HOME | DD

Description
This is a Pratt & Whitney R4360 Wasp Major radial engine. Developed near the end of WWII, this massive 28-cylinder monster was the largest aircraft piston engine ever put into mass production. It features 4 rows of 7 cylinders each, staggered to allow cooling of each cylinder. These engines in stock configuration developed between 3,000 and 3,800 HP, first flew in 1942, and were produced by Pratt & Whitney between 1944 and 1955. They powered a number of production and prototype aircraft, including the Convair B-36 Peacemaker and Boeing B-50 Superfortress bombers, Boeing 377/KC-97 Stratocruiser, some C-119s, Douglas C-74 and C-124, Martin P4M Mercator, AM-1 Mauler and some P5M Marlins, the Goodyear F2G Super Corsair, and the well-known Hughes-Kaiser HK-1 Hercules a/k/a "The Spruce Goose." Some Unlimited-class racing aircraft, mainly Corsairs and Sea Furies, have also been modified with these brutish engines.

I caught this R4360 on display with a number of other important engines at the Seattle Museum of Flight at Boeing Field. These engines and their monster contemporaries, such as the Bristol Centaurus, Wright R3350, Rolls-Royce Griffon, etc. represent the pinacle of their technology: the large-displacement, prop-swinging piston aircraft engine. After these engines and others like them, it was all jets and turboprops. There is a beauty to these beasts' precision and complexity. And if you've never heard one crank up, well, you've missed one of the most glorious mechanical symphonies in the history of transportation.

Description
This is a Pratt & Whitney R4360 Wasp Major radial engine. Developed near the end of WWII, this massive 28-cylinder monster was the largest aircraft piston engine ever put into mass production. It features 4 rows of 7 cylinders each, staggered to allow cooling of each cylinder. These engines in stock configuration developed between 3,000 and 3,800 HP, first flew in 1942, and were produced by Pratt & Whitney between 1944 and 1955. They powered a number of production and prototype aircraft, including the Convair B-36 Peacemaker and Boeing B-50 Superfortress bombers, Boeing 377/KC-97 Stratocruiser, some C-119s, Douglas C-74 and C-124, Martin P4M Mercator, AM-1 Mauler and some P5M Marlins, the Goodyear F2G Super Corsair, and the well-known Hughes-Kaiser HK-1 Hercules a/k/a "The Spruce Goose." Some Unlimited-class racing aircraft, mainly Corsairs and Sea Furies, have also been modified with these brutish engines.

I caught this R4360 on display with a number of other important engines at the Seattle Museum of Flight at Boeing Field. These engines and their monster contemporaries, such as the Bristol Centaurus, Wright R3350, Rolls-Royce Griffon, etc. represent the pinacle of their technology: the large-displacement, prop-swinging piston aircraft engine. After these engines and others like them, it was all jets and turboprops. There is a beauty to these beasts' precision and complexity. And if you've never heard one crank up, well, you've missed one of the most glorious mechanical symphonies in the history of transportation.