It's a beautiful symphony of engineering, but it's no surprise they dropped these complex wonders for jet engines. I can't imagine the maintenance involved with a b36 for example...
Commercial airliners equipped with those engines were actually capable of flying at the same cruising speed as modern commercial jets today. If you fly from Seattle to Los Angeles on a 737 you're cruising speeds going to be about 300 to 350 mph
That's about the best, smoothest running 4360 ever, certainly the start-up was faster/better than most. The guy in the test cell's operator's booth sure has a great technique.
Our guys groups aeronautical not that slow but you may be right I may be wrong but the planes will keep going anyway I've seen these aircraft com back mising motors mising aircraft insignia mising motors before take off kinda pised me and employed right fuck off did notice our mising moter fore few minutes employ filed equipment loss expenditures
Think about it in terms of HP per cubic inch. The R-2800 program matched the 4360 in output power production - Read 'Dependable Masterpiece' on the 2800 by Graham White, who also wrote the omnibus reference on the 4360, 'R-4360 P&W's Major Miracle'
@@BKD70 Not familiar with this one in particular, but big radials usually ran a max rpm of around 2600-2800 RPM with the Wright 3350 Turbo-Compound at 2900, if memory serves. Using the figures from @88SC above, your guess is pretty close.
I worked on these when they were new and for many years afterwards with the Kansas Air National Guard. Pratt & Whitney designed these engine's air cooling systems to work as seven separate Inline 4 cylinder engines literally "with a twist". You may look at several different inline air cooled engines and if you imagine prop-blast doing the job of the belt-driven fan on those other engines, and when installed in an aircraft (like this one isn't) the plane's cowling being the "roof" of the cooling air ductwork - then you can see what PW did here. Instead of the air going straight back through say two rows of cylinders - PW directed the air to pressurize a "lane" between each semi-inline "bank" of cylinders, made it turn SIDEWAYS to feed air over four cylinders, then directed the hot air to turn again and go out the engine. Here - let me see if I can find you a picture of an air cooled inline engine. ruclips.net/video/lWNr1AuCYJk/видео.html Inline 6 Deutz air cooled turbo diesel - but it shows the method of cooling pretty well. Probably the most famous radial engine for catching fire was the early Curtis Wright R-3350 used in the B-29 bombers. There was a war on, there was an atom bomb to be dropped, and CW cheaped out and used cast aluminum cylinder heads. 1) The metal can have pinholes in it 2) It's less dense and weighs less per cubic inch and cant have as much silicon in it for strength, 3) The cylinder fins cant be as smooth, thin and closely spaced as what PW did on all their newer engines - which was to smash (forge) aluminum into the shape they wanted (hi dollar pistons are made this way) and then use UBER-FANCY gangs of slitting saws to whittle cooling fins out of solid metal. Nowadays of course we would use CNC to make those cooling fins - but artistic mechanically cam-actuated rows of gang saws were used in a completely automated machining center. They would load the machine center with cylinder head forgings, shut the lights out and come back the next morning to see them all done. Power goes out overnight? No problem. No need to reset anything, Machine stopped moving at power-off - - then resumed right where it left when power came back on. Cant do that with CNC EVER, lol.
If it ain’t smoking’, it’s out of oil! 28 cylinders, 56 spark plugs, what could go wrong? I have 4,000 hours flying radial engine airplanes and loved every minute, even when they failed.
Has anyone ever considered building some kind of insane land vehicle around one of these monstrosities? Maybe a big Bizzaro Truck or something! Obviously, you would need large, extremely powerful electric fans to cool the thing!
The 3,500+ HP figures were predicated on the use of 115/145 octane fuel, which hasn't been available for at least 40 years. So you're looking at a 3,000 HP engine max, and there are easier, cheaper, and more reliable ways to get 3,000 hp to a crank flange.
