R-4360 test cell run

[88SC]

Short but sweet video:

http://vimeo.com/16117810

The video was posted five months ago, the caption says it's destined for a Corsair and those look like (very shiny) F2G exhaust exhaust stacks. Is it the engine for race 74?

[T. Adams]

Re: R-4360 test cell run

Believe me, I've asked everybody I know when the heck race 74 is getting a motor. I should have asked Bob himself at the DC-3 gathering last summer. I guess I'll have to wait until OSH to try to corner him. It seems to be top secret the way nobody will even let out a hint of information.

[T. Adams]

Re: R-4360 test cell run

It has been confirmed, this is Race 74's engine.

[sierra fox]

Re: R-4360 test cell run

sweet video, indeed!

[JJMONGO]

Re: R-4360 test cell run

Please help me! The last time I remember seeing race 74 it was in the early 90s and attached to Bad Attitude. Who is race 74 now? I am afraid I might have a case of CRS.

Thanks,

[Race5]

Re: R-4360 test cell run

Please help me! The last time I remember seeing race 74 it was in the early 90s and attached to Bad Attitude. Who is race 74 now? I am afraid I might have a case of CRS.

Thanks,

Race 74 is the Cleveland era F2-G Corsair that Bob Odegaard has been restoring.

http://odegaardaviation.homestead.com/hanger.html

[JJMONGO]

Re: R-4360 test cell run

Thank you, I cannot wait to see the finished product with that awesome engine in it.

[planecrazy2]

Re: R-4360 test cell run

Thanks for sharing. Ahhhh....the magnificence.

[First time Juke]

Re: R-4360 test cell run

Incredible machinery...was this the same engine that was also in Spruce Goose...4 of them on one wing ?

[88SC]

Re: R-4360 test cell run

It wouldn't be too foolish a bet, that some of the AAFO regulars can recognize the facility. Dave O. also posted videos of R-2800s and an R4360-63. Both operators of -63s are pretty well-known around these parts!

A couple of nerdish obvservations/questions. The -20 in the embedded video has provisions for the newer hooded baffles (typical for a -20, right?) Does that fit under an F2G cowl? Or will it need retrofitting with the earlier (stock for an F2G) baffle system?

Also, the last corncobs still in operation in the last couple of decades have been the later models - -59s in ex-USAF C-97s and -63s on Supercorsair, Dreadnought and Furias. Race 57 and race 74 are/will be the only ones running the earlier high-tension, seven-mag ignition system. Is that true or is there an old C-119 or two still hauling fish and whatever else up in the frozen north? Is there any advantage in the low tension system vs. high-tension in the envelope in which these racers fly?

[SkyvanDelta]

Re: R-4360 test cell run

What an awesome piece of machinery. I'd love to have the shop that bills the owner on an hourly basis to repair such a beast. Bet the work goes on forever and if the owner gives you a bad time about the high bill, you just thrown the keys back to him and tell him to work on it himself.

Is a motor like this, the most complex piece of moving machinery existing, or are there other more complicated engines?

[AirDOGGe]

Re: R-4360 test cell run

Is a motor like this, the most complex piece of moving machinery existing, or are there other more complicated engines?

Try one of the space shuttle's main engines. VERY complex, with everything running at max limits on the brink of disaster.






Just the complexity of the power-head makes my brain hurt:

[SkyvanDelta]

Re: R-4360 test cell run

Nice comparison AirDogge.

Are there as many and as large moving parts inside the space shuttle motor as compared to the piston motor?

Looks like the space shuttle motor has small electronic valves and you tune it with a computer as compared to pistons and you tune it with wrenches?

If you were being paid by the hour to work on it, your brain would probably see dollar signs.

[jarrodeu]

Re: R-4360 test cell run

Is a motor like this, the most complex piece of moving machinery existing, or are there other more complicated engines?

The Napier Sabre is probably more complex.

Jarrod

[AirDOGGe]

Re: R-4360 test cell run

Well, as far as moving parts go there will be less mechanical movement....That's advancement in technology for you.

But that doesn't make it easier to build or maintain. The parts in the SSMEs are so stressed and critically timed that it's amazing they don't fail more often. Valves have to open or close timed within tenths of a second to keep things from self-destructing.

The turbopumps, for instance, are so powerful that if they are started without any fuel in the lines to resist motion they would accelerate at 400,000 RPM PER SECOND and reach a destructive over-speed rpm in one-tenth of a second!! Even the test stand for the turbopump was so complex it had over 2000 valves!

The compact fuel pump alone (a 13-inch diameter impeller, I think), with a power-to-weight ratio of 100 hp per pound(!) generates as much horsepower as fourteen much larger P&W 4360's,...... 69,000 hp! The whole Shuttle engine itself makes the equivalent of 12,000,000 hp.


If you like to read about engine details and would like to see the "nitty-gritty" on the creation of these incredible monsters, download and review the .PDFs on the following webpage about the design and development of the Space Shuttle Main Engine....VERY fascinating reading:

LINK: http://www.enginehistory.org/ssme.htm

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