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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Mar 22, 2016 21:12:26 GMT 12
CLICK HERE for details. In actual fact, this DC-6 was built in 1958, not 1956 as shown in the listing, and it was the very last piston-engine Douglas Commercial airliner built. This aeroplane (and its sister ship) were produced for the Yugoslav Air Force and became VIP transports for President Tito and his entourages. The sister ship (also a DC-6B and the second-to-last piston-engined Douglas Commercial) is now operated by Red Bull and is based in Austria. More photographs of the DC-6B which is for sale HERE. You'd need deep pockets (or a very large syndicate) to operate a heavy-metal toy such as this. Think FOUR Corsair engines and you start to get the picture. The aeroplane is currently in South Africa.
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Post by madmac on Mar 23, 2016 8:17:22 GMT 12
A question for the rivet counters, does the "P" on the engine serial numbers mean any thing (three S/N's a PXXXXX format while the fourth is just XXXXX)
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Post by davidd on Mar 23, 2016 11:27:10 GMT 12
So far as I know, the "P" prefix simply indicates that the engine in question was built by Messrs Pratt & Whitney Aircraft, although this convention was introduced at a certain point in time during WW2 (probably mid-1944) when it was decided to simplify the serial numbers allocated to aero engines ordered for and supplied to the United States military forces. These prefixes included A for Allison, B for Buick, C for Chevrolet, D for Chrysler, F for Ford, H for Nash Kelvinator, S for Studebaker, V for Packard and W for Wright Aeronautical, etc. Of course there were many cases where a standardised engine was built be a firm other than by the original producer, which is why most of the manufacturers listed above are usually associated with the production of motor cars (or refrigerators!) rather than large aircraft engines. Most of the aero-engines supplied to the US Military during this conflict were air-cooled radials, and practically all of these were designed by just the two giants - Pratt & Whitney Aircraft and Wright Aeronautical, so their engines appeared with serial numbers prefixed by such combinations as BP, CP, FP, HP, DW or SW depending on actual manufacturer. Also at about this time the decision was made to allocate only one serial number rather than two to each engine (as was also the case in the RAF), with the separate manufacturer's and a customer numbers (USAAF or USN) giving way to a single number to be used in all correspondence between customer (an arm of the Federal govt) and the manufacturer (civilian contractor) for all purposes. Most of the R-2800 Double Wasps supplied with PV-1, PV-2 (all had -31 engines) and F4U or FG-1 Corsairs (both had -8 or -8W engines) to the RNZAF under Lend-Lease arrangements had plain "P prefixes, but some of the Corsair engines had HP prefixes. I cannot say why one of the engines fitted in the DC-6B did not have the "P" prefix, but as it simply indicated the designer and builder of the engine (which was a post-WW2 model anyway, dating from early 1950s) it was really meaningless anyway by this date. Reference to the makers' plate affixed to the front of the engine (and modification plate, as well as its logbooks) would tell you everything you needed to know about the engine in question. I think licensed production of R-2800 series engines ceased with the end of the war, so all postwar-models were built by the parent company - at least I think that is the story! David D (Rivet Counter inglorious)
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Post by snaphead on Mar 23, 2016 13:24:58 GMT 12
If I could put in my 10 cents worth: My Reference is the June 1978 copy of the P&W Hand book (quite useful data collection), The "P" designation is for P&W .If the engine without the "P" designation was built post 1May 1968 it quite possibly was not marked as such,this is when the ANA Bulletin 306 was replaced by MIL-STD-879. I believe this standard could still be in use?
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Post by davidd on Mar 23, 2016 14:54:07 GMT 12
I would imagine the last R-2800s were built in the late 1950s, with the end of DC-6B production, although the type was also used on some military aircraft during this era including some helicopters such as the Sikorsky heavy lift twin-engine helicopter (H-37 Mojave) and another now-forgotten Navy anti-sub helicopter known as the Bell HSL-1. Other aircraft of the 1940s/50s powered by R-2800s included the Navy's A2J Savage attack bomber, the USAF's Fairchild C-82 transport and two competing types of new generation twin-engine airliners from Martin and Convair, which were designed to replace the DC-3. David D
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Mar 23, 2016 17:57:06 GMT 12
The Canadair CL-215 amphibian flying-boat water-bomber first flew in 1967 (entering service in 1969) and production ended in 1990, with 125 examples produced.
The CL-215 is powered by two 2,100hp Pratt & Whitney R-2800 engines, so if production of this engine ended in the late-1950s, then where did the engines fitted to CL-215s come from?
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Post by davidd on Mar 23, 2016 19:27:17 GMT 12
Damn, I forgot about the CL-215s, strongly suspected that the Canadians might have had a Double Wasp powered aircraft but didn't even suspect a flying boat! I guess that Pratts could have supplied zero-houred engines for the CL-215s, or perhaps P&W Canada could have done the work from parts supplied by the parent. I think that once P&W really got into turbines, they handed over responsibility for continuing support of all the thousands of piston engines still in service over to their Canadian off-shoot. Initially I suspected that the Canadair Argus may have had R-2800s, but no, they chose the bigger Wright R-3350. Have a funny idea that one only of the later Canadian-built DC-4s (pressurised) was also powered by Double Wasps. Dave D
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Mar 24, 2016 22:23:30 GMT 12
Here is an interesting webpage about the DC-6B which is currently for sale.... • c/n 45564
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