Thread: Bird Watching

Tweet

Been out in the garage most of the day piddling. Upon cleaning up some I found my old binoculars and did a little bird watching. The local airport is very close by and I am right under the flight path. We have at least one B-25 and a B-17, C.A.F., hanger-ed there. When those big prop jobs lumber over the house at low altitude, wheels knocking shingles off the roof, you can't mistake the sound of War Birds. When there's an air show nearby it sounds like Pearl Harbor. Well OK not that many planes but you get the idea. I always loved the sound of prop fighters and bombers. I am way too young to have been alive during the war, but it always fascinated me. My Granddad was 4F, and worked at a plant assembling P-38's during the war. I did not get any pics of the planes today, too many trees , but I threw a couple of scrounged photos so the Kids will know what I'm talking about.........

B-25
b25_image.jpg

B-17
4a661b5d6dc8c8ebb94d790736cc9a4c.jpg

Nothing like the sound of a big radial thundering by with tuned exhaust and no sound attenuation. Harley's of the air...

A bunch of years ago the local Air Nat. Guard went from the C97's to C130's. The 130's still rumble nicely when they pass over on their touch and goes training, but the old piston P&W's on those converted KC97's were great -and better yet when you were riding one as I did a few times while 'puttin' in' the balance of my commitment once out of the army. Someday, maybe I'll do the CAF tour.

i do not know if i would go along with the HD of the air i know a guy that buit a plane around a pratt and whitney 985 i think. he came down by the golf club with that monster i do not know how much throttle he gave it but i would bet was abit.... i did hear the prop sound and the sound of a radial like a mad bee .it was Awesome . at about that time they were selling corn cob radials new in the can for cheap i think under $3000. WWII stuff left overs ? i wanted him to buy one bolt it to the shop floor just to hear the sound of one of them monsters

they sure sound sweet with all 4 running in perfect sinc---

there was a surplus yard not far from our shop in LA that had lots of wing tanks(streamliner lakesters anyone) and dozens of 3350s and 4660? ---early 70s---then the Japs came in and bought up all the ww2 surplas including the mothballed naval fleets, submarines aircraft---just for scrap metal to melt down and make hondas, toyotas and other junk


that is P & W 4360 wasp----lots of interesting stuff if you google it--try the airforce museum at wright pat

On Veteran's Day a few ww2 fighters flew over for our parade. Love watching them, this year a P51 had a smoke plume coming off each wing as it flew over, but the real heart stopper was the low pitched base sound of a 60's chopper flying right over the power poles. One of my Vietnam Vet friends who was a medic over there, said it brought back all kinds of memories for him, most not good! I think I even might have spied a corsair, which is my all time favorite aircraft. It was going away from me into the hazzy sky with clouds conceiling too much to be sure. There was also a Japanese Zero flying with the mustang! I think I could spend a whole day just watching them make passes over the downtown!

Originally Posted by pat mccarthy

i do not know if i would go along with the HD of the air

I learned radials on the old R1820 P&W's used on Navy trainers. We have a few of the "Commemorative Air Force" planes stationed nearby, and that distinctive low RPM "thump" of a strong radial engine in a power cruise setting is easy for my ears to pick out as they cruise by, kind of like hearing an old Harley cruising by compared to a pack of the crotch rocket cafe racers running down the road with their high pitched whine. Put four of the big radials together, all well tuned and synched up and it's a symphony in the air - nothing like that sound for anyone who ever worked on or around them.

that Jap Zero probably was an AT6---for the movies Tora,Tora,Tora--there weren't any Zeros so they painted up some AT6s which vaquely look somewhat the same and used them in the movie--I was told at the time that thats what had been done before also--

speaking of the all synced up sound--with my fingers getting kinky and catchy with old age I don't know if i could sync them up as easy as in the older days--looking at modern time frames--it would be 6 decades ago---60s,70s,80s,90s,00s,nows--

The corn cob earlier mentioned was a Pratt & Whitney 4360----28 cylinders, 56 spark plugs (didn't B36 have 6 of them????) and 4 J47 jets

I referenced P&W for the R1820 but it was actually a Curtis-Wright design - nine cylinder radial, single row. Apparently the R1820 was also built under license by Lycoming, Pratt & Whitney, and even Studebaker during the war. The R3350 was two R1820's stacked, but used a slightly shorter stroke. Most had seven or nine cylinders per row, but I read that they experimented with an eleven cylinder design that never was used in production. Whoever thought of the single throw crank, master rod design was a smart cookie, in my book.

All radials are groups of odd number of cylinders---

Originally Posted by rspears

I referenced P&W for the R1820 but it was actually a Curtis-Wright design - nine cylinder radial, single row. Apparently the R1820 was also built under license by Lycoming, Pratt & Whitney, and even Studebaker during the war. The R3350 was two R1820's stacked, but used a slightly shorter stroke. Most had seven or nine cylinders per row, but I read that they experimented with an eleven cylinder design that never was used in production. Whoever thought of the single throw crank, master rod design was a smart cookie, in my book.

how about the sopwith camel the crank was bolted on the fire wall and the jugs spun around the crank. some think roller lifters are new i like the old radials but like the corn cobs and i am more of a liberty /merlin /alisons guy . the 540 lycoming engines are cool have seen some built and hone out some jugs on one they have some choke in the bore .l like the history of the old lost oil engines with valve springs that look like bed spring cool stuff like this at wrigth pat museum

https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=7d411...CD39BC7D%21295

Try this like and if it works maybe someone like Roger can post them--

Will try this again - download to my computer was wierd...

Originally Posted by jerry clayton

Try this like and if it works maybe someone like Roger can post them--

OK, here ya' go Jerry, groups of five, trying it again:

Originally Posted by rspears

OK, here ya' go Jerry, groups of five, trying it again:

Group two of three...