Yes, the US did use aircraft engines in tanks. They were also very problematic. Do you know how to start a Sherman with a radial engine? You would have to insert a manual crank into the back of the tank to turn the engine over by hand. I believe the manual says something like 50 turns before you can fire it up. The reason being is that a 9 cylinder radial engine has jugs on the bottom where the engine oil would pool. If you started the engine before distributing the oil to all of the cylinders, you would have too much compression in the lower cylinders and blow out the seals. Can you imagine in the heat of battle having to jump out of your tank, crank the engine over 50 times by hand, get back in, and then fire the engine? Just because it was done, doesn't mean it was a good idea. All of the radial aircraft engines in tanks had this issue. They stopped using the engines because the war effort spooled up needed more aircraft so the engines were being diverted back to airplanes. They used them in the first place due to the fact the engines already existed and no development work was needed. Not because it was a good idea.
Derek On Sun, Mar 31, 2013 at 9:02 AM, <[email protected]> wrote: > According to Wikipedia, > > > In 1939 the U.S. Army, which had already been using Continental > R-670<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_R-670>radial engines in its > light > tanks <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_tank>, chose Continental Motors > to build the R-975 under license as the engine for its > M2<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M2_Medium_Tank> medium > tanks <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium_tank>. Subsequently, the same > engine was selected for the M3 Lee > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M3_Lee>medium tank, the M4 > Sherman <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M4_Sherman> medium tank, the > Canadian Ram tank <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram_tank>, the M7 > Priest<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M7_Priest> self-propelled > gun <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-propelled_gun>, the M18 > Hellcat<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M18_Hellcat> tank > destroyer <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tank_destroyer>, and other Allied > armored vehicles based on these. Continental versions of the R-975 for > armored vehicles included the R-975E-C2, the R-975-C1, and the R-975-C4. > Continental built over 53,000 R-975 engines for armored vehicles, far more > than were ever built by > Wright.[2]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_R-975#cite_note-CW83-2> > > > There is a long history of putting engines designed for aircraft in tanks > and armoured vehicles.The brushless outrunner type have massive amounts of > torque and run at a lot lower speeds than your normal inrunners. I use 2 > outrunner motors in my super class rock crawler. > Tod > > Aeroplane engine in a tank??? Yes, and my mext tank will be a Centurion. > The tank that the Danish army had when i was a soldier in the late > seventies. > > -- > -- > You are currently subscribed to the "R/C Tank Combat" group. > To post a message, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] > Visit the group at http://groups.google.com/group/rctankcombat > > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "R/C Tank Combat" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > -- -- You are currently subscribed to the "R/C Tank Combat" group. To post a message, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] Visit the group at http://groups.google.com/group/rctankcombat --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "R/C Tank Combat" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
