Quote:
Originally Posted by sygazelle
2000 HP and torque that could flip it in a heartbeat with too much throttle.
Here is some beautiful music:
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My Dad did operational training in 1943 on the R-1830-powered Grumman F4F Wildcat and was then assigned to the Southwest Pacific Area as a replacement fighter pilot. When he got to the SWPA, he checked out for the first time in the Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat with that magnificent Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp engine and then went into combat. Late in the war, his squadron flew the R-2800-powered Grumman F8F-1 Bearcat and then as a test pilot (1947-1950) he flew F4Us, F6Fs, F8Fs and the twin-engined Grumman F7F Tigercat, which I read once described as "two Bearcats strapped together"
I think his final flights behind an R-2800 were in tired old F6F Hellcats during the early 1950s for proficiency while going to school. So call it ten years of flying R-2800-powered aircraft.
Aircraft with R-2800s that he did NOT fly include the AJ Savage heavy attack bomber, TBY torpedo bomber, P-47 Thunderbolt, the B-26 Marauder, the A-26 Invader, the C-46, C-123 and C-131 transports and anything with four engines. I've probably missed one or two there. The TBM Avenger torpedo bomber of WW2, which was powered by a Wright R-2600, was scheduled to be tested with the R-2800 but the end of the war cancelled that plan.
Here is some sweet R-2800 music: