A one-off modified British experimental Hawker Tempest was used by Napier to test experimental cooling systems for its massive 24-cylinder
liquid-cooled flat H-24 Napier Sabre engine with sleeve valve cylinders. It was fitted with a unique, prominent ducted spinner propeller configuration and an annular radiator.
The "cooling drag" created by the chin radiator has been claimed to comprise 13% of the total drag of the Tempest. By fitting an annular radiator this was expected to be reduced to just 4.5%. Note variations in these photos.
The annular radiator configurations showed genuine performance gains, reducing cooling drag by up to 17.5% and increasing level speeds by 11–14 mph. However, the annular radiator and ducted spinner assembly added roughly 180 lbs in weight, and the complex machinery—including internal cooling fans and sliding annular gills—required tight manufacturing tolerances that offered diminishing returns.
The concept did not fail due to a single mechanical flaw in the cooling itself, but rather because the war ended. With less need post war, the modification didn't proceed beyond the experimental stage.
View attachment 900201
View attachment 900202
View attachment 900203
Earlier Focke-Wulf Fw-190 Prototypes V-1 and V2 featured large, low-drag ducted spinners that gave their noses a bulbous, streamlined look. However, the design severely restricted airflow and caused the
air-cooled BMW 139 14-cylinder, two-row air-cooled radial engine to overheat, prompting Focke-Wulf to abandon the ducted spinner in favor of a conventional spinner and a cooling fan in the BMW 801 versions.
View attachment 900205
View attachment 900206
Annular cooling was also tried on the Ju288 V5 with 2
liquid-cooled Jumo 222s, configured with six inline cylinder banks spaced at equal angles around the crankcase, each bank having four cylinders. The complex 24-cylinder engine was an unreliable failure, never producing hoped for output, dooming the Ju288.
View attachment 900204
Does anyone know of other applications of this potentially promising cooling technique?