My point is that they didn't use nitrous in aircraft. One of the most common
engines was the Pratt & Whitney Double Wasp.
The Double Wasp
The Twin Wasp was followed by the Double Wasp, an 18-cylinder twin-row
radial with 2,800 cubic inches of displacement. The Double Wasp produced
more than one horsepower per cubic inch displacement with water injection
and turbosupercharging. It became the backbone of the American fighter
fleet, powering the Grumman F6F Hellcat, the Vought F4U Corsair, and
Republic's P-47 Thunderbolt. (borrowed from the Pratt & Whitney History
page)
Allied Aircraft either used supercharging and later turbosupercharging (One
or Two speed gear-driven supercharger and exhaust-driven turbocharger). The
Axis powers mainly used water/methanol injection (Germany did produce a
couple of engines using supercharging) to get to altitude or for a quick
burst of speed.
Nitrous would have been a cool thing to use. Slight problem... Ever see an
engine bust a mount? under n2o? It makes a real nasty mess under the hood
provided it didn't go through the hood! Imagine this... You're tooling along
in your P-47 Jug and spot a group of Me-109's just below you , and you punch
your n2o. Before you can react to what is happening, your plane's wings are
ripped off due to the vast amounts of torgue delivered by the engine, or you
can barrel-roll,stall,spin,crash,and burn... Just my 2 cents...
Greg
95 DSCC v6 5spd
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-dakota-truck@buffnet4.buffnet.net
[mailto:owner-dakota-truck@buffnet4.buffnet.net]On Behalf Of Jon Steiger
Sent: Monday, December 07, 1998 2:29 PM
To: dakota-truck@buffnet.net
Subject: Re: DML: Nitrous in W.W.II aircraft
On Mon, 7 Dec 1998, Popovich, Greg, BMG-NY1540 wrote:
[...]
> Hmmmm... Interesting... From with I have seen both the Allied and Axis
> used water and methanol mixtures to achieve what is called War Emergency
> Power, and it depended on what aircraft it was used on. If memory serves
> me right almost all naval aircraft from the F6F Hellcat on to the F9F
> Tigercat, and on Army Air Corps the P40,P51 and the P38 (with TSC's) had
> it. The Jap Zero and Zeke both had it as well as the Me109 and FW190's.
Yep, could be. From what I've read, the use of Nitrous on WWII
aircraft was more for high altitude operation than for a quick burst
of power. Although I don't know this for sure, I suspect that the
pilot would have to keep an eye on the EGT/CHT guages and adjust
the mixture by hand while the nitrous was flowing, which might be too
much to ask in a dogfight situation. ?
-Jon-
.--- stei0302@cs.fredonia.edu ----------------------------------------.
| Jon Steiger * AOPA, DoD, EAA, MP Race Team, NMA, SPA, USUA * RP-SEL |
| '96 Dodge Dakota v8 SLT CC (14.58@93.55), '96 Kolb FireFly 447 |
`--------------------------- http://www.cs.fredonia.edu/~stei0302/ ---'
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