That would be 8 or 10.

The movie is Reunion of the Giants and I hope it's in IMAX this summer. Would have love to have seen the real thing.

Would love to have HEARD the real thing...

So I attended a school in Aspen Colorado. The first day I walk out for a break and some fresh air and hear that sound. Look up and there's a beautifully restored Mk IX spitfire...instant wood.

Hearing an Allison.

Very few things are that cool sounding. I also enjoy a P&W 2800 being put through its paces.
A well tuned FE series big block with duals always gets me fired up.

That kinda grabs you by the heart strings. The Lancaster was a magnificent aircraft. Sucks there are only two still flying. That was their workhorse of the war.

R-2800 is what is cool for me. Water cooled sound good too, but a radial gets my attention everytime.

Hearing a fast-mover come in and turn a six-digit grid coordinate you called-in into a parking lot.

By a mile.

With all due respect to the Warbirds, no piston driven engine compares to the 10,000 horsepower Nitromethane burning monsters found in the funny cars and top fuel dragsters of the NHRA.

The human brain cannot comprehend this violence unless witnessed in person as audio and video simply cannot capture the spectacle....

Great video.

Here is one of my favorites:

At Thunder over Michigan, I've seen the Canadian Lancaster as well as B-29 24, 17s, and a bunch of others in flight. Soul stirring to say the least. It's a great show, and highly recommended. I've ridden the YAM B-17, well worth it.

Merlin, Pratt&Whitney . . . I can't pick just one. I'll even look up for a Wright Cyclone or an Allison.

Nothing makes me stop and scan the sky quicker than the sound of warbird engines.

Great video, thanks!

Here is one of my favorites. It has what I consider to be one of the most effective openings of any documentaries I've seen.



L.W.

On the headline, I instantly flashed to Lancasters. Can you imagine what it sounded like when they bombed those dams?

I used to work in a shop that opened up to the runway in Watsonville, and there were quite a few old warplanes living there.. P51s were common, and everyone liked them, but when the resident A1 Skyraider rolled out, everyone went out to watch takeoff. That plane sounded like a funny car.. It was awesome.

Would love to hear the sound of two Merlin engines, in flight, on either side of the cockpit of a deHavilland Mosquito going balls to the wall.

I toured that Mynarski Lancaster when it came to Winnipeg. Beautiful aircraft. What surprised me was how close the pilot and co-pilot sit - shoulder to shoulder! And then I saw it again at its home in Hamilton. Thanks to the many who keep it flying.

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If you've heard the P-51D, you've heard the Merlin although it may be a license-built by Packard- Merlin.

A deep-throated P-47!!

My Fighter by Sharps45 2 7/8, on Flickr

I can remember when the airlines used Lockheed Constellations.

I could hear their four Wright R-3350s droning overhead on lazy summer days.

Thanks Pugs

Can't seem to embed this, so...
Get to spend most March Meets in this crews pit. Great to sit back at ten feet, listen, watch, and drink beer.

[video:google]https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=730072130342609&set=vb.100000194862032&type=3[/video]

Thanks Pugs. Not better but high on my list is the T-56 Allison engine and a J-75 going into AB (telling my age on that one). Nothing sounds like a single stage after burner lighting off!!!

I live 2 miles from Falcon Field (FFZ) we have quite a war bird presence here including the confederate airforce museum. I get near daily B17 flyovers above my house! Lots of Texans and Nanchangs, B25, Wacos and the occasionaly P51. Never seen a Spitfire in flight.

Merlins are great but my genes are laced with radial exhaust..

Nothing gets my attention like a radial

Love the sound of those Merlins! I can be in my house and hear one coming and know exactly what it is.

But I do like a good american V8 too. I used to love listening to the dragsters and funny cars in the pits at Bandimere speedway. The fumes would make your eyes burn too!

Edit: I forgot to add an Italian V-Twin as another source of music. A Ducati or Aprilia is absolutely mesmerizing.

There is noise and there is music, and those Merlins, at least to some of us, is just that...

Speaking of lazy summer days, I remember being in Phys.Ed. out on the football field and hearing the sonic boom of the jets taking off from Ellington Air Force base. I REALLY miss the sonic booms.

......or twin supercharged (slightly muffled) Allisons in a P38

Being two miles away from FFZ I'm presuming you've been inside the museum and checked out the awesome radial engine displays!?? We were over there for a military vehicle and plane show in 2014.

My 95 year old Father-In-Law who's a WWII Vet really enjoyed checking out those radial engine displays!!







They also have a radial engine cut-away interactive display that was very cool. I took a video of it in action, click on the link below to watch the video. Also you can click on the icon on the lower right-hand corner of the video to enlarge it to full screen to really see the details.
http://vidmg.photobucket.com/albums...%20Plane%20Show/MVI_1707_zpsa951769a.mp4

Oh how he loved seeing the old planes!!

That is the sound of defiance and of freedom!

Speaking of a Spitfire have you seen this video before?? It was a great video and I like at the end how the guy makes reference to how every pilot should have had the opportunity to fly a Spitfire.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/ie3SrjLlcUY


Looks like the "Enter A Media Tag" icon doesn't work with this link.

Yes, have been there several times. They have a radial that you either push a button or put a quarter in and it rotates with cut-away parts- pretty cool!

We had a fly-in last summer where there were warbirds everywhere. Must have been 20+ T6s alone.

That was a great video- thanks.

Not Merlins, but here ya go:

[video:youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=BHBevPYVzaY[/video]

[video:youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=gYNhWSt-GXU[/video]

Sorry Sal this does it for me





as does this one

Great stuff.

By coincidence, I was walking into my local Chinese lunch spot last week and had a P51 do a couple large hard turn loops over my head. Phuggin awesome.

I just stood there in the parking lot with my jaw dropped while I watched.