Aircraft engines. Swapping and upgrading.

[Leigh]

Forgive my ignorance which is massive but I've started thinking about switching radials and in-lines about. I know there was a Thunderbolt XP-47, and the Tempest II which became the Sea Fury. Any others?
how about all those big donkey Grummans with in-lines?
Radial Spitfires and Mustangs?
Merlin Corsairs?

[elmayerle]

Corsairs with Chrysler IV2220's?  Actually, I've been thinking of doodling up a HawkerTyphoon/Tornado airframe mod'd to flight test this Chrysler engine after all the problems both Sabres and Vultures had.

[Glenn]

There was a T-6 with a Ranger engine, and it looked weird!
Glenn

[Jschmus]

There was a T-6 with a Ranger engine, and it looked weird!
Glenn

Sure did!

XAT-6E

[Leigh]

There was a T-6 with a Ranger engine, and it looked weird!
Glenn

Watcha mean I think it's kinda cute, got a sort of Fairey quality to it.
hmmmm Barracuda with a Cyclone?
What about a Mosquito with radials? Kind of reverse Beaufighter. That would be one way to ugly up a sleek plane.

[elmayerle]

There was a T-6 with a Ranger engine, and it looked weird!
Glenn

Watcha mean I think it's kinda cute, got a sort of Fairey quality to it.
hmmmm Barracuda with a Cyclone?
What about a Mosquito with radials? Kind of reverse Beaufighter. That would be one way to ugly up a sleek plane.

I'll agree that the XAT-6E does not look wierd, a bit different, but not wierd.  It reminds me of 1930's air racers (what-if racer - Boomerang or NAA equivalent with this engine fit).  It depends on the engine chosen if you were going to fit radials to the Mosquito, a comparatively small-diameter radial with a clean fairing behind it (FW-190A, Ki-100 for inspiration) could look quite nice.  Alternatively, a Ta.154 with radials?

[Jeffry Fontaine]

I have to agree, the T-6 with the in-line engine does look functional and if what they said was true about it being the fastest T-6, then it would also be a shame that a conversion program was not available to upgrade existing T-6 aircraft to benefit from the additional speed. 

On another note, I was browsing the main page and was quite pleased to see a very remarkable aircraft kit for the home built aircraft enthusiast that is based on the P-51 Mustang and it is made out of composite materials.  Power to be provided by either RR Merlin V1610 V12 or Avco/Lycoming (now Allison) T53 turbine with 1450 hp.  Go to Cameron & Sons Aircraft - Murdo Cameron's Carbon Fiber Mustang and check it out.  The press release is dated 1999 but it still has a lot of interesting information on the aircraft kit. 



check out the very small diameter turbine exhaust on the side of the aircraft and the bubble canopy.  If not for those little differences, it would be hard to tell the difference between the real aircraft and the kit plane. 

*(Original link appears to be dead since it is now occupied by a domain squatter)

[Glenn]

Beaufighters with Merlin and Griffon engines
Lancasters with radials (Mk 11)
B-17E with Allisons
Me-109F (V23) built with both short nose and long nose FW-190 engines.
and in the YUK section

Yugoslav Ar-96 with a 600hp Pratt
French Storch with radial engine
and the best of the lot,
an Me-108 with a flat Lycoming engine.

Lyn

[Hobbes]

Going from a radial to an in-line wouldn't present too much of a problem (although you'd be going from air- to water cooling as well, so you'd have to add radiators and plumbing). The other way round would be more of a challenge, as radials often have a much larger frontal area than in-lines. Wing nacelles will be easy enough to adapt, but putting a radial in the nose of an in-line aircraft will mean the engine has a much larger diameter than the fuselage, which would screw up the aerodynamics.
Also, radials tend to be heavier than in-lines because they displace more: the air-cooling means you can't run them with as high a compression ratio and/or turbo/supercharger pressure, so to get enough power you'll need more swept volume.  

[elmayerle]

Wing nacelles will be easy enough to adapt, but putting a radial in the nose of an in-line aircraft will mean the engine has a much larger diameter than the fuselage, which would screw up the aerodynamics.

Not necessarily!  Case in point, conversion from inline to radial from Ki-61 to Ki-100.  For that matter, Focke-Wulf flew the Fw190V19 with both radial and inline engines with clean installations for both.  It can be done, but it takes a very good engineering team to do properly.

[Tophe]

Using a standard kit (like the Minicraft XF5F at http://www.hannants.co.uk/search/?FULL=MC11626 ), has one of us ever built a F5F Skyrocket with in-line engines, like drawn at
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/sys...t/f5f-schem.htm ?:

[Jschmus]

I hadn't thought of inline engines, but I've got one that I was going to graft on the radials, props and landing gear from 2 F4U Corsairs.  That project stalled because I found another purpose for one of the Corsairs.  Guess I'll have to buy another one.

[simmie]

As I was siting contenplating the 'S6b-to-Spit' thread, the train of thought moved on to the engine.  thr R-Type was a pure bread racing engine, whta would it be replaced with??

But this thought was rapidly replaced with what other engines were ever considered for the Spitfire itself??  The Hurricane was schemed with both the Bristol Hercules and the Napier Rapier!!(I've seen drawing in a book whose titles has just escaped me!)

So what other aircraft could this be applied to??

After some research I came up with th3se engine classes:-

400 - 1000hp          1000hp          2000hp

Bristol Mercury (420-830)            Bristol Taurus (985-1050)      Bristol Centaurus (2000-2625)
Bristol Pegasus (546-1010)          Bristol Hercules (1150-2080) Fairey P24 Monarch (2240)
Bristol Perseus (515-905)            RR Exe (1150)                     Napier Sabre (2000-3500)
Dh Gipsy king (405-425)             RR Merlin (890-1760)           RR Vulture (1800-3000?)
Napier Lion (468-535)                                                           RR Griffon (1735-2500)  
Napier Dagger (650-955)
RR Kestrel (460-720)

I came up with a number of possible aircraft to start the ball rolling

Bristol Blehiem:-Mercury to Kestrel/Dagger
Westland Lysander:- Mercury to Kestrel/Dagger
Douglas DC-2:-Mercury to Kestrel/Dagger
Shorts Sunderland:- Pegasus to Kestrel/Dagger/Exe/Merlin
Curtiss P40 Kityhawk:-Merlin to Hercules
Shorts Stirling:-Hercules to Merlin
Hawker Typhoon:-Sabre to P24 Monarch
Airspeed AMbassador:-Centaurus to Griffon/Sabre

discuss

P.S i do remember seeing something like this before, some really nice pic's of BMW 801 Mustang and Liberator.

[kitnut617]

I think you meant the Hurricane was projected with the Napier Dagger.

Check this link:   http://www.k5083.mistral.co.uk/PROJECTS.HTM

Incidently, Czech Omega (see Hannants) has made kits of most of these, I have seven of the Hurricanes they have done so far.  I think the slip wing is the next they are going to do.


Robert

[Hobbes]

The R-type was developed into the Merlin and Griffon, wasn't it?

To decide on suitable candidates for re-engining, you might want a bit more data, like configuration (radial/V), and weight.