From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Aircraft engine production and development at Pratt & Whitney and Wright Aeronautical, including details on current models and future concepts.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 27\3\ Scan210 | |
| Date | 15th May 1939 guessed | |
| 4. well received by Messrs.Hobbs and Cronstedt, and had the opportunity of discussing problems with these gentlemen and with Messrs.Willgoos, Insley, Sanborn and Parkin. At the Wright Aeronautical Corporation, Messrs.Nutt Gagg, Beall, P.B.Taylor, Johnson, Carvelli, Browns and others did a great deal to make the visit useful. Both firms are fairly busy and are producing about 250 engines per month on two shifts a day. 14-cylinder engines are being turned out in large numbers, The Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp S.C.G. of about 1000HP, and the Wright G.R.2600 of 1200 to 1300HP. Both firms have just completed, or are about to complete, type tests on 18-cylinder engines of about 2000 HP. and they are both actively interested in bigger engines of 3000 to 4000 HP.output. There is no definite indication of the form which these large engines will take but both flat and multi-row radial engines are in mind. Cylinder size will not be changed greatly and will, we were told, remain around 6" x 6¾" (Hornet and Cyclone size). Notable developments in air cooling are envisaged and both companies are experimentingwith much deeper cylinder head fins ( up to 3"), which it was stated most definitely will be well worth while from a cooling point of view. There was a general feeling that the single engined machine will stay and that it will need similar smaller engines than are at present fitted in order to give better view, but for the big 2- and 4-engined bombers and civil machines nacelle size is becoming of minor importance relative to the size of the air-craft. It is felt that there will be scope for liquid cooling for engines of high output for high speed military aircraft of 400-500 m.p.h. Both Pratt & Whitney and Wrights feel rather annoyed at the placing of an order by the Army for at least 800 of the Allison liquid cooled V-12 engines, not so much because the engine is liquid-cooled as because it is obsolete and under-developed. One gained the impression that the Army was introduc-ing a little competition to encourage the two firms to greater | ||