catcrew
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 72
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Post by catcrew on Nov 10, 2016 15:22:41 GMT 12
www.xp-82twinmustangproject.com/If you have some spare time, the blogs on this site are well worth reading. I have been following this for a few years. It looks like this machine will be a flier fairly soon. They have run both engines already. This has been a painstaking restoration and Tom Reilly deserved a lot of praise for seeing the project to this stage. Unlike some, he has not kept it secret, but has put up his blog monthly with excellent photos and descriptions of the work. Highly recommended. CC
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Post by Dave Homewood on Nov 10, 2016 20:40:52 GMT 12
Tom Reilly has appeared several times on Warbird Radio talking about this project, it's really amazing. It's surprising how little in common it has with the P-51D, partswise.
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Post by ZacYates on Nov 11, 2016 7:12:39 GMT 12
I've been following along for a year or so, what a great project and what a stunning finish. Truly a great piece of work!
I'm very thankful to Tom for taking the time to share so much with us. What a golden age to live in as an enthusiast.
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Post by Mustang51 on Nov 15, 2016 7:15:11 GMT 12
I too have been following this from the very start (having a mild interest in Mustangs) and the challenges faced and workmanship exhibited in the rebuild are nothing short of amazing. Spoke to one of the pilots from the CAF once who described the very 'weird' feeling of rolling the F.82. He said it was a corkscrew in effect as he was not at the centre of the roll and that it felt very strange the first few times. Cannot wait to see her flying. Its only a short hop from where we disassembled and shipped Temora's ex-RAAF Vampire all those years ago!
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Post by Dave Homewood on Nov 15, 2016 8:37:25 GMT 12
"(having a mild interest in Mustangs)"
Bahahahahahaha!!!!!!!
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Post by Mustang51 on Jan 24, 2017 14:23:10 GMT 12
Getting close to completion........ cannot wait till the first cowled engine runs and that fingernail chewing first flight. Wonder what he is going to do about it after its done all its test flying and off to Oshkosh?
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jan 24, 2017 14:26:10 GMT 12
Hasn't he also got a B-17 to restore?
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Post by Mustang51 on Jan 24, 2017 16:21:39 GMT 12
He has all manner of wondrous things waiting for restoration.
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Post by nuuumannn on Jan 25, 2017 10:05:49 GMT 12
And in the production F-82 NA went back to the Allison (prototypes had the Packard V-1650), the engine the Mustang was designed for. Looking forward to seeing pics of it in the air.
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Post by Mustang51 on Jan 26, 2017 11:43:00 GMT 12
Only reason they did that - or at least the major reason - was that they did not wish to continue paying royalties to Rolls Royce for using the Merlin.
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catcrew
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 72
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Post by catcrew on Jan 3, 2019 11:01:44 GMT 12
You beauty, it has flown
"From Tom Reilly
"On 31 December 2018, our XP-82 Twin Mustang flew for the first time since 14 December 1949. Although it wasn’t supposed to fly yesterday, all that was planned to do was the last FAA required runway high-speed taxi test, lift off for a second or two and then back down, deploy full flaps and brake to a stop. It accelerated so fast after the planned lift off that Ray, our test pilot, realized that getting it back down and stopping it in the remaining runway would be marginal. So... he pushed the power back up and flew for about five minutes.
The unexpected and dramatic acceleration of our XP-82 at 55 inches of manifold pressure occurred because it was approaching three times the horsepower of a single engine Mustang and one and a half times the weight. The XP-82 has 1860 hp each side for total of 3720 hp, compared to 1500 hp for the P-51. Our XP-82 weighs approximately only 1 1/2 times more than a P-51 - 14,700 lbs. compared to 9500 lbs. for the P-51.
The very short gear-down flight showed zero airframe squawks, hands-off no trim required, with all engine temps and pressures normal.
This wonderful test flight came after a 10.5 year restoration encompassing 207,000 labor hours. Many thanks to Ray Fowler, our test pilot and all of the men and women that made this restoration possible. Thank you, Tom Reilly.."
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jan 3, 2019 11:13:59 GMT 12
Ah yes I saw that on Facebook, bloody great stuff!
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Post by davidd on Jan 3, 2019 14:44:47 GMT 12
I personally doubt that the reason for utilising the Allison instead of the Packard V-1650 was to avoid paying royalties to the cash-strapped British people. I imagine it was to avoid using a non-American engine in an American airframe, simple. It was all about National pride (and probably quite a bit of nudging from General Motors). Rolls Royce (if they had any sense of history) must have been tickled pink when they purchased the Allison company from General Motors in 1995.
David D
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Post by vultee43 on Jan 3, 2019 17:01:31 GMT 12
Possibly also to do with the opposite gearing and rotation of the airscews. May have been too difficult to re-engineer the Packard Merlin.
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Post by baz62 on Jan 4, 2019 15:21:08 GMT 12
May have been too difficult to re-engineer the Packard Merlin. Don't think so as it's mainly to do with the reduction gear box. And don't forget they had Merlins in the DH Hornet with one turning the other way so it could be done. Actually it was done wasn't it as the first one had Merlins. |
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Post by baz62 on Jan 4, 2019 15:24:41 GMT 12
Actually looks like the first 20 or so were Merlin powered (P82B) and post war new model with Allisons developed.
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Post by isc on Jan 4, 2019 23:09:27 GMT 12
According to my info "Fighters of the Second World War" vol 4 by William Green,. The XP-82 had Packard Merlins, V-1650-23/35, LH and RH engines, the third prototype had two Allison 1710-119 engines with both engines turning the same direction. And so ended WW2. Production went ahead after the war, the F-82 E (post 1948) had counter rotating Allison V-1710-143/145 engines. isc
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Post by vultee43 on Jan 5, 2019 0:21:43 GMT 12
True. I do remember reading this now. I also remember the Merlin powered aircraft being reasonably faster than the Allison counterparts.
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Post by isc on Jan 5, 2019 13:41:46 GMT 12
Yes, and the Merlin engine P-82 were relegated to training aircraft, and it was the unusual situation of the training aircraft having a higher performance than the operational aircraft.
A wee design note; The engines as originally fitted caused the centre section to have no lift, so they swapped them around and got the lift back. I seem to remember that Lockheed had the same thing happen with the prototype of the Lightning. isc
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Post by oj on Jan 5, 2019 21:34:13 GMT 12
Explain this further please regarding the loss of centre section lift.
Is it related to the propeller tip vortices washing the fuselage in an undesirable sense?
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