From: fiddler@concertina.Eng.Sun.COM (steve hix)
Subject: Re: Piston engine experiments (Re: In-flight refueling in WWII)
Keywords: refueling, flight, WWII
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mt. View, Ca.
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1992 01:14:22 GMT


From fiddler@concertina.Eng.Sun.COM (steve hix)

>From Joseph F Baugher <jfb@ihlpl.att.com>
>In article <BvFzu4.15B@lawday.DaytonOH.NCR.COM>, kaiser@elec.canterbury.ac.nz (Chris Kaiser) writes:
>> I think that the Napier-Sabre engine used in the Hawker Typhoon (and Tempest?)
>> was an H engine. They had lots of problems with it initially catching fire, but
>> rushed it into service anyway as the Typhoon was one of the few aircraft fast
>> enough to catch the V-1 at the time. Presumably these aircraft were at one time
>> experimental:-)

According to a fellow I once worked with, who flew late-model Spitfires
and Typhoons with RAF (485 Squadron. New Zealand bunch?), the Typhoon
was still a bit too much experimental when it went out to squadron service.
Fast, though.  His recollection was that the Sabre was an H-configuration
engine.

>H-engines?  I searched through my references and came up with two 
>examples of American engines that had H-configurations, namely, two 
>banks of cylinders each driving a separate crankshaft, the crankshafts 
>being coupled together by gearing arrangments.  
>
>In the US military, such engines were identified by the prefix "H", as 
>opposed to "V" for Vee, "R" for radial, and "X" for X-configuration.  

Sometimes, probably for security purposes, the US didn't follow the
convention.

>The other example I can recall is the Lycoming H-2470 engine which 
>powered the experimental Vultee XP-54 pusher fighter of 1943.  This 
>engine had 24 cylinders and was liquid cooled.  This engine failed to 
>perform as anticipated, and the project was abandoned.  

The engine should be designated XH-2470, since it never got past
experimental testing.  It managed to trash itself during the first
(brief) flight of the XP-54 (Swoose Goose), and that prototype and
its single companion were tossed on the heap.

The Swoose Goose was originally supposed to weigh in at 8500 lbs, but
by the time they flew it, it was up to 18,000 or so.  Also supposed
to top out at 510 mph...

(It had some fancy things like:  the gun package could be swiveled several
degrees to compensate for shooting lead, and the pilot had an ejection
seat of sorts to avoid hitting the pusher prop during a bailout.)

Lycoming and Continental were both working on advanced X- and H-configuration
engines during this period, none of them being successful.

Another failed project was the Pratt&Whitney X-1800, which was not an
X-configuration engine.  It should have been labeled H-2400, but some
security-minded sort went for the alternate name.

It was intended for use in the Northrop XP-56 (Black Bullet), a sort-of
flying wing pusher fighter.  The engine never materialized, and the
airplane ended up test flying with an 1800hp P&W radial engine instead.

It was reputed to have perhaps the most vicious flying characteristics
of any wartime design.  After taxi tests had gone on for a while, the
test pilot took to wearing a polo helmet that he happened to have...
and he needed it once the first flights began.

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