I wish jets had come in a little later so we had seen more Super props. They are absolutely amazing.

From page of ALPAR: For testing, a P-47 Thunderbolt, the largest and heaviest single-seater in the Air Force at the time, was selected. Some modifications were made to accommodate the XIV 2220; when done, the slimmed down nose helped reduce the drag produced by the big round radial engine. Preliminary testing showed promise. The big fighter was coaxed slowly into higher altitudes and higher speeds. Finally the go ahead was given for an all out test. At 15,000 feet, the huge plane, under the Chrysler V-16's power, broke the 500 mile an hour barrier, around 70 mph faster than the original engine. No one thought it was possible for a piston engine to achieve that speed in level flight. Radar timing shows how powerful that engine was. Flat out, it pulled the huge P-47 along at 504 miles an hour.

Chrysler was 2 V8 engines end to end. The oilpan is off, where the crank shafts met there was the blower drive gearbox. If you are in the Northeastern US, New England Air Museum has one. I had a collection of America aircraft history books. All that mentioned the P47 doing 490. Have read memoirs of crew chiefs who understood ignition timing and boost pressures (translation, ran moonshine before the war, ran it afterwards while inventing NASCAR) who got 500 out of their P47. P&W once ran one 250 hours @ 3500 just to see if it blew up. It did not, however shut down for new sparkplugs evety 10 hours or so. I digress.

Fascinated by the late war/post war models such as mb5, spiteful, fury2, hornet, tigercat , bearcat , ta 152, dornier pfiel, super corsair plus the mustang & thunderbolt developments. That would be a hangar well worth a visit

Once again, a fine explanation that's comprehensible to a non-engineer. Well done, Greg…

The more I learn the more I realize I’ve got a lot to learn. I’ve been studying aircraft, specifically piston engine aircraft, since I was 3. I’m 54 now. I taught myself to read by looking at my older brother’s aircraft books. When I find a channel like this on KZfaq I marvel at my expansion of knowledge after I watch a video. So, thank you for your efforts in my acquisition personal CE credits.

By paying attention and re-clicking here, my questions about the 4360 in a P47 was answered. Had my memory been better, I would not have wondered. Your channel is a trove of info, some obscure yet critically important facts concerning iconic birds.

"I need to do Bristol and Napier engines first". you're the man.

"Though I think it should have been called the Challenger Thunderbolt. Engineers at Dodge: *furiously writing notes*

Love your channel. My first experience in Europe was to figure how to open a door. When I crossed the Channel and came to France, my buddy and I went into a hotel. We went to dinner down a stairway and came to a door at the bottom; couldn't figure how to get thru the door to the dining room. Could see people on the other side and after trying for several minutes to open it, had to signal to a diner to open the door for us. He graciously rose, approached us and SLIDE the door to it's pocket. Talk about feeling stupid. I worked at P&W in the experimental design group in the 60's and the guys I worked with said the worst problem they had on the 4360 was to get the cooling sheet metal to the 2 rear rows. Lots of toasted 4th row cylinders. Had to run them richer to let fuel act as a cooling element. By the way, that 777 engine loss yesterday is definitely NOT supposed to happen with external part showers. BTW The comments are made by interesting viewers who add to your channel. I appreciate their input.

Hello my name is Brian Sanders and I really enjoyed you videos. In 1982 my family built the racing Sea Fury Dreadnought. Which I have 5 second place finished in. I have flown the Sea Fury with the Centaurus 18, Centaurus 175, 2800, 3350 and 4360. If you would like to chat about operating the various engines or anything aviation related let me know.

Great content. My dad was a WW1/WW2 aircraft enthusiast, and taught me all he knew about them. We built more than a couple of scale balsa models when I was young. It's really awesome to hear someone who knows how to fill the gaps in my knowledge, and how much my dad had committed to memory.

Nice video! I knew next to nothing about these US super prop projects, and now I know what is explained in this video. Thanks for the shoutout as well!

Would LOVE to see you do a video on the Hawker SEA FURY! Gorgeous monster of a fighter...

I died inside when you said republics records were destroyed.

