When one Mustang isn't enough...

The first official flight of the restored XP-82 Twin Mustang took place last Monday in Douglas, GA.

 

Cool. It will be great to maybe see one actually fly.

Too bad an XF11 didn't survive. That would have been an impressive recip airplane.

 

If I remember, that airplane had two early R4360's. I wonder how good they would have been then. Interesting airplane, though.

 

Same thing right?
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Sorta?

 

Did they mention whether the F-82 had Merlins or the later Allisons?

 

I have heard that it had both.

 

Yes, the originals did have both Allisons and Merlins, I read.

This particular one has Merlins... he found a reverse rotating Merlin for it... very rare.

 

It did and the one Howard crashed had counter rotaters on it. A prop control failure and Howards mishandling of the emergency is what brought it down. The number 2 plane had conventional props but was doomed to spend its days being used to train aviation mechanics here in Texas somewhere. Probably recycled into Bud cans long ago.

 

I am a little surprised they didn't put Allisons in it.

 

Really a shame that thing did not work out.

 

The early P-82s had Packard Merlins like the P-51s that preceded them. But after the end of the war, Packard's license to build Merlins was terminated, so they had to go to Allisons. Fortunately, Allison had finally developed a version of the V-1710 with adequate supercharging at altitude (like the Merlin), the lack of which had restricted the use of the engine during the war. So the later F-82s had Allisons with performance similar to the Merlins. I believe it was the only production airplane to use the perfected Allisons.

 

Seems everyone knew it was a very poor choice of power except the people making the decisions.

 

The late P-38s (late Js and Ls) had good Allisons, too, but they were turbocharged and not supercharged. They were not really pushed as hard as the supercharged Allisons or Merlins.

 

Weren't several UK airplanes powered by anticlockwise rotating Merlins, even when used in a single engine AC?

 

Their round motors pretty traditionally turned the wrong way.

 

Yes, well, the DeHavilland Hornet (Super Mosquito) had opposite handed Merlins, and some bombers that used 2 or 4 Merlins did also. but the builder of the F-82 said he had a huge problem finding one.

As far as single engine planes, the Griffon engine used in the late Spit rotated the opposite direction. Pilots transitioning from Merlin Spits to Griffon Spits had to be warned before the first takeoff or they could be in trouble.

 

Thanks. That’s where I think I heard it...some spitfires’ motors rotated anticlockwise.

 

When I flew with Fast Jet Test Squadron as an RAF exchange pilot, I never missed a chance to talk about my mastery of driving on the “wrong side” of the road. I got endless $**t for those comments. Now...I drive on the “right side” of the road but on the wrong side of the car...
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Pedal positioning in those always looks a little uncomfortable.

 

It’s actually surprisingly nice. There’s actually a dead foot pad on the center console near the firewall. And...I have yet to ever drive the car with the windows up as the intake sounds are glorious. Having a LHD car too, I really prefer the UK car. Kinda like flying an F-16...left hand on the throttle, right on the stick.

 

Will- That is funny because when I flew out of RAF Lakenheath, I had a LHD 308 GTS. Had some advantages on the narrow roads, but made it a little more work passing.


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How did they work the reverse rotation in the Allisons and Rolls Merlins, gearbox changes or internal engine modification?

 

Hope I see this up at the EAA Air Venture event this year. It missed last year by 6 months. Also looking forward to seeing that P61A they are restoring fly again.

 

The Merlin had to have a gearbox change, I read.

The Allison... I read you could just swap the crankshaft end for end, change the timing, reverse the starter motor....voila'
GM wanted to make it simple.
Edit: From Wiki: "Another key feature of the V-1710 design was its ability to turn the output shaft clockwise or counter-clockwise by assembling the engine with the crankshaft turned end-for-end, by installing an idler gear in the drive train to the supercharger, camshafts, and accessories, installing a starter turning the proper direction, and re-arranging the ignition wiring on the right side to accommodate a changed firing order. No change to the oil pump nor coolant pump circuits was needed.[5] The ability to reverse the direction of rotation with a minimum of extra parts to achieve the task allowed the use of either a "tractor" or "pusher" propeller. This approach allowed easy changes of the supercharger(s) and supercharger drive-gear ratio. That gave different critical altitude (the maximum altitude at which the engine could produce full power) ratings ranging from 8,000 to 26,000 feet (2,400 to 7,900 m).

 

As opposed to the Merlin, which had a two stage compressor.