27 cylinder engine you saw was a Wright 3350. The engines used on B-29's. That is why P-47 flew ground attack and P-51 top cover.
Actually
that 27 cylinder engine is a 28 cylinder Pratt & Whitney 4360, 4 rows of 7 cylinders stacked together. Sometimes called the corn cob engine. The Wright 3350 was 18 cylinders, 2 rows of 9.
In 1974 I flew co-pilot on a C-119 on forest fires most of the "boxes" had the W-3350, the ones this company was running had the P&W-4360.
Tanker 14 departing
Winslow, AZ to a fire in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in 1974.
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