Wolfeboro's Little Airport & Ralph M. Horn

[NoBozo]

Originally Posted by Acres per Second

Ah...Grasshopper.

It is the Antonov's radial engine that makes the difference.

Like the sound that a Harley-Davidson makes from its own antique design lineage, a radial engine makes a very distinctive sound: If it's flying over Winnipesaukee, you can detect it.

The radial engine sound has even produced a cottage industry in CD recordings. (You can listen on-line!)
http://www.spitcrazy.com/sounds_of_aviation.htm
http://rareaviation.com/raenfrso.html

One recording company has even added music to the sound:
http://sounddogs.com/results.asp? (Vocals!)

I don't know of any similar recordings of any other engine.

Too, it is the sound of our WWII American "Warbird" legacy. These designs produced engines of 3600+HP from a single engine. Here's the radial engine principle.

Like some boats on Winnipesaukee, Harley-Davidson motorcyclists try to project a kind of "Warbird" image. (Paint jobs, graphics, decals, leather jackets and "character"). It's just ridiculous that our Warbird legacy of WWII could be matched or experienced through paint jobs and appearances: think "poseur". All the other engine sounds that strike my ear at Winnipesaukee are projected through noisy Detroit-Iron exhaust pipes, housed in expensive fiberglass jukeboxes.

And the Antonov has never awakened me in the middle of the night.

APS

Thanks APS for the interesting thread. Speaking of recorded engine sounds, there is a (2) CD set of engine sounds of Classic Speedboats ("Powering The Classics") by Vertual Visit Rercordings, Brighton, MI 1996, that recorded the sounds of many of the well known antique mahogany speedboats.... quite a few of which reside on Winni. Many of these boats inherited their engines from WWI and WWII aircraft. No one has used an air cooled radial so far in a boat though.

Comparing old aircraft engines with modern GFBL engines is a stretch. None of the "Round"... (Radial)... engines, or even the water cooled V-12s found in Spitfires or P-51 Mustangs turn much faster than about 2800 RPM, and cruise at 2100 RPM, so the sound is nothing like todays big V-8s that turn over 8000 RPM in some cases.

One has to actually HEAR a big Radial start up from COLD, from just a few feet away to get an inkling of what facinates classic aircraft buffs. I would drive 100 miles just to get close to one when it starts up. I also like to hear the go fasts when thay start up as well. My wife says it's a guy thing. NB

BTW: Favorite Old Coot pastime...."Lets Go To The Airport"...you never know what you might see...