[Fot] Header primary lengths

[Bill Babcock]

Erm... I knew that, what was I thinking. I've seen a Corsair twin radial Wasp
engine disassembled for pete's sake. I guess the vision of a spinning ww1
radial is just very persistent.

 I just recently spent a day at the evergreen aviation museum in McMinnville,
OR. Cool place, current home of the spruce goose and a SR-71 blackbird as well
as a lot of ww2 warbirds, a titan missle, a russian space capsule and tons of
other stuff. that's a place you've got to see if you're nuts about aircraft.
rumor is they are going to have a shuttle soon.



-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Porter [mailto:portermd at zianet.com]
Sent: Mon 1/8/2007 5:14 AM
To: Terry Stetler
Cc: Bill Babcock; SHANE Ingate; fot at autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [Fot] Header primary lengths

Terry Stetler wrote:

>
>
>     ----- Original Message -----
>     From: Bill Babcock <mailto:BillB at bnj.com>
>     To: Terry Stetler <mailto:tlizzard at msn.com> ; Michael Porter
>     <mailto:portermd at zianet.com>
>     Cc: SHANE Ingate <mailto:hottr6 at hotmail.com> ; fot at autox.team.net
>     <mailto:fot at autox.team.net>
>     Sent: Sunday, January 07, 2007 9:55 PM
>     Subject: RE: [Fot] Header primary lengths
>
>
>     "Big radials had short pipes because the engines rotated."
>
>
>
>     Only WW1 era rotary engines such as the Gnome Rhone had the
>     cylinders rotating around a fixed crankshaft with the propeller
>     bolted to the block.  A the WW2 radials, such as the Wright
>     Cyclone R2600 and Pratt and Whitney Twin Wasp R2800 were
>     conventional in that the engine block was stationary and the
>     crankshaft rotated inside it.
>
>     I know I'm picking nits here, but I do love aircraft.
>

And, you're absolutely right, Terry.

And, further, most aircraft engines, at least the WWII variety, had
short pipes because of weight (a primary concern for aircraft), and not
for additional thrust, as some commenters have previously mentioned. If
thrust were a consideration, the pipes would be angled directly
rearward, not down, or in all directions, as with radials.


Cheers.


--
Michael D. Porter
Roswell, NM

Never let anyone drive you crazy when you know it's within walking
distance....