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View Full Version : Large contra rotating prop a/c on TV last night


zetec2
22nd Aug 2012, 19:06
Last night watching on tv late night programme called "Winging It" (I think) about the ATA deliveries etc during WW2, lots of interesting footage Barracuda / Whitley/Halifax/ Anson/ B17 etc, etc, in the middle of the footage was a huge fighter type aircraft with in line cockpit, with what at first seemed to be contra rotating large diameter props, but then showed that both prop sets ran independently (2 engines in airframe ??) aircraft had huge pointed spinner & film showed engine start up & run then aircraft taking off, no idea what it was ???, any body else watch the programme & have an idea ? just didn't recognise the aircraft, help !!!, B Rgds, Paul H.

treadigraph
22nd Aug 2012, 20:31
Off-hand can only think of Fairey Gannet? Post war though...

Captain Capstan
22nd Aug 2012, 20:44
Westland Wyvern also post war though. Supermarine Seafang again post war. Some Spitfire 21s had conta-rotating props in 1945.

A30yoyo
22nd Aug 2012, 21:08
Apparently the Fairey Battle test-bed for the RR Exe piston engine(I.D'd on the Key Publishing Forum) (but where is it with those US types behind)?
A ramp shot early in the prog is a puzzle...there's a Lanc but also the Boeing XB-15/XC-105 giant

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/zz20/A30yoyo/Battle-Testbed.jpg

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/zz20/A30yoyo/ATAmysteryAirfield.jpg

Liffy 1M
22nd Aug 2012, 21:22
The second scene you show looks to me like it is taken in the USA. Given the variety of types, maybe somewhere like Wright-Patterson or another test airfield?

zetec2
22nd Aug 2012, 21:27
A30yoyo, thank you, that's it, I can sleep peacefully tonight now. B Rgds, Paul H.

chevvron
23rd Aug 2012, 08:33
Excellent programme were it not for some of the 'stock shots' used which appeared to have emanated from across the pond where as far as I'm aware, the ATA never operated ('cos they had their own ferry service).
I too wondered about the aircraft with two sets of exhausts but it was so late at night and the shot was stretched to fit a 16/9 picture so I never twigged it was a Battle!
Never heard of that engine before, presumably its development was overtaken by turboprops.

dc9-32
23rd Aug 2012, 10:03
Talking of contra-rotating props, the best thing I ever flew on was the Antonov AN22 - google or utube that and see !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4VlQv4qq8s

gruntie
23rd Aug 2012, 10:58
The RR Exe was an X24 and indeed flew in a Battle: but Fairey had their own engines, the Prince (H16) and Monarch (H24), both also in Battles, and both seemed to drive coax counter rotating propellers. The Monarch-engined Battle was sent to Wright Field for evaluation, and flew 250 hrs while there.

treadigraph
23rd Aug 2012, 11:34
Never heard of the Fairey engines or the Exe - as ever, one lives and learns! :ok:

A30yoyo
23rd Aug 2012, 15:45
Sounds like the one with the Fairey Monarch engine is a candidate with the U.S background aircraft....new one to me , too!:)

See Posts #7 and #12 onFairey Battle evaluated in the USA - Key Publishing Ltd Aviation Forums (http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?t=84783)

DaveReidUK
23rd Aug 2012, 16:42
The RR Exe was an X24 and indeed flew in a Battle: but Fairey had their own engines, the Prince (H16) and Monarch (H24), both also in Battles, and both seemed to drive coax counter rotating propellers. The Monarch-engined Battle was sent to Wright Field for evaluation, and flew 250 hrs while there.

I agree, the photo couldn't be the Exe-engined Battle as that didn't have a contra-prop and it certainly didn't go to the USA.

India Four Two
24th Aug 2012, 05:43
Never heard of the Fairey engines or the Exe - as ever, one lives and learns! http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.pprune.org/get/images/smilies/thumbs.gif


Me neither and following down that "river" so to speak, we reach the Crecy - a 90 degree V12, 26 litre two-stroke!

It was intended to fly in a Henley test-bed. A Battle would have been much more suitable. ;)

Wander00
24th Aug 2012, 10:35
Imagine mixing the petrol and oil for that!

chevvron
24th Aug 2012, 12:58
...unless they had oil injection, but also imagine the sound!!

