I was feeding the dogs when I heard the sound of radial engines

[JimT]

loud .. powerful ... I scanned for it and climbing through the clouds was B-25! It had just taken off from the Georgetown, Texas airport which is 5 or 6 miles away. Beautiful sight!

[PriseDeFer]

Texas to Tokyo...yeah, probably just make it. One way.

[GunnyMack]

There is nothing like the sound of a radial except for a Rolls Royce/ Merlin V12!
If you need a 'fix ' for aviation engines ya gotta go to Reno air races !

[2ndovc]

Cool!

There's an aviation museum not far from us that has a B-25. I still run outside to see it if I hear it coming.
There was a B-17 that used to fly in for the Cleveland air show. I'd catch that one flying through once in a while.

jb

[COSteve]

During the summer and fall air shows in and around the Denver area they frequently have flying displays where people can purchase a seat in the likes of a B-17, B-24 or B-25. Invariably, they fly a box route with one leg cruising down the front range. As our valley is nestled there, we get to see those majestic warbirds lumbering down our valley about 1,000 ft above us.

They are always a welcome sight and sound with their rumbling radials and our neighbors frequently stop to watch them go overhead. As a symbol of when the people of the United States stood for something other than their own self interest as is the case now, they remind us that in the past, Americans could truly came together as one nation to stand against the evil in the world.

I don't think the far left radicals running the country or the snowflakes who would be forced to serve have the fortitude, the will or the ability to do what previous generations were proud to do.

[JimT]

There is nothing like the sound of a radial except for a Rolls Royce/ Merlin V12!
If you need a 'fix ' for aviation engines ya gotta go to Reno air races !

A while back I was walking down the road here and behind me I heard it coming. No mistaking the sound! A beautiful P-51 Mustang came over and I am not sure what or why - I was feeling good - but it really raised my spirits further!

[AJMD429]

.
“…As a symbol of when the people of the United States stood for something other than their own self interest as is the case now, they remind us that in the past, Americans could truly came together as one nation to stand against the evil in the world.

I don't think the far left radicals running the country or the snowflakes who would be forced to serve have the fortitude, the will or the ability to do what previous generations were proud to do.
…”

I pray you are wrong but I fear you are right.

Our ‘baby boomer’ generation somehow messed up parenting for the most part. Perhaps we had it too easy when we were growing up.

[Bill in Oregon]

I'm another radial freak, but if that radial is a Merlin, I am transported!

[Grizz]

There is nothing like the sound of a radial except for a Rolls Royce/ Merlin V12!
If you need a 'fix ' for aviation engines ya gotta go to Reno air races !

A while back I was walking down the road here and behind me I heard it coming. No mistaking the sound! A beautiful P-51 Mustang came over and I am not sure what or why - I was feeling good - but it really raised my spirits further!

I agree about that sound. There is an A-26 that flys around here sometimes. Music. Dad used to say that if God meant for engines to be flat, Pratt and Whitney would have made them that way.... old pilot joke from the days when airlines were flying war surplus DC-3s with war surplus DC3 pilots.

[marlinman93]

Must be some air shows going on somewhere around our town too. I was outside washing the car a week ago when I heard the distinct sound of an old prop plane. I looked up and saw three P51 Mustangs flying over in formation! Something about hearing and seeing those makes me just stop and watch them for as long as I can, until they disappear out of sight. They simply mesmerize me with the sound and look of an old WWII fighter flying over!

[JimT]

I agree about that sound. There is an A-26 that flys around here sometimes. Music. Dad used to say that if God meant for engines to be flat, Pratt and Whitney would have made them that way.... old pilot joke from the days when airlines were flying war surplus DC-3s with war surplus DC3 pilots.

In 1966 I was in the 55th Aviation Company in Korea. We had de Havilland Beavers with their big ole R-985 Pratt & Whitney Wasp Jr. engine. I was a crew chief and was flying with an Officer one day. We got the Beaver ready to go, got into it and the battery was dead. I told him I would get out and crank it but he said, "No. Just do what I tell you." He got out and told me make sure the magnetos were off and to stand on the brakes. Then he pulled the engine through 3 or 4 times. After that he said to stay on the brakes and turn the magnetos on. He gave that big ole prop a flip and the engine fired right up. He was a small guy .. maybe 5' 8" ... but he knew what he was doing. I have never seen anyone else hand prop one of those, though I am sure someone does it all the time.

[Grizz]

I agree about that sound. There is an A-26 that flys around here sometimes. Music. Dad used to say that if God meant for engines to be flat, Pratt and Whitney would have made them that way.... old pilot joke from the days when airlines were flying war surplus DC-3s with war surplus DC3 pilots.

In 1966 I was in the 55th Aviation Company in Korea. We had de Havilland Beavers with their big ole R-985 Pratt & Whitney Wasp Jr. engine. I was a crew chief and was flying with an Officer one day. We got the Beaver ready to go, got into it and the battery was dead. I told him I would get out and crank it but he said, "No. Just do what I tell you." He got out and told me make sure the magnetos were off and to stand on the brakes. Then he pulled the engine through 3 or 4 times. After that he said to stay on the brakes and turn the magnetos on. He gave that big ole prop a flip and the engine fired right up. He was a small guy .. maybe 5' 8" ... but he knew what he was doing. I have never seen anyone else hand prop one of those, though I am sure someone does it all the time.

