How can you tell the difference?

[muddyboots]

I think you guys are making things up. I know I'm tone deaf but I just can't seem to tell the difference between a radial and an inline engine. Can someone explain or maybe post some videos or audio files so I can compare and see if I can learn to tell the difference?


*is sooooo ashamed*

[airknocker]

Like these?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghWrG3tW9LE

[muddyboots]

I just can't tell the difference.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhQ1XmUj ... re=related

[airknocker]

Try to distinguish the individual short exhaust inline bark to the radial which sometimes has a exhaust collector, i.e. T-6.

[51fixer]

*is sooooo ashamed*

Ya ought to be

[The Inspector]

If you've got a good 'ear' you can tell single row radials from twin rows even WRIGHTS from PRATTS or Russian radials like on the CJ-6 Shenyang/various YAKS, ALLISONS from MERLINS. I really can't discern, nor do I really care to, a CONTINENTAL flat motor from a LYCOMING flat motor.
You can also tell what the engine is on by the exhaust 'report' and 1820's on a HU-16 have a different note from an S2, a 985 on a BEAVER sounds different than one on a Beech 18, or a 985 from a slow turning WRIGHT R-975. There's a local guy with a TRAVELAIR and that old 975 sounds so relaxed and like it's not working hard, and it's different in tone than another local guy with a really nice PT-17 with a Continental radial.
When I lived just off KPAE I got to see and hear what FHC was presenting on a particular 'fly day' as they'd take the subject airplanes out early in the morning of to make sure everything worked as planned, and I loved the sounds coming from the 1820-ski mounted on the Il-6 RATA because it sounds to me like a big hardwood block rolling around in a slowly turning wooden drum, and the DB-601 on the 109 has a bell like background 'ring' to it. ALLISON. basso, MERLIN higher pitched and 'busy'.
THE most distinctive sounds I ever heard were from a B-36 passing overhead when I was a kid in the mid 50's, to this day it's as distinctive as the smell of brake fluid, and why I turn up the surround sound early on in STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND when it's on TCM to make the house just shake for a few seconds.
And if you could figure out a way to bottle the sounds of a DC-6 taxiing with all 4 2800's burbling at idle and sell it to kids with CAMAROS you could make a fortune!!
A 2800 sounds sweet, two 2800's is better, but ain't nothing that sounds bettter than 4 2800's pulling takeoff power!

Last edited by The Inspector on Wed Aug 08, 2012 2:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[TonyM]

When I hear a round engine I jump right up and run out side.

Sometimes you can hear them a long way off.

There are T-28s and AT-6/SNJ Texans that fly around here near Lansing (IGQ) every now and then.

The Texan flew over last Sunday.

[TAdan]

muddyboots I'd say your best bet for learning the difference would be to visit an airshow featuring alot of Warbirds and listen carefully.

[carlisle1926]

When I hear a round engine I jump right up and run out side.

Sometimes you can hear them a long way off.

There are T-28s and AT-6/SNJ Texans that fly around here near Lansing (IGQ) every now and then.

The Texan flew over last Sunday.

I do the same thing! The inline liquid cooled engines just sound like someone driving in a hot rod car to me. They have a high pitched perfectly timed drone to them and they sound high revving. The radials always sound like a huge 4 cylinder car engine from the teens or twenties or some kind of low revving/low compression engine. They seem to have a much deeper bass sound with a lot less of a perfect beat than the v12's. They seem to produce all sorts of odd noises. I've only got one ear working and its starting to loose treble sounds from to many years of hammering on sheet metal. But, if the distinct sound of a radial engine is flying anywhere near me, I run out of the door to see what is out there.

[K5DH]

I can actually tell the difference between a Spitfire and a Mustang passing overhead. They really do have a somewhat different sound, probably due to the differences in the propeller. Allisons and Merlins sound very different from each other. I can also tell the difference between small and large radials, though I haven't yet learned how to tell a Wright from a P&W. I've also observed that from a distance, some radials sound a lot like a Harley at cruise.

I love 'em all!

[The Inspector]

I can actually tell the difference between a Spitfire and a Mustang passing overhead. They really do have a somewhat different sound, probably due to the differences in the propeller. Allisons and Merlins sound very different from each other. I can also tell the difference between small and large radials, though I haven't yet learned how to tell a Wright from a P&W. I've also observed that from a distance, some radials sound a lot like a Harley at cruise.

I love 'em all!

At Abottsford one year I got to hear MERLINS on a P-51, a HURRICANE, a SPITFIRE, and a LANCASTER in the same piece of air and each had a very distinctive sound and tone.

Since GM 'improved' the SBC by changing the head configuration, port shapes and spacing, intake port shapes and locations, changed the firing order, and moved the distributor to the front of the engine you can't tell one from a SBF that they are copying, a 'traditional' SBC has a raspy mid tone to it under full throttle that's now missing from the SB-7 engines.

[gary1954]

I just can't tell the difference.

Please... ..Let us Pray that this poor poor man is healed.... .....like soon

[muddyboots]

Hey, I have rifleman's ear. I can tell the difference between mortar's when they're fired, a rifle or machine gun is no big deal. Butwhen it comes to those things taht buzz around in the air keeping me awake at night I can't hear the difference

[The Inspector]

Hey, I have rifleman's ear. I can tell the difference between mortar's when they're fired, a rifle or machine gun is no big deal. Butwhen it comes to those things taht buzz around in the air keeping me awake at night I can't hear the difference

If the buzzing is very high pitched and only heard at night when the lights are out.....it's time to fix the window screen. just my 2c

[JohnB]

I do the same thing! The inline liquid cooled engines just sound like someone driving in a hot rod car to me. They have a high pitched perfectly timed drone to them and they sound high revving. The radials always sound like a huge 4 cylinder car engine from the teens or twenties or some kind of low revving/low compression engine. They seem to have a much deeper bass sound with a lot less of a perfect beat than the v12's.

You took the words out of my mouth.
Merlins (about the only in-lines I hear) have almost a whine to them...radials have a rumble and to add to your excellent description, a low speeds you can almost hear every piston firing.

Another comparison you might get from watching Speed TV one weekend. Merlins are like Formula 1 cars, radials are like dragsters inching up to the staging lane.