P-51H has to be one of my favorite aircraft of all time. It’s such a beautiful refinement of the already beautiful Mustang: lighter weight, more engine power, further aerodynamic improvements, and with almost nothing lost over the older model (rough field capability, admittedly, but this is the USAAF, smooth airstrips aren’t exactly a rare commodity). And unlike many super props, the H was more or less ready for service by the end of the war. It never got a chance, of course, but it was in production and being shipped out by the late summer of 45.

The PW-2800 was also able to take hits in the engine and lose cylinders but keep running enough to get back home. Another reason why the P-47 was a great plane that got guys home alot when other planes wouldn't have been able to. That and its armor. Something that republic remembered when designing the A-10 thunderbolt II.

Excellent Greg! Most folks are not aware of the Republic's P47H & J models, especially of the speed they were capable of. The XP72(14ft 4 bladed prop)with its high speed was also said to be a beautifully handling aircraft by its test pilots. I read there were problems with the contr rotating prop system. Republic never gets enough credit for its engineering & designs during the WW2 era. You present the facts with a fair point of view, without over glorifying any particular aircraft over another, thanks for that!

Love your content, Greg. Being in the automotive sector I enjoy your detailed exploration of the mechanical aspects. Hope you get around to the HE-177 someday soon.

I was the kid that play with my toys for five minutes then disassembled them to see how they worked. I thoroughly enjoy your videos because I am fascinated by all things mechanical.

The “strange” elevator control system is the new normal. It’s based on fully “intelligent” control software which minimizes total travel time. All major brands have adopted this now.

How fine would be to see one of these things racing at Reno at current days...

Another great video Greg. There were quite a few wonderful propeller driven aircraft that were just too late to see action for WW2. So there's plenty of room for more videos on the topic. Love the p.s. at the end with the elevators at the Sicilian hotel and of course the reference to Italian cars. Brilliant! Keep up the great work. Ciao.

5:18 Although the Thunderbolt may have sounded better to your ears, the truth is that the joint manufactured Continental/Chrysler hemi engine was actually used in the Hellcat tank destroyers, so naming the modern car after the actual first machine to carry the hemi is more fitting. I hope this helps- Your video is quite informative, and very appreciated!

Thanks soooo much! Awesome episode, Cant thank you enough. I sincerely appreciate your time and efforts. The commentary is spot on; less documentary more lecture. Netflix ain"t got nuthin' on you bro. Take care

This is easily one of the best quality KZfaq channels. Thanks for this!

This is so good. No wild supposition when facts are unavailable. Excellent gap filling using science based reasoning and all the detail and clear annunciation that true enthusiasts long for. I've studied Unlimited Air Racers and engine performance for many years and I really couldn't fault anything in this documentary.

There are so many great things in Aviation, so happy to have had the opportunity to meet many of the greats in design, pioneering,daring doo, business, combat, and to have added my two cents.a Great Life.

Thank you, Greg’s Airplanes and Automobiles.

You remembered the XP-72! Thank you for the video, these are so overlooked

AWESOME video covering my FAVORITE family of piston engines! I learned a LOT from this video, great work!

When you look at the pace of fighter development during the 50s and 60s, it's easy to see why the British aero industry ended up consolidating like it did (and to a lesser extent the US industry too); Developing things only to have them obsolete before you've even delivered the Mk.1 version of your latest thing.

You are one of the most effective "splainers" on KZfaq. Thank you!

Nice throwback to "Pulp Fiction" movie at the end of this video. Thank you, Greg for top notch content.

Greg, great video as always. As a suggestion for a future video, how about a detailed comparison between the MiG-15 and the Sabre.? With the exception of the Spitfire vs Bf-109, the Sabre vs MiG-15 matchup was probably the most famous toe-to-toe slugfest. Engines, airframe design, armament, etc would be very interesting.

Thanks Greg, always look forward to your offerings. Looking forward to the "sleeve valves".

Thanks Greg, always enlightening. I never knew how complicated aircraft design could be, even in the 40's. Love that last shot with the Alfa! The Carabineri have coolness as part of their mission statement!

Thanks for making my day Greg!

I love your channel. You approach things differently than others. You get deep with out getting too technical. Thank you.

Greg, I love you. I've been waiting for this video forever. Thank you so much

I hope that propellers video covers prop blade shape. I have been curious why the Germans favored "leaf" blades, for lack of the technical term, vs US props favoring (relatively) constant blade width.