These 4360s are so complex, and have so many internal moving parts, that it is a tremendously daunting task for any 1 mechanic to tend to. Taking care of your own airplane is easier. *i work on 6 cylinder turbocharged airplane piston engines for a living!* And if it were up to me, i would have 2 trained mechanics to each 4360. I could not, in good conscience, leave 1 mechanic alone with one. Regardless of his skill level or competence. Too much. Just to ram the scope of this home. 28 cylinders. 7 magnetos 28 fuel injector distribution lines. One *monster* of a carburetor. To list a few routine checks: 28 compression checks after x number of hours in use. Each compression check requiring that gigantic 4 blade propeller to be turned a certain amount for the check to be done. (I'll explain a compression check if anyone replies asking for it.) 56 spark plugs. (2 per cylinder for redundancy) All of which, periodically, need to be cleaned in a specific way, gapped to a very specific size, and replaced if they're worn down too much. 7 magnetos. (Component that generates ignition sparks.) Placed at the very front of the engine, each sparking the 4 cylinders directly behind it. Those black stubby things with the tin caps sitting afront each row. All these magnetos have to, periodically, have their timing adjusted, so each of their corresponding cylinders fires up at the exact moment it's designed to. AND, each magneto has to be timed up *with each other.* So the engine has symmetric firings at all times. As their timing drifts out of sync with use. (I'm gonna guess 7 cylinders are synchronistically firing at any given moment, given it's a 4-stroke engine. ) An engine this big and heavy *Has to be* turbocharged. Otherwise it would be a glorified brick in terms of power-to-weight. (This is why turbine engines are better at this size. *Much* more power for the size & weight of the engine) That turbo must be absolutely *gargantuan,* to provide the necessary compressed air to all those cylinders. Turbocharging increased the complexity of the air induction system. And the exhaust system. Lots of piping running all around the engine. 2 connected to each and every cylinder. 56 valves. 28 intake, 28 exhaust. All of which need to, once in awhile, be checked for wear with a small inspection mirror. Or, in more modern times, a borescope would be used. I have no doubt that the aft-most bank of cylinders got the least amount of cooling air run over them, ran the hottest, and had to be replaced most often. And i also have no doubt that those are the hardest cylinders to change. And i can't even IMAGINE how much oil this beast needs. Probably around 10 gallons. Maybe even more. These are the commonplaces procedures that would have to be done to keep this engine running relatively well. I feel for the overhaul shop that has to do the full inside-and-out overhaul of a 4360. I love vintage engines, but Nooooo thank you.
Beautiful engine. I never understood how the lower half of the radial engines are able to work without any problem. Doesn't the oil have to be drained from those cylinders before start up? Do these engines have oil pan?
Yes they do, the prop has to be turned over by hand to avoid hydro lock. No oil pan. Some, depending on the engine they have a 35 to 45 gallon oil tank.
@@juanramirez3566 I heard that aside from Mechanical issues that crop up, you were not necessarily limited by fuel but more by oil supply for the radial engines. Jet engine only have a fraction of the oil supply and hardly burn it, little different store for the rotaries.
Yea; if it sits for a few days have to pull plugs n drain lower cylinders...then pull em through 8 12 blades before start....hydro lock can break rods everytime !
You know... ...the powercases were attached to each other with dozens of "torque to yield" bolts. They were not torqued to a specific torque. They were tightened and measured until they reached the proper stretch. Building a corncob engine was not something that could be done in a rush.
26MAR2021 - Wonderful in every respect. A work of art never to be exceeded in its class. Now for the cherry on top, give Vance and Hines a blank check and let them build an exhaust.
It's a beautiful symphony of engineering, but it's no surprise they dropped these complex wonders for jet engines. I can't imagine the maintenance involved with a b36 for example...
Damn. That engine sounds angry.
That engine looks like it's got enough power to spin that prop right into a centrifugal explosion. Wow...
All I can hear is the sound of a whirlpool in the fuel tank
Id imagine that prop would suck you through it like a blender
Commercial airliners equipped with those engines were actually capable of flying at the same cruising speed as modern commercial jets today. If you fly from Seattle to Los Angeles on a 737 you're cruising speeds going to be about 300 to 350 mph
Chrome headers? That's not factory.
That's about the best, smoothest running 4360 ever, certainly the start-up was faster/better than most. The guy in the test cell's operator's booth sure has a great technique.
And what major engineering fault destroyed this motor ?????
This thing literally sounds like a fraight train 🚆 🤔
American muscle!
The epitomy of radial bank engines 😀👍
Like music.
Our guys groups aeronautical not that slow but you may be right I may be wrong but the planes will keep going anyway I've seen these aircraft com back mising motors mising aircraft insignia mising motors before take off kinda pised me and employed right fuck off did notice our mising moter fore few minutes employ filed equipment loss expenditures
I like the sound of radial engine the R 1800 and R 2800 series engine sound is fantastic 👌
Wonder if I could install that beast in my pickup truck? I can't even begin to imagine the racket that thing must make at full throttle.
