Originally Posted by
EvaDestruction
And of course the sweet sound of the various Merlin V12 series.
To my ears, just about
any V12 piston gasoline engine sounds pretty glorious - aircraft, auto, doesn't much matter - they sound great
(Diesels not so much
).
Back sometime in the 1980s, a racing buddy and I had gone to watch an IMSA race in Portland. At the time, Jaguar was campaigning a prototype powered by a big V-12 (6 liter if memory serves). First time it went by full chat, that sound was so musical my buddy and I just looked at each other and smiled. It's the sort of sound you sort of want to record and play it through your road car exhaust
.
Originally Posted by
EvaDestruction
Can't say the same about any turbojet engine. As others have noted, the Piaggio Avanti has a unique sound.
Agreed - while many jet aircraft have distinctive sounds, I can't say I find any of them particularly pleasurable or musical.
There used to be a company at Paine Field that did heavy maintenance on old JT8D powered 727s and 737s. When the conditions are right, I can hear them doing engine runs at Paine - especially during summer evenings when it's quiet and the windows are open. I could readily tell the difference between the sounds of the big turbofan engines on the Boeing Everett flightline, and the JT8Ds that were at that maintenance facility. Boeing would rarely run engines after 10pm - they had a curfew and could only break it for specific circumstances. OTOH, that maintenance facility would often run those JT8Ds in the middle of the night - correctly assuming that most everyone would blame the noise on Boeing.