At the end of this video Greg tells us about the differences in elevator customs in other parts of the world. This can be amusing sometimes, at least it was once for me. I live in Tennessee, in the USA where floors in buildings are numbered with the bottom or ground floor is the 1st floor, the next floor above is the 2ed floor and so on. I got on an elevator on the ground floor one day and before I pushed any buttons a nice young lady jumped in before the door closed. I moved over to give her room and she said "Thank you" with a heavy English accent. By that time the door had closed so she reached out and pressed the 1 button. Of course the door opened up and looking puzzled she leaned forward to see who was wanting on the elevator. She saw nobody so she waited while the door closed then pressed the 1 button again. Of course the door opened again and she went through the sequence again. All this time I am in the back corner of the elevator about to bust out laughing. She saw me trying not to laugh, then studied the control panel a moment and it dawned on her what was happening. You could see the red rise over her face. She wanted the 2ed floor which in her country would be the 1st floor on the control panel of the "lift". Out of habit she punched 1 and expected to be taken up 1 floor. The elevator door just was doing what it thought she wanted and was letting her out on the 1st floor (ground floor). Life can be entertaining sometimes!

Thanks again for another thoroughly researched and informative episode.

Great work, Greg, love the detail and analysis. It would have been interesting if prop planes had developed another ten years before jets came to the fore. I think Goodyear was working on a super Corsair toward the end of the war. Things would have been interesting, and folks would have come up with some amazing solutions. Thanks for the hard work and insights.

Yet another extraordinarily informative video as always Greg. The Super Props would be interesting machines to see in action, all the power making them monsters in action.

These late propeller planes are awesome, but the real magic is in those amazing engines. The technology had truly reached its apex.

what awesome videos, so much new and different information, got to love the XP72 w contra props, beautiful looking beast. Would have been great to see one flying at Reno every year with a super corsair!

That was really cool! Some really neat facts I’ve never heard of. Thank you!

An interesting video. One of the other limiting factors to increased engine power is the propeller size. One of the post war Spitfires used for high altitude recon had such a large prop it had to take of and land on all three wheels. Lifting the tail risked grounding the large prop. Also the Avro Shackleton had to use contra rotating props as the under carriage was not long enough to accommodate a single prop on the Griffons.

I love your work.........But......I usually have to watch them two-three times, as there is something in the way you speak that sets me off to sleepy land. Keep up the brilliant work!

I remember when we first got the Harrier, AV-A in the Marine Corps. The Pegasus engine was originally rated for 250 HOURS of flight time! Major Groan I got expert on changing engines, and I was the Electrician! This required tasking off the entire, one piece wing. With time, I was head of a six man team that could complete the job in one 20 hour marathon go.... I was so proud. Yep, same 6 guys, 20 hours.

Thanks again for your time ,love airplanes like motorcycles

Contra-rotating propellers also had planetary gear box longevity and maintenance headaches as well. Great video!

Greg for President! =) You guess perfectly all the time my thoughts: engineering, history, sexy warbirds, piston & props 4ever! Thank you! Cheers, N.

As always, excellent video. Well explained, worth waiting for. Thanks!

Thanks for that. In contrast to the Fw 190, the XP-72 fan rotated at the same speed as the propeller. The cooling fan for R-4360 in the XF-12 was a two speed, gear-driven unit built by Curtiss Electric, but that is a story for another time.

I’ll be at work. I am very disappointed I won’t be able to see this premier. Thanks in advance!

Nice. This will be good. You have a great insight into this stuff.

Looking forward to an explanation of sleeve valve engines I can understand. You have that ability and it is much appreciated. Thank you.

The elevators in EAST Miami worked by keycards only from the ground floor to the guest floors, and the elevators were all lettered, and you tapped your keycard then selected the floor you wanted to access and it assigned an elevator letter and you got on. It was a very efficient design.

