Most distinctive and charismatic engine sound?
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: North of the South Pole
Posts: 1,030
Most distinctive and charismatic engine sound?
The title says it all - which aircraft engine has a sound like no other, is instantly recognisable and has an interesting and varied repertoire of sounds like no other? I have one in mind and and I'll be impressed if I can be proven wrong.
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Everett, WA
Age: 66
Posts: 3,553
That drone of those four P&W radials on a B-17 going overhead is music to my ears (although I'd probably feel differently if I'd been at the receiving end of a mission).
The two P&W radials on the DC-3 also sound wonderful to me - there is a vintage DC-3 based at the Historic Flight museum at Paine field just a few miles from my house. It flies overhead occasionally during the nice weather months. Whenever I hear 'that sound' I rush outside to take a look at listen
.
The two P&W radials on the DC-3 also sound wonderful to me - there is a vintage DC-3 based at the Historic Flight museum at Paine field just a few miles from my house. It flies overhead occasionally during the nice weather months. Whenever I hear 'that sound' I rush outside to take a look at listen

Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: LEEDS
Posts: 1,075
I concur with the majority- there's no sound like the shriek of a Dart. At LBA in the 70s and early 80s, we didn't hear much else!
The sound of a Spey painfully groaning its way through the start process is almost as memorable.
The sound of a Spey painfully groaning its way through the start process is almost as memorable.