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Location:
Land of Oz
Registered:
June 2004
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An Affair with Connie
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Mon, 29 November 2004 11:15
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Hi,
Did anyone watch "An Affair with Connie" on Fox tonight?
It's about the 4 year restoration of an old 1950s Lockheed Constellation. Man, you gotta love those Wright 3350 engines. 18 cylinders and 3,350 cubic inch displacement (dunno what that is in litres, but I'm sure it's bigger than an 18RG), and 36 spark plugs per engine. Multiple that by four and you've got a lot of sparkplugs. In the old days the airlines used to have dedicated sparkplug cleaners. When the plane came in they'd run out and change and clean the plugs for the next flight. That'd be a hell exciting job, eh?
I particularly liked the the power turbines in these engines. Each engine had 3 turbines, driven by the exhaust. Not only did this increase the power through forced-air induction, but each turbine had a flexible shaft that, through a viscous clutch, connected back to the crankshaft to add even more power.
They had to pull apart one of the engines. The pistons are about 6inches diameter and the air-cooled cylinder head is the size of a bucket.
Flat chat, running around 3,000 rpm, these babies could pull over 3,500hp with water-methanol injection. Now, that's the sort of power that could get you drifting real nice - but I think you'll need to tub the rear and strengthen the drive-train (amongst other things) to get that power to the tar.
I hope to see one of these engines on eBay. A few years ago a bloke sold a Merlin engine. If I had the money I'd buy one and start it once in a while to scare the bejesus out of the neighbours - especially when I get one of those 18ft diameter propellors on it!
seeyuzz
river
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| | Subject | Poster | Date |
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An Affair with Connie
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river | Mon, 29 November 2004 11:15 |
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Re: An Affair with Connie
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clubagreenie | Mon, 29 November 2004 11:25 |
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Re: An Affair with Connie
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river | Mon, 29 November 2004 11:47 |
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Re: An Affair with Connie
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inertia | Mon, 29 November 2004 14:08 |
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Re: An Affair with Connie
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Corona RT142 | Mon, 29 November 2004 23:22 |
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Re: An Affair with Connie
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SIMDOG | Tue, 30 November 2004 10:14 |
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Re: An Affair with Connie
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RA28 | Tue, 30 November 2004 12:08 |
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Re: An Affair with Connie
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CLG | Tue, 21 December 2004 09:28 |
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Re: An Affair with Connie
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Squid | Wed, 22 December 2004 00:19 |
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Re: An Affair with Connie
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tripmcneily | Tue, 30 November 2004 09:24 |
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Re: An Affair with Connie
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tripmcneily | Tue, 30 November 2004 09:28 |
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Re: An Affair with Connie
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river | Tue, 30 November 2004 10:34 |