Hi Greg, Thanks as always for the excellent content... Will look forward to yr analysis of propellors! With respect to your elevators comment: 1. I live in Santiago Chile, and I can say that this elevator "methodology" is quite common in newer buildings. 2. It is implemented mostly (here), in big new highrise buildings, where they really don't install quite enough elevators to handle "peak hour" demand (cheapskates) 3. During most of the day a normal elevator methodology/algorithm would work fine (and simple is best right?) 4. However, in peak hour (like 8 o'clock in the morning), you can have 20-30 people waiting for 4 working elevators. 5. So, clearly, the idea is to try to improve elevator utilization by "load balancing" the available resource (4 elevators), and to avoid the chance of an elevator heading up to the 13th floor with 1 person in it (for example) 6. I spent a couple o' weeks using this system in a customer's building (arriving at peak hour). 7. There's a lot of heuristics in the algorithm (I reckon!), and its far from perfect, but without a doubt improves utilization (not necesarilly user experience).. the good solution is to install the number of elevators that you really need 8. Long term users can learn to fool the algorithm... if you want to go to floor 4, request floor "4" a couple of times, and you *may* get a quicker response in some cases (the algorithm assumes that 2 people need to go the floor 4) (This is hearsay, I have not tried it, but my mates tell me this), 9, Its an interesting topic!!! Someone on KZfaq should discuss it "deeply" like you do with mechanical engineering!!! It is not a trivial problem! All the best Greg, have a great 3 days, all the best to the family!!!

Greetings, Greg! One beautiful day, the elevators in my employer's building substituted floor buttons outside for the call buttons. From that day on something very amusing started happening sometimes. Either I entered the elevator to go to my job and finished in another floor, because i didn't press the floor button outside, or I entered the elevator on my building and took a while staring at the walls and asking myself why the elevator didn't start, because, of course, i didn't press the floor button inside. Or the other way around. Either way, I felt very silly. Happy the elevators are not 737MAX.

Another very fine presentation, Greg. Thanks!

Thank you , may I say you have a great voice for narration , on a fascinating subject Super Props . Wales UK.

I'm north-Italian and I wasn't expecting to hear anything good about Sicily, still the Alfas are awesome cars.

Makes me want to know more about the development of the Tu-95.

*The sound those engines give off...there is nothing like it....I was standing outside work 5 years ago....when all of a sudden I hear this marvellous sound overhead that I've only heard on documentary's.....a B-17!! My jaw just dropped....where I live we don't get ANY airshows... to see a B-17 flying is quite the sight!* *Then I hear.. for a mere 600 CAD $ I could of gone for a ride!! Found out too late and they were all booked....hopefully they come back one day :/*

Another great video! That sound you hear is me drooling, waiting for the sleeve valve!

Thanks for sharing such an excellent video on the super prop fighters! With hindsight those very powerful engines were were simply too complicated and required far more hours of development for some more horsepower leading to the demise of piston engined airplanes. In comparison the jet engines was much more easy to obtain more trust. I'm not an expert with maths or related topics but the development of the jet airplanes was on the way!Great going 👍👍

Looking forward to this as the stuff US aviation got up to in the short period of time between the end of WW2 and the adoption of jets is fascinating. Though speaking of jets, would you consider doing a few videos detailing the rapid development of early jet planes during the late 40s to early 50s? The rate at which the USN went through new fighters in particular was always an area of interest for me.

Love your channel! Appreciate you sharing your research and knowledge.

Another great episode! Please keep them coming.

Hello, longtime viewer of your channel, thank you for the amazing content that you bring. In regards to the P-51H, I find an interesting something interesting in the reports on wwiiaircraftperformance.org. The level speed at 32000ft (not the altitude where top speed is achieved, which is far lower) is in huge discrepancy between the reports, the lowest being 430mph[1] and the highest being over 480mph[2][3]. A few in the middle suggest somewhere around 450-460mph[4][5]. This much discrepancy suggest either a major change in the supercharger or something more fishy. Sources 2 and 3, which produced the largest numbers for P-51H, are both clearly from NA Aviation itself, which I find interesting. In source 2, the rpm numbers are not provided, but I suspect that the 46" curve is using 2700rpm, and the 61" and 70" curves are using 3000rpm (as there would be no point in running 70" and 2700rpm), which would explain the large increase in performance above critical altitude, since spinning the engine faster drives the supercharger faster and a small increase in supercharger rpm leads to a large increase in its pressure ratio. Hence in source 2, the 80" and 90" curves are likely run at an impermissible engine rpm greater than 3000. In source 3 there are no visible problems. I suspect NA of providing falsely large numbers, and the actual level speed of the P-51H at 32000ft is more close to 450mph than to 480mph. [1]www.wwiiaircraftperformance.org/mustang/p-51h-64182-fig16a.jpg [2]www.wwiiaircraftperformance.org/mustang/p-51h-booklet-pg12.jpg (with racks) [3]www.wwiiaircraftperformance.org/mustang/p-51h-altperf-91444.jpg [4]www.wwiiaircraftperformance.org/mustang/F-51H_Mustang_SAC_-_22_March_1949.pdf [5]www.wwiiaircraftperformance.org/mustang/p-51h-na117.jpg

