P&W R-4360 Wasp Major in Tauranga

[Radialicious]

I was more than a little bit excited recently to see pictures of an R-4360 engine on display at the Tauranga airshow. My impression was that this was a well preserved and complete engine and I'm hopeful that one day we'll see her as a running exhibit in the same vein as the Allison V-1710 restored by Laurie Gudsell or my own Bristol Hercules. It has been decades since a 4360 has been heard in this part of the world so I have fingers crossed that her owner has that in mind.
The 4360 visited NZ in groups during the time that we hosted the US Antarctic programme and its C-124 Globemaster transports. I think it was the Sport Flying magazine that published a photo of a dozen C-124s flying over Christchurch as a farewell to the city prior to retirement. The photo was taken from a Harvard and its caption made mention of Pratt and Whitney's involvement in the flypast to the tune of over thirteen hundred and fifty cylinders pounding their way across the city!
There are a number of R-4360s around the world restored and presented as runnable exhibition engines and I'm hopeful that this example is headed down a similar path.










I do like this photo taken by Kermit Weeks at last years Reno Air Races of a monster on a chain

[Dave Homewood]

Wow!

[dazz]

Jeez, it's not hard to see why it's nik name was " the corncob " !

[davidd]

What is that monster suspended on a chain? Eight rows of cylinders? - Looks like the power section of a second corncob inserted between the first one and its rear section. However the cylinders kind of look as though they are water cooled, but then so do the cylinders of the 4-row jobs, perhaps the baffling makes it appear so.
David D

[Bruce]

Apr 27, 2014 10:29:58 GMT 12 davidd said:

What is that monster suspended on a chain? Eight rows of cylinders? - Looks like the power section of a second corncob inserted between the first one and its rear section. However the cylinders kind of look as though they are water cooled, but then so do the clinders of the 4-row jobs, perhaps the baffling makes it appear so.
David D

Its a "Joke" engine made up of corncob sections (a good illustration of how modular the engine is!). There wouldn't be any internals since the stand has tiny little castors. Looks cool and has got a lot of people talking about it!

[Ian Warren]

I'd love to see a cutaway showing the intricate engineering, It would impressive to hear that one up and running again, I wish I could remember the last fly past of the C-124, I do remember seeing them parked on the grass opposite Avonhead Rd before they left, course the earlier one trundled past, that would have be 1968/1969 followed by a Connie, can't recall if it was Phoenix or Pegasus.

That was the years when Christchurch International really had some great viewing - water pipe and wire cross fencing airside, miss those days.

[emron]

What ??!! Has Radialicious discovered a bigger brute than a Best of British Bristol behemoth ?
Maybe he needs to bolt another Herc on his stand and run them in tandem. That might match the output.
Now all we need is someone to bring along an R-3350 to compete.

[suthg]

Or a 53L Bristol Centaurus - 2600HP - there is one on NZ and with plenty of spares, but not running yet, and it is spoken for.

[Radialicious]

Haha - yeah it seems my days are numbered as the owner of NZ's largest stationary aircraft engine... Hopefully that's the case as it would be great to see this big engine running in the future. It would certainly be a draw card for any public event at Classic Flyers (if that's where it was to be based). There are many of these engines lurking on YouTube and they are great to watch. US engine collector and author Graham White published a very comprehensive book about the R-4360 and it is a fascinating read. The plans for the engine were mind blowing and I'm sure many P & W designers were relieved that the gas turbine arrived in time for many of these plans to be shelved.





An R-3350 would certainly be a nice addition to the NZ exhibition engine community - especially one of the later turbo-compounded models. They were demanding and difficult engines to maintain on an aircraft but I'm sure would be manageable as a ground runner.



I've seen several of each of these engines on my visits to airfields and museums overseas and they don't always demand big money. Freight and trailer build would possibly match or exceed the cost of the engine in many cases.  With regards to the trailer itself, a lot of thought has to go into the design and build of what is required to make these big engines both portable and safely operable.  Graham Whites advice is that a trailer that is too strong is only strong enough.  That is worthy of consideration when towing these things but more importantly, running them at public events.  Everything about my trailer is over engineered and it was important for me to hire a certified welder for all the important joints in the chassis and the engine mountings.  I once received a comment from someone involved in the construction of the Forsyth Barr stadium in Dunedin that my engine mountings were comparable to the roof span attachments in that building.  
In my early days of running the Hercules, she could be a frightening machine to be involved with.  She no longer scares me but by Jeez, she demands a lot of respect and awareness of what's going on!

I enjoyed watching the following video recently of what appears to be a new addition to the kiwi trailer-monster community - an Allison V-1710 that appears to be from the Hawkes Bay.

[Radialicious]

In the Graham White R-4360 encyclopedia, he writes about the B-36 Peacemaker bomber that was powered by six R-4360's and four J-47 turbojets. At air bases where the B-36 was stationed, they had areas marked out on the ground where the bomber was run at high power for maintenance purposes. These areas were identified as hazardous for ground personnel to stand in or around. Most aircraft have hazardous areas during ground tuns but the B-36 was unique. At certain power settings, the noise and harmonics coming from the engines and propellers was enough to set up a resonance in the diaphragm and/or lungs of some people such that they weren't able to breathe when standing in these areas. Suffocation and collapse was not unheard of during ground running!
In flight, the pusher propellers, engine exhausts and high pressure trailing edge flow from the wings also combined to produce a highly confused noise and airstream behind the aircraft that upset those on the ground and following aircraft alike. It makes me wonder how cool and quirky aircraft would be today if we never invented the gas turbine!

[raz]

the r4360 wasp major now  in tauranga has a mate a wright r3350 turbo compound to keep it company,still needs to be cleaned up,and trailer made for it

[Dave Homewood]

Some photos just in from Mike Feisst

[camtech]

Some serious metal there.