Originally Posted by
VictorGolf
Every time I look at the cutaway example at IWM Duxford I wonder at how the groundcrews kept them running in the field during WW2.
My father was 'Q'ed on the Sabre. He said it was a beautiful piece of engineering, but a bastard to maintain. If the ignition timing wasn't 'just right', one bank of cylinders would end up 'driving' the other, with concomitant demise of the gearbox an inevitability. TBO between major servicings was 25 hrs and a plug chage was a complete pain in the tender parts. It was also a bit of an oil slinger too.....