Informative as ever Greg. May I mention in passing the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation CA15, and possibly one of the great "What Ifs" the Martin Baker MB5? All the best.

wow Greg - more incredible WW2 engineering, thank you for sharing this too

Nice - thanks Greg, brilliant work again.

On the subject of the engine-driven cooling fan, I believe the Mitsubishi J2M Raiden used one too.

This one really shines a bright light on the transition period from peak prop designs to the early jet age 👍👍

Very good presentation. So many nostalgic people believe that it was a mistake abandoning advanced propellor aircraft - but it was all about the engineering and it made perfect sense. The only real advantage of propellor planes over early jets was in fuel consumption, especially at low altitude.

I’ve seen that elevator system at a few layover hotels in the US as well. I do agree that it’s generally better than the normal system not only because it eliminates the guessing game as to which elevator you will get but also because it prevents some kid pressing all the buttons.

I remember being surprised when my instructor told me to flying slower required more power and not less. That was during my first lesson. And he wasn't kidding, as I got the slowed and got the flaps out to 40 it took considerably more rpms to keep above stall speed with the added drag.

Yeah, the second floor of a building being called floor "1" threw me off for a bit when I was stationed in Germany.

Man I'm just fascinated by this subject! I never went ahead and worked in the aircraft industry but I did get an A&P licence in 1996.

Can't wait for the sleeve valve engine video.

my favorite post-war prop has to be the De Havilland hornet

All things considered, that this website is a work of love, for technology, flight, and lastly entertainment value, I really don't want to complain about the audio quality. I can understand background noise that may be unavoidable shooting in the field, but the audio is unacceptable. I listen to a lot of recorded music and have "good ears" for placement in the sound field and my physical reaction to the bottom heavy boom and drop out, made it impossible to sit through it. Please consider re-recording the audio as the aviation knowledge is the real value here. Thank you for this wonderful website.

Very good video Greg, looking forward to more

Love the trivia at the end.....

In Europa “Ground Floor” is on (erm) the ground. First floor means the first storey. So that’s why our tall buildings start with zero. It makes even more sense when there’s a basement.

I expected a video about planes with supersonic propellers. It was still interesting and well made.

Hi Greg. Love your content. About the elevators, they have that new system in many elevators in downtown Toronto, Canada. It's more efficient, especially in busy office towers.

I've heard it several times now and it still hasn't sunk in for me yet that republic's records were purged.

19:10 so, the Yak-15, basically? ...actually that might be a pretty interesting textbook example of propellor vs Turbojet

Enjoyable romp through the American incubators. I'd love to see a follow-on with commentary from UK, Russia, and the Axis. Kyuushuu J7W Shinden always fascinated, as has the Ambrosini SS.4 Pfeil . (Which is one obvious engine configuration missing from the list of options sketched out for the P-38, btw.) Sure, these weren't production fighters but the Shinden had a couple flights, and the Pfeil may have fought.

Great video - keep them coming. BTW: Boeing flew a Super Prop too, the XF8B-1. The USAAF flew it first, then I believe the program was transferred to the Navy. I have an autographed photograph by one of the Boeing test pilots that flew it.

This elevator structure is used in large hotels in my town here...Vancouver, B.C. it is more efficient.

One can adjust to the differences in elevators, roads, and cars, but the countries that give you a bare hole in the floor instead of a toilet can set you back on your heels.

Great video as always, Greg! I'm addicted to your videos, LOL!

Here in the UK, quite a few lifts use that system, especially in London. Great video by the way (I've always thought those super props where an interesting "what if").

Reminds me of the Martin Baker MB 5, which despite being considered "outstanding", also was developed too late to enter production.