Rolls Royce and Allison V12s: AWESOME!

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

The Unlimited Hydroplane race circuit making its stop in the Tri-Cities, Washington last weekend and all antendees were treated to a good dose of Rolls Royce and Allison-powered hydroplanes. Not only did the regular lineup of competitors with their modern turbine-powered boats compete, but the Vintage Hydroplane Museum in Seattle sent over 4 of their old and recently restored boats to take several dozen laps around the racecourse here on the Columbia. This included the 1967 and 1980 Miss Budweiser, 1976 O Boy Oberto!, and 1982 Atlas Van Lines (2nd winningest hull in the sport's history).



The '67 Bud and '76 O-boy were powered by RR Merlins, the '80 and '82 boats sported RR Griffons. The Merlins were awesome and LOUD, supercharged V12s about 1600 cubic inches, running straight exhaust.



But then they fired up the Griffon in the '82 Atlas boat and OMG!!! Make that a 2200 cubic incher running over 3000hp and WAAAAYYYYY louder. It hurt your ears from 500 yards away

A huge V12 sounds like a straight 6 on steroids It was a lot of fun watching Chip Hanauer cruise some laps at 115mph. Talk about sending chills up your spine. What a beautiful sound.



I didn't get to see the hydro races, but the one piston-powered boat still competing in the hydro circuit performed extremely well, the U-3 Vacationville.com running twin-turbocharged Allison power. While this isn't nearly as loud as the Rolls Royce V12s (due to the turbos) the sound is awesome and it's great to watch it take on the fastest boats and win a couple heats over the weekend. It came in 3rd in the grand finale on Sunday.



It was fun to see the vintage boats run as well as a modern hull running an antique power plant (with the help of fuel injection and other modern enhancements). I have spoken with one of the engine builders for the U3 Vacationville and since the engines are long out of production, most of the internal engine components are well-massaged pieces that date to the '40s. They manage to make an old motor hold together for several races running a steady 3000+ hp for several minutes at a time and an insane 45-50psi boost @1700F EGT



Vaughn

 

[HoleshotHolset]

Wow....

Sounds like you had a good time?!



You gotta love that level of obscene amounts of horsepower... .



Matt

 

[klenger]

I heard they used to drill out the bottom of the pistons to reduce weight. After a run, the head bolts would be strectched out from all the boost pressure.

 

[Forrest]

I sure miss these races on TV. Gotta find out where & when they're on.



I remember a version of the old piston versions where they pushed the nitros button coming out of the corners. Lots of nice black smoke.

 

[Mike Ellis]

If you go to the Lone Star Flight Museum in Galveston, they have some nifty aircraft with those engines, including display stand versions of the Allison and Merlin, and also some "cutaway engines" that you can slobber over - including even one of the very first German jet engines. My wife and kids had to drag me away from the engine cutaways WOW slobbbbberrrr



Here's a pic (hope it works) of a B-36 engine that was really slick - had the cylinders layed out in helical rows to make it more compact and smaller frontal area. It is the Pratt & Whitney R-4360 "Wasp Major" - 3,500 horsepower

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

Mike, 36 cylinders and 4 valves per cylinder. . . talk about a valve adjustment nightmare!! Let's see, we have #4,7,18 and 27 at TDC, so we can adjust the intakes on 1,7,11,14,19,22,24,29,33 and the exhausts on 3,6,13,17,20,26,28,31 and 35. OK, now let's spin 'er 45 degrees and we can take care of. . . "



Here's a website with some short low-quality video clips of this weekend: http://www.hydroracing.com/

Click on "videos" link on left.

Another website to look at: www.hydroprop.com which is the official Unlimited Hydros website.



1982 Atlas Website: http://www.82atlas.com/



Hydro museum in Seattle: http://www.thunderboats.org/



Vaughn

 

[klenger]

36 cylinders and 4 valves per cylinder

... and two spark plugs per cylinder (assuming conventional aircraft design).

