Most distinctive and charismatic engine sound?
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For me it has to be the Merlin. Yes, you really can tell the difference between the DB601, the Merlin and the Griffon. 3 and 4 bladed Merlins also, but only if you really concentrate. It's not just the creamy smoothness of the noise, its the memories and history that is sent from the deep of your brain, every time you hear one flying past. Just wonderful. I used to love the afternoon JFK leaving from 27L while we were on T1 Stand 12 on turnaround long ago. A Typhoon or F16 turning tightly at an airshow, is music too, but nothing, nothing on earth, compares to the sound of silence, broken by the heavenly sound of a V12 Rolls Royce flying over.....
Fareastdriver, Thanks for posting the B36 film. They used to come over South Wales quite a lot when I was at school and I remember that distinctive sound very well. Being so big, they were obviously a lot higher than they looked and they seemed to take ages to pass overhead. We also used to see a lot of the Brabazon which had some similar characteristics, although much smaller. I think that a B36 "landed" at Old Sarum in 1952 after misjudging the approach into Boscombe Down.
The B36 did not land at RAF Old Sarum as it was closed and much too small. It came down near the Salisbury - Amesbury Road.
https://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/n...rts-city-1952/
https://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/n...rts-city-1952/
That would be nice. The XF-84H doesn't sound too bad.
But my poor little laptop speakers just fail to convey the true impact of its 135 db SPL.
I live near the approach to KRNT (Renton Municipal Airport) and once in a while this buzzes my house.
I live near the approach to KRNT (Renton Municipal Airport) and once in a while this buzzes my house.
Sorry If I upset you. I knew Old Sarum well as I used to visit it regularly as a CCF Cadet in 1953/4 with a Fleet Air Arm Pilot who was on the staff of the School of Land Air Warfare there. I used to fly with him regularly in the RN Firefly 6 and almost learned to fly the station com flight Chipmunks. Happy times!
Thanks `brakedwell` for the P-Provost addition,and Treadders` for the video; now this is what I used to enjoy,850 hp.in the last biplane fighter...like a big contented purring cat...
Maybe you can find aother video ,Treadders...?
....and there is the `singing ` in the wires....
Maybe you can find aother video ,Treadders...?
....and there is the `singing ` in the wires....
Gnome de PPRuNe
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My pleasure Sycamore!
Paxing All Over The World
I am still excited by ANY aircraft engine spooling up - providing I am inside it! Even little regional Embrarer or similar. However, given the time I have enjoyed 'The Queen', hearing her runnig up to take off power was bliss.
The B36 did not land at RAF Old Sarum as it was closed and much too small. It came down near the Salisbury - Amesbury Road.
https://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/n...rts-city-1952/
https://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/n...rts-city-1952/
I think the radar at BD at that time could only give range (no Height info),iirc did the crew transmit that ''the airfield is rough'' and Air Traffic said ''you are not here yet'' ??
Last edited by longer ron; 9th Feb 2021 at 07:00. Reason: adding text
I never heard it, but people who did said it was indescribably loud and obnoxious. No one cared about the fuel efficiency as it quickly became apparent that the noise made it a non-starter.
Never had the opportunity to hear a B-36, but that would have been interesting
I remembered that the Boscombe Down B36 had previously been discussed on the old much lamented Key Aero Forum.
5 years after the thread started we had some lovely pics posted By Don (Buddy300),Don was the Director of Material Management at Carswell AFB at that time.
In the first Pic here - you can clearly see the outside view of Boscombe Down Boundary Fence
In this pic you can see the undulating ground behind the aircraft,the crew were lucky in that they did not stray into the worst area of the field and did not hit any walls/structures.Their landing roll would not be aligned with the fuselage but more from the left of picture.
Here you can clearly see the A345 which they crossed to 'park' in the field near the Airfield Boundary.
5 years after the thread started we had some lovely pics posted By Don (Buddy300),Don was the Director of Material Management at Carswell AFB at that time.
In the first Pic here - you can clearly see the outside view of Boscombe Down Boundary Fence
In this pic you can see the undulating ground behind the aircraft,the crew were lucky in that they did not stray into the worst area of the field and did not hit any walls/structures.Their landing roll would not be aligned with the fuselage but more from the left of picture.
Here you can clearly see the A345 which they crossed to 'park' in the field near the Airfield Boundary.
I could not find the original article about Jim Connors and his exciting B36 arrival but I found this one.
https://www.a-e-g.org.uk/convairs-mighty-b-36.html
https://www.a-e-g.org.uk/convairs-mighty-b-36.html
In January 1952 Jim Connor flew his B-36 from Carswell AFB in Texas towards Boscombe Down for his first visit to England. A Wiltshire snowstorm hid the airfield and the bomber circled for some two hours. At last the crew were relieved to see the recently installed obstruction light on the spire of Salisbury Cathedral and then, a short distance away, the runway lights of the airfield. They started their approach.
