PRATT & WHITNEY R-4360 WASP MAJOR AIRCRAFT - Airplanes powered by this radial engine

NOTE: With our sincere apologies, Specialty Press suspended operations September 1, 2023.

[richardpase]

Great video, I was mechanic on C-97, Delaware Air Guard in the 50’s. They sent me to 4360 engine school, what a magnificent engineering masterpiece. I then graduated from U of Del with a BSME and went to work for P&W Florida Research & Development Center as test engineer mostly out of respect for their engineering. I retired in 1995 after a very interesting and rewarding career working on RL-10, XLR-129 rocket engines, F-100, 119, 135, PW-3005, J-58 gas turbines, and high energy airborne laser ALL.

[ralphaverill]

Two things amaze me about the 4360 engine. First, the design of 4 radial engines stacked on a single crankshaft and all the mechanics required, the WASP is like a 4300 hp swiss watch. The other amazing fact is that P & W cranked out over 18, 000 units with no CAD design help, no CNC machining; just basic lathes, mills, drill presses and shapers set up and operated by people with dirt under their fingernails.

[Hopeless_and_Forlorn]

All the people commenting about how maintenance-intensive the R-4360 must have been never worked on radial engines. Yes, the engine had lots of jugs, spark plugs, seven magnetos on its early models, and so forth, but all radial engines required a lot of maintenance. The 4360 proved to be dependable and as reliable as the state of the art allowed. Its only competition, the Wright R-3350, was comparatively overstressed, less reliable, had poor maintenance access, and in service required probably just as much maintenance as the corncob. The corncob was a great engine.

[leokimvideo]

The engine looked beautiful when it was tightly cowled, classic lines

[NOBOX]

As an engine enthusiast i can say hands down that air craft engines are indeed the most master pieces of art man has ever achieved . They are the combined power of all our knowledge, from electronics, fluid dynamics, chemistry, machining, engineering, to alloys and metallurgy .

[shrek_]

You missed one, an important one, the Goodyear F2G Super Corsair. A total of 11 were built, 2 remain, and they were among the greatest air racers ever.

[nicholasmarino]

When I was in the Air Force working on this engine, and when the spark plugs needed changing, it was easer to change the engine. That saved a lot of time.

[paoloviti]

The Pratt and Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major was truly a formidabile engine for it's period but from what I understood it was very mantainace intensive, the Wasp Major engines also had a prodigious appetite for lubrication oil with each engine required a dedicated 100-gal tank. Normal maintenance consisted of tedious measures, such as changing the 56 spark plugs on each engine as the plugs were often fouled by the lead in the in the 145 octane fuel required by the R-4360 engines. Thus, each service required changing 336 spark plugs. It should be noted that engine fires occurred with the B-36's radial engines, some crews humorously changed the aircraft's slogan from "six turning, four burning" into "two turning, two burning, two smoking, two choking and two more unaccounted for" because this problem was exacerbated by the propellers' pusher configuration, which increased carburetor icing. Good job again 👍👍

[gavinc.morrison]

Mike. Your YouTube channel is criminally underrated. Keep ‘em coming sir!

[michaela.]

My Dad was the Military test pilot on the XC-120 project for the infield testing
phase at Eglin AFB. The 120 was dropped because of the complexities involved
with actual (on the ground) rough field conditions out in the toolies. Plus my dad
and the Air Force had developed and perfected the in flight and ground effect para
chute extraction system we see today.

[davidclark]

As a design engineer I can't help commenting that the 4360 (and all engines of that era) were designed on drawing boards without benefit of the computerized 3-D design tools we have today. The designers had to visualize the third dimension on the paper and get that enormously complex assembly arranged without interference between parts.

[kcreh]

Thanks for sharing. You did forget the Goodyear F2G Super Corsair. It was also powered by the 4360.

[maxsmodels]

My dad was a WB-29 mechanic in Alaska during the Korean war. He said those onld engines were impressive but they were also job security for mechanics, especially because of the superchargers. They cracked a lot in the cold artic sky.

[deansiracusa]

If you ever want to hear these great engines run at full speed, go to the Reno Air Races each September where you’ll see modified Sea Fury’s among others using them to go 400 mph around a course!

[garyplewa]

Maintenance on this engine must have been a chore. With 2 spark plugs per cylinder and 28 cylinders that's 56 plugs that need to be removed, cleaned, re-gapped, tested and reinstalled at regular intervals. I'm glad this was before my time as an aviation mechanic. I've seen motorized cut-away displays of this engine at museums and the engineering and machining, all done before the days of CAD and CNC automation, is amazing.

[MarkGardnerBonnie]

Great story Sir... gotta say that when I was in A&P school, we had a C-124 Globe Master on loan from the Air Force. We were all in awe, we were showed that you can crawl out to each engine in flight and change the starter-generator if required. I have some experience working R-2800's and was so amazed at looking at two more rows of cylinders... well done Sir!

[Omnihil]

I once read something about the difference in manufacturing at Pratt & Whitney and other companies, like Wright, Ford or Packard, the heritage of P&W in tool making etc, very interesting, from a conceptual design perspective and actual producing methods resulting from it. Let's say, it's different, without going too much into detail here. Fascinating.

[thewatcher]

Thanks Very Much, Mike. I've Looked At & Collected A-lot Of Aircraft Photos But There Were Several In This Video I'd Never Seen. Thank You.

[jimpern]

Hey Mike, you forgot one! The Goodyear F2G Super Corsair!

[jameslanning]

The only thing better than seeing pictures of these corncobs, is getting to hear them fire up!