Here is the second installment of pictures from my visit to the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy center near Dullus International Airport in Washington, DC. Unlike part 1, there will be no pictures of any kind of aircraft in this gallery. These photos are only of engines and machine guns that were on display. As a car guy, I found a lot of these interesting because the plane engines share the core fundamentals with car engines but with size and power requirements on a completely different scale. There’s no way you can look at a 36 cylinder stacked radial engine that makes 5000 horsepower (5 kilohorses?) and not be impressed. I’m keeping captions to a minimum since this isn’t my area of expertise. The picture of each exhibit is followed by its information plaque.
- I didn’t get the info plaques for this last group, sorry.
- Didn’t get these info plaques
- Intro to the machine gun display
- Some experimental turbine parts and valves
- This supercharger was bigger than my chest.
- This turbo was approximately twice the size of a human head
- I’m glad I wasn’t the one who had to set up the timing for this.
- Turboprop from the C-130 Hercules. Turbine turns the propeller, not a piston engine.
- This Merlin V12 was key into transforming the P-51 Mustang into a formidable fighter plane.
- Now THAT is a badass exhaust