However, what they saw was a funnel of lights which led to the runway. They were part of the wartime Drem system that was still in use at Boscombe Down. The B-36 crew had experience solely of American airfield lighting in which only the runway was outlined in lights. They were therefore unfamiliar with and confused by lead-in lights.
The Boscombe Down controller said ‘You are two miles from touchdown, on centre line’. The pilot responded ‘I’ve landed’ and, after a slight pause, ‘My, isn’t your field rough’.
The B-36 had touched down in a field, ploughed through a fence, demolished a haystack and a shepherd’s hut, crossed a couple of ditches and the Amesbury-Salisbury road and ended 400 yards short of the airfield boundary fence.
The VHF/DF operator in his little hut near the end of the runway rang the tower to say there was an aeroplane outside his hut. He was told ‘We haven’t time to talk to you now. We’re waiting for a very important aircraft’. Meanwhile, the B-36 shut down all but one of the engines which was kept running to provide electrical power. A crew member shone a torch on the spinning blades to prevent anyone walking into it. A Boscombe Down staff member was driving home after a night out in Salisbury and stopped his car. He politely told a crew member ‘If you want the airfield it’s over there’ and drove off.
Despite the embarrassment, some redeeming features emerged. It was a cold night and the ground was frozen hard and it had easily taken the weight of the bomber. The next morning, a bulldozer borrowed from the construction workers who were building the airfield at Greenham Common scraped off the thin topsoil revealing the hard chalk beneath. The B-36 was towed through a gap opened up in the perimeter fence. Boscombe Down engineers made a new bolt to substitute the broken one in the port undercarriage and the propeller damaged by the shepherd’s hut was replaced.
Before the exercise, General Curtis LeMay had told the pilots that if anyone damaged their aircraft they could walk east until their caps floated and then carry on walking. As it was, the B-36 was safely flown home within two days. Jim Connor, apparently demoted from Colonel to Lieutenant in a phone call by LeMay himself, rode as a passenger with the gunners in the back.
However, what they saw was a funnel of lights which led to the runway. They were part of the wartime Drem system that was still in use at Boscombe Down. The B-36 crew had experience solely of American airfield lighting in which only the runway was outlined in lights. They were therefore unfamiliar with and confused by lead-in lights.
The Boscombe Down controller said ‘You are two miles from touchdown, on centre line’. The pilot responded ‘I’ve landed’ and, after a slight pause, ‘My, isn’t your field rough’.
The B-36 had touched down in a field, ploughed through a fence, demolished a haystack and a shepherd’s hut, crossed a couple of ditches and the Amesbury-Salisbury road and ended 400 yards short of the airfield boundary fence.
The VHF/DF operator in his little hut near the end of the runway rang the tower to say there was an aeroplane outside his hut. He was told ‘We haven’t time to talk to you now. We’re waiting for a very important aircraft’. Meanwhile, the B-36 shut down all but one of the engines which was kept running to provide electrical power. A crew member shone a torch on the spinning blades to prevent anyone walking into it. A Boscombe Down staff member was driving home after a night out in Salisbury and stopped his car. He politely told a crew member ‘If you want the airfield it’s over there’ and drove off.
Despite the embarrassment, some redeeming features emerged. It was a cold night and the ground was frozen hard and it had easily taken the weight of the bomber. The next morning, a bulldozer borrowed from the construction workers who were building the airfield at Greenham Common scraped off the thin topsoil revealing the hard chalk beneath. The B-36 was towed through a gap opened up in the perimeter fence. Boscombe Down engineers made a new bolt to substitute the broken one in the port undercarriage and the propeller damaged by the shepherd’s hut was replaced.
Before the exercise, General Curtis LeMay had told the pilots that if anyone damaged their aircraft they could walk east until their caps floated and then carry on walking. As it was, the B-36 was safely flown home within two days. Jim Connor, apparently demoted from Colonel to Lieutenant in a phone call by LeMay himself, rode as a passenger with the gunners in the back.
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Longer ron, I recall that thread on Key - not sure if I'd heard of the incident before or if there had been an article in Flypast - certainly a remarkable outcome.
Gnome de PPRuNe
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My maths and English lessons were frequently interrupted by Kestrels and Adours as Messrs Farley and Simpson and their Dunsfold colleagues zipped past just to the south of us, testing or delivering Harriers and Hawks. And the Miles Student on one occasion, though it may actually have been flying out of Shoreham...
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And DH Victor Mk2
1st, sitting in the garden of a married quarter at Marham with a full power engine run being carried out not far away - the sun, the thumping noise.....
2nd, On the apron at Ascension Island during one of the early trips South: The dark, The night heat on the wind. The formation start was already happening, and the fuel bowser (there was only one) had only just arrived to us, can't remember why but I nipped outside to speak to the groundcrew.... about 70 or 80 Conways all within 100yds. The world was Solid sound,