B-36 Engines

Glen · **Posted:** Sun Jan 27, 2008 9:20 pm

Greetings
Got a ? for the Gurus of the WIXER Land B-36 Engines ( Not the jets) were they used on any other Airplanes ?

DoraNineFan · **Joined:** Fri Aug 12, 2005 3:37 pm **Posts:** 678

Here's the list of applications for the R-4360 engine frim Wikipedia:

* Aero Spacelines, Inc. Pregnant Guppy and Mini Guppy
* Boeing 377 Stratocruiser
* Boeing B-50 Superfortress
* Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter
* Boeing XF8B
* Boeing XB-44 Superfortress
* Convair B-36
* Convair XC-99
* Curtiss XBTC-2
* Douglas C-74 Globemaster
* Douglas C-124 Globemaster II
* Douglas TB2D Skypirate
* Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar
* Fairchild C-120 Packplane
* Goodyear F2G Corsair
* Hughes H-4 Hercules ("Spruce Goose")
* Hughes XF-11
* Lockheed R6V Constitution
* Martin AM Mauler
* Martin P4M Mercator
* Northrop B-35
* Republic XP-72
* Republic XF-12 Rainbow
* Vultee A-41

Also Martin Mars.

engguy · **Joined:** Wed Mar 29, 2006 10:45 am **Posts:** 442

28 cylinder aircooled radial engine, 4 rows 7 banks.
56 spark plugs.
Burns way less fuel than a jet or turbine engine.
Pratt & Whitneys engineering master piece.

Jack Cook · **Posted:** Sun Jan 27, 2008 10:51 pm

Martin Mars used Wright R-3350s :idea:

P51Mstg · **Joined:** Tue Jan 25, 2005 11:36 am **Posts:** 1202

I also understand the B-36 had a very short engine life of like 200 hours TBO. Which for the B-36 was about every 6 missions or so...

WOW

Mark H

Cking · **Posted:** Mon Jan 28, 2008 3:17 am

I have this dream/nightmare that starts with the line.
"Right Cking, just a plug change on the B-36 today" :shock:

One of my most prized books is Mayer Jacobson's mighty tome on the mighty aircraft. Well worth a read.

Rgds Cking

The Inspector · **Posted:** Mon Jan 28, 2008 3:27 am

Also known for their unannounced pyrotechnic flareups-Years ago there was a not so funny joke that the 377 was one of the finest three engined aircraft ever built, and that you could go half way to Hawai'i by PAN AMERICAN and the rest of the way by COAST GUARD cutter.
7 distributors to feed the 56 plugs by the way-

retroaviation · **Posted:** Mon Jan 28, 2008 7:55 am

engguy wrote:

28 cylinder aircooled radial engine, 4 rows 7 banks.
56 spark plugs.
Burns way less fuel than a jet or turbine engine.
Pratt & Whitneys engineering master piece.

True about the engineering part. They're neat to see working (we have a cutaway here that rotates and shows it's guts moving around). However, the late Wright 3350's had a better power to weight ratio and eventually became more reliable. The 4360 is cool to look at, but I'd personally rather have a well built, late model 3350.

Just my $.02 worth.

Gary

P51Mstg · **Joined:** Tue Jan 25, 2005 11:36 am **Posts:** 1202

http://www.amazon.com/Convair-B-36-Comp ... 278&sr=8-1

On the comment on the Jacobsen book (at Amazon above) I recently choked up the cash and bought it. It is really exceptional, and I mean about the last word on the B-36. It is hard to imagine that anyone could possibly produce a finer work about this airplane. One of the more interesting sections of the book is basically "letters" that crew members have written about their experiences and tell a lot of stories that would otherwise have been forgotten.

I highly recommend it to anyone.

Mark H

jwc50 · **Posted:** Mon Jan 28, 2008 8:43 am

Jack Cook wrote:

Martin Mars used Wright R-3350s :idea:

True for the most part, but there was at least one that flew with R4360s for a while.

Glen · **Posted:** Mon Jan 28, 2008 9:54 am

Thank you to all that gave insight on this ! follow up ? Are their any Aircraft that are flying today that have this engine still in use ?

K5DH · **Posted:** Mon Jan 28, 2008 10:10 am

Glen wrote:

Thank Are their any Aircraft that are flying today that have this engine still in use ?

Yes. At least one Super Corsair is still flying (the gorgeous red and white racer flown by Bob Odegaard). There are a small handful of C-97 types that are either airworthy or not far from it. Clay Lacy has several of those, and there's one under restoration to fly in NJ. The awesome R4630-powered Sea Fury T.20 racer Dreadnought terrorizes the skies over Reno every September.

We have an R4360 (which came from a B-36) on display in our "engine room" at the Museum. That is one freakin' huge engine, folks! It has a 3-barrel carburetor that's about the size of the 4-cylinder engine found in many small imported cars! :shock:

Cheers!

b29flteng · **Posted:** Mon Jan 28, 2008 10:28 am

The early versions of the engine had seven high tension magnetos while all of the later versions had four low tension magnetos. Graham White has written an excellent book on the development and production of the 4360 and is available at Specialty Press. The carburetor has a 100 square inch throat while the 3350 has a 58 square inch throat. A few years ago I attended a talk by some old Pratt&Whitney engineers and they had a 4360 in the test cell with two turbo chargers hooked up in series and the engine was able to produced 3,500 hp. at 50,000 feet.

retroaviation · **Posted:** Mon Jan 28, 2008 11:21 am

b29flteng wrote:

...and they had a 4360 in the test cell with two turbo chargers hooked up in series and the engine was able to produced 3,500 hp. at 50,000 feet.

Yup, you just made my point.

And the R-3350-95W is rated at 3500 hp as well. It just weighs about 1,000 pounds less than the 4360. :wink:

Gary

bdk · **Joined:** Sun May 02, 2004 1:16 am **Posts:** 11332

retroaviation wrote:

b29flteng wrote:

...and they had a 4360 in the test cell with two turbo chargers hooked up in series and the engine was able to produced 3,500 hp. at 50,000 feet.

And the R-3350-95W is rated at 3500 hp as well.

At 50,000 feet? :shock:

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