28 cylinders / 4 banks
With high gas prices today if we still flew the b36 Joe Biden would have grounded the air force.
I wonder how much hp it takes to start the beast.
Wonder how much fuel was needed per engin hour
600 gph....
Imagine trying to find the fouled spark plug . LOL.
That's what good flight engineers and Bendix ignition analyzers were for.
Beautiful engine!!! Just one hell of a lot of maintenance!!
The interesting part about these engines was the fact that so long ago they produced performance which was unheard of in the automotive industry.
Think about it in terms of HP per cubic inch. The R-2800 program matched the 4360 in output power production - Read 'Dependable Masterpiece' on the 2800 by Graham White, who also wrote the omnibus reference on the 4360, 'R-4360 P&W's Major Miracle'
Well you can't really put that in a car you know lol
Juan Ramirez, do you know if the 4360 is a direct drive prop, or does it go through a gear reduction, and if so, what is the ratio?
@@BKD70 Not familiar with this one in particular, but big radials usually ran a max rpm of around 2600-2800 RPM with the Wright 3350 Turbo-Compound at 2900, if memory serves. Using the figures from @88SC above, your guess is pretty close.
Amazing! Although I imagine the rear cylinders struggled for air, hence reported fires.
I worked on these when they were new and for many years afterwards with the Kansas Air National Guard. Pratt & Whitney designed these engine's air cooling systems to work as seven separate Inline 4 cylinder engines literally "with a twist". You may look at several different inline air cooled engines and if you imagine prop-blast doing the job of the belt-driven fan on those other engines, and when installed in an aircraft (like this one isn't) the plane's cowling being the "roof" of the cooling air ductwork - then you can see what PW did here. Instead of the air going straight back through say two rows of cylinders - PW directed the air to pressurize a "lane" between each semi-inline "bank" of cylinders, made it turn SIDEWAYS to feed air over four cylinders, then directed the hot air to turn again and go out the engine. Here - let me see if I can find you a picture of an air cooled inline engine. ruclips.net/video/lWNr1AuCYJk/видео.html Inline 6 Deutz air cooled turbo diesel - but it shows the method of cooling pretty well. Probably the most famous radial engine for catching fire was the early Curtis Wright R-3350 used in the B-29 bombers. There was a war on, there was an atom bomb to be dropped, and CW cheaped out and used cast aluminum cylinder heads. 1) The metal can have pinholes in it 2) It's less dense and weighs less per cubic inch and cant have as much silicon in it for strength, 3) The cylinder fins cant be as smooth, thin and closely spaced as what PW did on all their newer engines - which was to smash (forge) aluminum into the shape they wanted (hi dollar pistons are made this way) and then use UBER-FANCY gangs of slitting saws to whittle cooling fins out of solid metal. Nowadays of course we would use CNC to make those cooling fins - but artistic mechanically cam-actuated rows of gang saws were used in a completely automated machining center. They would load the machine center with cylinder head forgings, shut the lights out and come back the next morning to see them all done. Power goes out overnight? No problem. No need to reset anything, Machine stopped moving at power-off - - then resumed right where it left when power came back on. Cant do that with CNC EVER, lol.
@@patrickshaw8595 Thanks. Nice description.
3,000 horse power.. << beautiful !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ahhhhhhh love that sound and smell of burning 90wt oil.
A long time past, but I believe it was 50W oil.
Couple cylinders smoking
I want one in my back yard...
Is this what the b29 had in them ?
No....the b50
The -29 have the R-3350
Very cool
Hammers of Hell !!!
Think of the people who gave the propellers the first move, who knows how many were smashed.
Wow! Is that 4 or 5 banks of cylinders that animal has?
4 rows of 7. 4360 cubic inches
@@craigroth8710 Yup. And 56 spark plugs.
Punishment used to be either guard duty or kp.....then it became changing all the B- 36's sparkplugs.
If it ain’t smoking’, it’s out of oil! 28 cylinders, 56 spark plugs, what could go wrong? I have 4,000 hours flying radial engine airplanes and loved every minute, even when they failed.
Has anyone ever considered building some kind of insane land vehicle around one of these monstrosities? Maybe a big Bizzaro Truck or something! Obviously, you would need large, extremely powerful electric fans to cool the thing!
My mind is working on that very project right now
The 3,500+ HP figures were predicated on the use of 115/145 octane fuel, which hasn't been available for at least 40 years. So you're looking at a 3,000 HP engine max, and there are easier, cheaper, and more reliable ways to get 3,000 hp to a crank flange.