That's a great memory. The Beavers were one of the main transportation aircraft in SE Alaska, along with the single engine Otters, the Grumman Goose until they crashed all of them, Cessna 206, and now days Cessna Caravan, a dream ride. But Beavers are still hanging in there. Main problem is sourcing parts for the round motors. All on amphibious floats except the Goose, one of my all time favorite rides...

Crew Chief is one of the best jobs in aviation because (most) pilots can't fix 'em !

[jeepnik]

Sadly it looks like the Reno races are finished.

[Bill in Oregon]

I've only flown into Juneau once and my first impression on final approach was, "Omigosh, look at all those DeHavillands parked on the water!"

[Ray]

There is nothing like the sound of a radial except for a Rolls Royce/ Merlin V12!
If you need a 'fix ' for aviation engines ya gotta go to Reno air races !

A while back I was walking down the road here and behind me I heard it coming. No mistaking the sound! A beautiful P-51 Mustang came over and I am not sure what or why - I was feeling good - but it really raised my spirits further!

It was caught on film but it looks more like a spitfire.....

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7QJNz-p1o ... 5nIHNjZW5l

Yes there are panzers lurking in the shade but nobody could convince Browning of it.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ee_oDopd7 ... c2NlbmU%3D

The whole......

https://archive.org/details/a-bridge-to ... garde-1977

Should have sent Patton !

[1894cfan]

There is nothing like the sound of a radial except for a Rolls Royce/ Merlin V12!
If you need a 'fix ' for aviation engines ya gotta go to Reno air races !

The LAST Reno air race was held last weekend and ended in a couple T-6s colliding and crashing after the LAST T-6 Gold race! The end of an era ended in 2 deaths and a loss of a couple T-6s!

[GunnyMack]

I only went twice, the first year there were no accidents but there was the second time, a P51 wrecked on landing.
There have been accidents just about every year.
What I'll remember most is the couple hours I got to spend with Pappy Boyington!! Oh and the SR71 coming in low and slow then punching the burners, yanking the stick back and going straight up!

[JMick]

I was working in central America in the mid '8o's when a pair of P51's came roaring through a mountain pass I was in. I found out that they were sold as close air support to the country I was in.

What a joy to see and hear that! Felt like I was moved 40 years back in time.

[Nath]

Last summer a Lancaster flew by.
Sounded superb.

IMG_20220710_163542.jpg

[KWK]

Yesterday I finally took a ride on a DC-3. It is the oldest one flying, made in 1937. It's been more or less restored to its original condition, although the gal who doubled as stewardess confessed it had a much later version of the Wright Cyclone. As such, it would have benefitted from the great strides in piston engine output made during the war, and it certainly had plenty of power to lift the 23 of us on board.

Its flight before ours circled mid-field on landing, giving everyone on the ground a chance to hear its sound. I don't think there's a prettier engine sound than those biggest 9 cylinder radials, although a Griffon Spitfire ain't far behind. There's no supercharger whistle as on the Merlins, just a nice, deep throb out of the pair of Cyclones. (At the same show many years ago where I heard the Griffon Spitfire, there was also a later production Wildcat, which used the Cyclone. To my ear, the Cyclone was the nicer sounding engine.)

The big 9's do buzz the airframe quite a bit, but the worst part was the seats. I'm pretty tall, and while not fat, my hips simply won't fit between the armrests on the chairs. I was quite surprised how narrow they were and asked the stewardess if they were so on the originals. She assured me they were, and mentioned the average weight of an American at that time was about 140 lb (which seems a bit low). I looked for photos of the interior from the era, and it did appear the seats were quite narrow.

So, I squirm into my seat kind of sideways. Next I notice my eyes are well above the window tops, so this means no good view of the horizon, which combined with the bumpy air of the late afternoon seems likely to make for that funny feeling in the stomach. It did, but no where near enough to make me reach for the sack.

It was good to attend, and I recommend it if you have the chance.

[piller]

B24s mentioned. A common name for them was MY ACHIN' BACK. One of about a dozen with that name was flown off of Fiji diring WWII. I guess they caused some unpleasant time while flying them.

[1894cfan]

The GM Wildcat was called the FM-2. Bigger engine and taller tail to handle the extra power. Most of the Wildcats flying these days are the FM-2 variety as one guy bought a bunch of them after the war for some reason or other.

[Walt]

It used to be quite common in NM to hear big radial engines overhead during forest fire season. The sound came from P2V Neptunes which had been converted to slurry bombers, flying out of Albuquerque and dropping fire retardant in the northern part of the state. The P-3 Orions which took over the task had turboprop engines and didn't have the low rpm ground-shaking thunder of the Neptune's radials.

[Sixgun]

At our gun club, the treasurer, Milt Smith told me the best $3,500 he ever spent in his life was in a P-51 Mustang trainer at the Lancaster Air Show.

https://www.dailylocal.com/2016/09/13/p ... mens-club/