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.

RR Dart from memory.

Standing in front of an open intake Turmo IIIC4.

I can still hear it forty years later.

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 :ok:.

RR Tay620/650. You could always tell when the Fokkers arrived.

I think this thread deserves soundtracks:

And this one

Dart starting,

At the Brooklands Museum there's a bit of a Dart you can pretend to start, and it makes the memorable sound perfectly to my ears. Could play with it for ages.

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.

Argus pulsejet in a V1 Doodlebug. Never heard one live (of course) but surely they were unique, including the enigmatic sound of silence during terminal phase ? UAV/UAS but nevertheless an aircraft.

I guess this is cheating but the first time I heard a Huey the sound of those rotors really sent a shiver down my spine.

F-104. It's a musical instrument! Or should I say, the J-79 in an F-104. The combination made a unique, never-to-be-forgotten sound. Or range of sounds.

RR Conway. BA 707's and the VC10'S?

The crackle of 4 of those engines getting airborne on a cold dry day, was something to behold.

Pratt & Whitney F135, the new kid on the block.

(Surprised no one has yet mentioned the RR Merlin)

B707 with JT4As does it for me.

Thanks, SLB. You've made an old man's old ears very happy. (6,000 hours sitting between two. Darts F27)

Merlin....’nuff said....

Merlin! Yep - that's the one for me .....

Surprised noone mentioned the Kuznetsov NK-12 ...

Avro Shackleton

As a former ramp rat, I’m biased toward aircraft you could identify before seen. Based on that criteria, I have to nominate the TPE331. “Don’t let that MU-2 sneak up on you” said no one ever.

Regarding the RR Dart, I did have the misfortune to connect/disconnect the start cart for the start-up of a chartered Viscount. Truly the British answer to Phil Spector’s “Wall of Sound.”

Merlin is the fairly obvious answer.

I am however very surprised Rolls Royce Olympus haven’t been mentioned? Four of them in/under a delta wing are simply a primeval force of nature!

Distinctive means instantly recognisable. "A sound like no other, is instantly recognisable and has an interesting and varied repertoire of sounds like no other?"

I challenge anyone to identify between a Merlin, a Griffon, a DB601 or Allison so I'd hardly call any of those instantly recognisable no matter how charismatic, and if you can identify between an Avon, Olympus, Conway, Sapphire, JT3 or Spey I reckon you're some kind of audio-signature computer! Ditto most turboprops.
None have a "varied repertoire of sounds" as far as I can tell.


Argus qualifies. motorbike to silence. Rather like my old BSA...
As might the Goblin, whine to howl to unique whistle.
Astazou is quite distinctive but hardly has a repertoire.
Dart too is distinctive-ish but some of the Soviet turboprops sounded just the same, and again has little in the way of repertoire.

OK I'll go, engines and aeroplanes that I have never flown and almost certainly never will..

4 Rolls Royce Olympus (Concorde)
4 Rolls Royce Conways (Model as fitted to the Super VC-10 for the added "crackle")
4 Rolls Royce Merlins (Avro Lancaster)
4 Rolls Royce Griffons (Avro Shackelton)
Almost any large radial engine, but in particular the Bristol Centaurus

Of the aeroplanes that I have flown and still hear almost daily..

The Continental GTSIO 520 M/L (GITSO) as fitted to the Cessna 404. Sounds like a pair of Ferrari engines on each wing
The Continental IO 520 as fitted to the Beech Baron, I love the harsh bark of these engines

Can't say the sound of any modern high bypass jet engines do it for me, although I doff my cap at the designers for their incredible reliability

Sound I most love is the pop and crackle of a Merlin when the throttle is closed on landing. The airframe an engine is installed in contributes to the sound as well, the P-51 Merlin in flight sounds better than a Spitfire, R-1820 in a T-28 or S-2 sounds far better than a DC-3 or B-17, but all radials sound great. Turbines don't do it for me, save the growl of some heavies on take off.

About 30 years ago, I was on a business trip to the UK. After landing at Heathrow, I was standing at a 'remote' rental car counter near the end of a runway. Suddenly there was this horrendous, overwhelming noise - yet nobody else seemed to even notice :confused:. I turned around and there was a Concorde a few hundred yards away beginning it's takeoff run in full afterburner/reheat.
I don't know that there was anything that I particularly liked or enjoyed about the noise, but it certainly was memorable - and quite possibly the noisiest aircraft I've ever heard.

Thread drift alert!

The noise and vibration from Concorde on take off was enough to set off car alarms. I fortunately parked in the central area, but I'm sure it must have affected battery life for cars park Northside ( a staff car park north of Runway 09L/27R).

I recall on a number of occasions waiting in the holding area of 27R whilst Concorde took off, I usually made a passenger PA to advise/warn them that the noise and vibration we were about to experience was not the end of the world, just Concorde on taking off.

The only rejected take off I witnessed at Heathrow was one day lining up behind Concorde on 09R. Whilst we waited our 2 mins, all we could see down the runway was a brown smoke haze from the departing Concorde. Next thing we heard the Concorde pilot advising they were rejecting the take off due an engine problem.

Ah memories!

Brian Trubshaw explained to me that Concorde didn't have afterburner / reheat, Concorde had overdrive.
CC

As a kid I could always pick the sound of a pair of R1830s on a DC3 coming into or taking off from Mascot.

Vulcan low level burble. Unforgettable.
And the Speys on a 1-11 starting up.

For those of us with long memories: Britannia

Brought up on a diet of Darts and Tynes, I couldn't understand why they called it the "Whispering Giant" - until the first time that I (barely) heard one taxy and take off.

Merlin, the more the better so far 11, 2 Lancasters + 2 Spitfires + Mustang
2nd choice big radials like a Thunderbolt

The engines on a Beech Duchess........ sounds like a bag of spanners every time I hear them fly over.

RR Avon / Hunter 'blue note' at high speed. I claim that intake / bleed duct noise should be considered as part of the engine.

Something similar with the Javelin, but that was often just before the engine failed.

all unmistakeable
 

The RR Dart of course - 10 years with BMA lol

!-11 RR Spey start up

JT8's on 737-200, 727 or a DC-9 screaming down the taxy ways

JT3B on a 707 spooling up on APP

RB211 Tristar start up rumble

In more recent times -

RR RB211 535E4's on a 757

A320/321 NEO's CFM LEAP (and 737 MAX too)



Tridents/Comets/ RR Conway 707's and VC-10's were all just noise, crackle and pain lol

Yes that is/was a distinctive sound and quite unlike the sound of the pair of R1830s in a PBY Catalina.
Must be to do with the location of the fuselage.

Merlin... or better still, Griffon.

I am not that experienced on engine noises but I thought that the Pegasus on the Sea Harrier had a very distinctive noise on shut down. I went all the way to Yeovilton on their last day just to hear it. Actually, I was expecting a lot, lot more as well but was very disappointed.
I also miss the sound of a single Spey on a 1-11 using methanol injection and the curvature of the earth to gain height. And what about the distinctive whistle of the Goblin on the Vampire. Nothing like a couple of those doing engine tests to ruin one's hearing for good.

The mighty Nimbus. Especially surging after a mishandled acceleration or autorotation. Not sure about whispering giant. The lads called it the whistling sh@thouse !

Distinctive? Definately the Piaggo Avanti.

Not sure I would call the sound charismatic though.