I hate the over-used word “awesome…” but this really is! Love the slower shutter speed so the propeller looks like it’s turning.
These 4360s are so complex, and have so many internal moving parts, that it is a tremendously daunting task for any 1 mechanic to tend to. Taking care of your own airplane is easier. *i work on 6 cylinder turbocharged airplane piston engines for a living!* And if it were up to me, i would have 2 trained mechanics to each 4360. I could not, in good conscience, leave 1 mechanic alone with one. Regardless of his skill level or competence. Too much. Just to ram the scope of this home. 28 cylinders. 7 magnetos 28 fuel injector distribution lines. One *monster* of a carburetor. To list a few routine checks: 28 compression checks after x number of hours in use. Each compression check requiring that gigantic 4 blade propeller to be turned a certain amount for the check to be done. (I'll explain a compression check if anyone replies asking for it.) 56 spark plugs. (2 per cylinder for redundancy) All of which, periodically, need to be cleaned in a specific way, gapped to a very specific size, and replaced if they're worn down too much. 7 magnetos. (Component that generates ignition sparks.) Placed at the very front of the engine, each sparking the 4 cylinders directly behind it. Those black stubby things with the tin caps sitting afront each row. All these magnetos have to, periodically, have their timing adjusted, so each of their corresponding cylinders fires up at the exact moment it's designed to. AND, each magneto has to be timed up *with each other.* So the engine has symmetric firings at all times. As their timing drifts out of sync with use. (I'm gonna guess 7 cylinders are synchronistically firing at any given moment, given it's a 4-stroke engine. ) An engine this big and heavy *Has to be* turbocharged. Otherwise it would be a glorified brick in terms of power-to-weight. (This is why turbine engines are better at this size. *Much* more power for the size & weight of the engine) That turbo must be absolutely *gargantuan,* to provide the necessary compressed air to all those cylinders. Turbocharging increased the complexity of the air induction system. And the exhaust system. Lots of piping running all around the engine. 2 connected to each and every cylinder. 56 valves. 28 intake, 28 exhaust. All of which need to, once in awhile, be checked for wear with a small inspection mirror. Or, in more modern times, a borescope would be used. I have no doubt that the aft-most bank of cylinders got the least amount of cooling air run over them, ran the hottest, and had to be replaced most often. And i also have no doubt that those are the hardest cylinders to change. And i can't even IMAGINE how much oil this beast needs. Probably around 10 gallons. Maybe even more. These are the commonplaces procedures that would have to be done to keep this engine running relatively well. I feel for the overhaul shop that has to do the full inside-and-out overhaul of a 4360. I love vintage engines, but Nooooo thank you.
The video made the hair on my neck tingle. Imagine being there in real life ! WOW !
The awesome "corn cob" motor !!!!!!!! :-)
Looks like the test cell in aviation school!!
Beautiful engine. I never understood how the lower half of the radial engines are able to work without any problem. Doesn't the oil have to be drained from those cylinders before start up? Do these engines have oil pan?
Yes they do, the prop has to be turned over by hand to avoid hydro lock. No oil pan. Some, depending on the engine they have a 35 to 45 gallon oil tank.
@@juanramirez3566 I heard that aside from Mechanical issues that crop up, you were not necessarily limited by fuel but more by oil supply for the radial engines. Jet engine only have a fraction of the oil supply and hardly burn it, little different store for the rotaries.
Yea; if it sits for a few days have to pull plugs n drain lower cylinders...then pull em through 8 12 blades before start....hydro lock can break rods everytime !
Now, as an A&P Mechanic, that is the sound of power. An immensely complex machine, but doesn't she sound good.
HOW DARE YOU MISGENDER THAT MACHINE. Maybe it identifies as an elephant today. lol?
@@clutch5sp989 HURRRRR DURRRRR LIBS REKT TWO GENDERS TAKE THAT NACY PELUSO
You know... ...the powercases were attached to each other with dozens of "torque to yield" bolts. They were not torqued to a specific torque. They were tightened and measured until they reached the proper stretch. Building a corncob engine was not something that could be done in a rush.
The Wasp Major: please be gentle with me?
Dear God it's... Beautiful
26MAR2021 - Wonderful in every respect. A work of art never to be exceeded in its class. Now for the cherry on top, give Vance and Hines a blank check and let them build an exhaust.
I'm going to put one in a cessna 150
better then a honda v-tec!!
Dash 20, right?