Recent content by Stelth

I have been there. An amazing, solemn, moving experience.

I have been interested, off-and-on, in WWII aircraft for probably 50 years. I had never heard of the F3A until this thread. It’s amazing to me that someone could take such a well-proven design, and screw it up badly enough as to make it useless.

Was there a "usual" mechanism of failure for these engines, e.g., ring wear, valve problems, rod bearings, or breakage of certain parts? Also, how did the Chrysler A57 do?

Thanks, guys, this is great info! Parsifal, I read your entire post several times - I had already thought that logistics would be a nightmare for the tankers, it appears that it was even worse than I had thought. Apart from enormous quantities of gasoline, there would have to be numerous...

I recently read in a Wikipedia article that the Panther's Maybach V-12 would last around 960 (1500 km) miles under ideal road conditions, less off-road. Is this correct? This seems like a ludicrously short life for a tank engine, but I haven't been able to find any info on Allied tank engine...

Wow, very cool. I especially love the sound of those big radials. The Polikarpov was awesome.