 

[jzaremski]

heh, we had a vintage event here in Detroit a couple of weeks ago. It was sure nice hearing the big V-12s run again; my earliest memories of the races were having 5 open-stack V12 boats lined up in front of the grandstand, running wide open. Loud enough to knock you over

running twin-turbocharged Allison power. While this isn't nearly as loud as the Rolls Royce V12s (due to the turbos) the sound is awesome

Are you kidding? It sounds like a V6 Chevy Blazer with no muffler That said, it's amazing they keep that thing running at all, what with going 1500 rpm over its designed speed, with 2. 5 times the boost pressure. Gotta be hard to find parts for a 60-year-old engine... 'Course the turbines all date back to pre-Vietnam-era, so they're not exactly cheap to fix either.

They manage to make an old motor hold together for several races running a steady 3000+

the U-3's lucky if it makes 2200 hp. the original supercharged Allisons only put out about 1800.

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

jzaremski, you're probably right it's not putting out 3000hp, but I would say over 2200 easy. I've heard a couple of discussions about the turbines being in the 2500hp range and given the U3 isn't much heavier than the turbine boats and outruns most of them now, I would say it has to be over 2500. But a V6 Blazer with no muffler? Come on, where's the pukeface smilie when you need him? LOL



Vaughn

 

[Andy Perreault]

Speaking of Merlins, I saw a P-51 take off from Boeing Field yesterday while I was waiting for the Blue Angels. I also saw an F-15 take off. He put his gear up, and flew level about 20 feet of the ground. When he got to the north end, he pulled the stick back and went straight up!

"GOT THRUST?"

Andy

 

[MCummings]

Originally posted by klenger

... and two spark plugs per cylinder (assuming conventional aircraft design).

AutoParts SalesMan... . "Yes, How may I help you?"

Owner of B-36... . "Yes,, I'd like 72 Spark plugs"

SalesMan ... ... ... . ":--) :--) {speechless}

Owner of '36... ... "Love it when that happens. . "



Merrick Cummings Jr



BTW,, Port and polish anybody??!

 

[Andy Perreault]

Originally posted by MCummings



Owner of B-36... . "Yes,, I'd like 72 Spark plugs"

And that's just for one engine!

 

[Mike Ellis]

We have a B-36 that is being restored (very slowly) at the plant in Ft. Worth. I have been able to go out and crawl around and through it quite a bit, what an incredible airplane.



The picture of the engine does not convey the scale of the B-36 setup as it has a display prop on it, the B-36 had the engines mounted facing rearward and had HUGE props that the old-timers at the plant referred to as "butter paddle" props - guess they looked like the blades in a churn or cream separator. It also had jet engines for assist, they say the B-36 made a truly awesome sound when it was fired up. The rest of us will never hear that sound again, because there are no flyable B-36s left.

 

[Andy Perreault]

Originally posted by Mike Ellis

We have a B-36 that is being restored (very slowly) at the plant in Ft. Worth.

Mike, will it be restored to airworthy condition? Will it fly again? If so, keep us posted! My dad talks about seeing one take off from LAX once, he said it looked like a big cigar taking off.

Andy

 

[patrobertson]

I like where I live

One thing I do like where I live, Layton Utah, just south of Hill Air Force Base is seeing jets come off the runway and point em straight up, they are out of site in 10 seconds or so. We have mostly F-16s, they rebuild A-10's so they are neat to see all shiny aluminum. We had a dozen 15's come in the other day, pretty amazing, I will have to go down to the museum but the "Screaming Eagle" set the fastest climb rate, I forget what it was but a few pilots who fly them say the weight to thrust ratio is incredible. We have had some fire around her so it has been neat to see what I think is an converted C-47 or DC-3 flying around, and than to see a C-5 come off the runway is amazing, those things are huge!!!!! They don't look like they should be flying at all, plus the sound they make is very distinct, you can't miss one. Comforting knowing that those things are flying over head, and to know quite a few guys I know are in them. LUCKY STIFFS



Shane



Wonder how many CTD could fit in a C-5 if you stacked em?



Doc?