DHfan
24th Aug 2012, 23:34
The Exe-engined Battle was used as a Rolls-Royce liaison aircraft for many years after the engine was cancelled and never gave the slightest trouble.

Impressive for such a radical departure from RR's historical engine designs, especially considering the problems with the early Merlins which were based on previous experience.

Nuuumannn
26th Aug 2012, 16:58
The Monarch-engined Battle was sent to Wright Field for evaluation, and flew 250 hrs while there.

The very same as in the picture above of Fairey Battle I K9370 (for the spotters). The Fairey P-24 engine was to be put into production by Ford in the USA to power the P-47 Thunderbolt, but that didn't happen, obviously. One of the Monarch engines survives at the FAA Museum at Yeovilton.

Rory57
26th Aug 2012, 20:28
Some photos of the Fairey engine on Flickr - I can't resize them tonight but see
flickr.com/photos/14948947@N05/7866629132

A 51 litre engine with 4 speed (!) supercharger, 2240 hp, £9000 each (According to Anthony Furse in his biog. of Wilfred Freeman)

India Four Two
27th Aug 2012, 04:33
Thanks for the pictures, Rory. What a "tidy" engine in comparison to the Merlin with all its "bolt-ons"!

A30yoyo
27th Aug 2012, 10:44
Via the magic 'share' facility on flickr....in the Cobham Hall annex, perhaps?
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8286/7866637360_35c4c51947_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/14948947@N05/7866637360/)
IMG_0242 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/14948947@N05/7866637360/) by Rory57 (http://www.flickr.com/people/14948947@N05/), on Flickr

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8429/7866646276_dd19e84e8a_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/14948947@N05/7866646276/)
Propellor assembly fromFairey P24 Engine at Yeovilton FAA museum (http://www.flickr.com/photos/14948947@N05/7866646276/) by Rory57 (http://www.flickr.com/people/14948947@N05/), on Flickr

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8421/7866629132_e0e560bb5e_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/14948947@N05/7866629132/)
Fairey P24 Engine at Yeovilton FAA museum (http://www.flickr.com/photos/14948947@N05/7866629132/) by Rory57 (http://www.flickr.com/people/14948947@N05/), on Flickr

sycamore
27th Aug 2012, 19:52
As it has only got 16 exhausts,is it not the P16,and not the P24..?

India Four Two
27th Aug 2012, 23:51
sycamore,
I wondered about that too, but see here:

FAIREY P.24 DOUBLE ENGINE. (http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/engines/fairey-p-24-double-engine-15212.html)

Four exhaust ports per cylinder bank faced outboard, the two central ports being common to two cylinders, vis 2 & 3 and 4 & 5. The end ports had only one cylinder discharging into them. Induction and exhaust was on the same side of each cylinder head.

Rory57
28th Aug 2012, 18:45
Aaah the magic share button! I never came across that, thank you very much A30yoyo.

Yes the P24 engine was in the Cobham Annex at Yeovilton I was pleased to find it, I had no idea it was there (or anywhere). I wonder if the Museums engine was the engine from the Fairey Battle that went to the USA or another, perhaps unused, (like the Rolls Royce Eagle is said to be in Yeovilton's Wyvern) ?

Fairey finally brought the two engines in one / contra-prop idea to fruition in the wonderful Gannet so all of the P24 work wasn't completely in vain.

A30yoyo
28th Aug 2012, 21:58
Ha! It was years before I found that (the little share sign above the medium size pic on the flickr 'you' page!), ('bbc' setting for pprune)...I just realized you can vary the image size shared, too e.g.(thumbnail)http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8421/7866629132_e0e560bb5e_t.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/14948947@N05/7866629132/)
Fairey P24 Engine at Yeovilton FAA museum (http://www.flickr.com/photos/14948947@N05/7866629132/) by Rory57 (http://www.flickr.com/people/14948947@N05/), on Flickr


You can switch the facility off, too, if you want to control where your pics are displayed

Cobham Hall is brilliant... will look out for the P24 next visit, and what they have of the Barracuda!