Franklin Aircraft Engine 4AC-150

The Franklin O-150 (company designation 4AC-150) was an American air-cooled aircraft engine of the late 1930s (first run in 1938). The engine is of four-cylinder, horizontally-opposed layout with a displaced of 150 cubic inches. The first model used a single magneto. This engine has dual magnetos. This engine was used on a number of light […]

Guiberson A-1020 Diesel

This unusual 4-stroke 9-cylinder single-row direct-drive diesel radial engine has some interesting features, such as no ignition system. Instead, compression ignition fires the cylinders filled with air and injected diesel fuel spray. Diesel fuel has more carbon content and is more calorie-rich per gallon than aviation gasoline. That can extend aircraft range over a gasoline […]

Wright R-2600

This 14-cylinder double-row radial engine had a single-stage two-speed centrifugal supercharger with an impeller diameter of 11 inches which had a blower ratio of 7.06:1 at slow speed and 10.06:1 at high speed. The engine could develop 1,700 HP at an intake manifold pressure of 44.3 inches of mercury. This engine competed with the Pratt […]

Salmson 9-AD

  The bulk of these engines were made in France. After they had produced liquid-cooled radial engines between 1908 to 1918, the company changed its focus to air-cooled to reduce weight and increase power per unit of weight. The majority of engines produced by Salmson were radials. The air-cooled engines featured an unorthodox Canton-Unne internal […]

Ranger L-440

The Fairchild Aerial Camera Corporation of Farmingdale, Long Island, New York, entered the aircraft engine business in 1925, by forming the Fairchild-Caminez Engine Corporation to develop and produce air-cooled engines for the US Army Air Corps. The company was eventually renamed the Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corp. During the 1930’s they developed the Ranger L-440 […]

Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp

Pratt & Whitney began its experimentation & development of double-row engines in 1929. The advantages of the double-row power plant for aircraft were that a larger engine displacement could be achieved with no increase in the frontal area of the engine (truly a savings of drag on the airplane!). Smaller cylinders could also be used […]

McCulloch O-100-1 (model 4318A)

  The 2-stroke 72 hp McCulloch target drone engine exhibited here is an example of a single-ignition system. There is one spark plug in each cylinder and a wire attached to it that comes from an electrical source. In the majority of small aircraft systems, the source of electrical power is a magneto. The magneto […]

Lycoming R-680-B4E

The Lycoming Company claims to have been founded in 1845 by Madame Ellen Curtis Demorest; however, the early history of the company prior to 1860 is unclear. The Demorest family published fashion magazines and manufactured sewing machines during the early period. Around 1883, two men with the last name of Scofield purchased the company and […]

Kiekhaefer V-105-2

This 100 hp V-4 target drone engine was built in Fond-Du-Lac, Wisconsin, by Kiekhaefer Aeromarine Motors, Inc. The particular engine on display was manufactured in 1953 and has a Serial Number of K-641885. During World War II the Kiekhaefer Corporation manufactured small engines for drone applications that were used in target aircraft. Since there were […]

Franklin 199-E3 90 HP Engine

  The manufacturing organization that began producing Franklin engines was known as the H.H. Franklin Company in 1902 operating in Syracuse, New York. They made Franklin air-cooled engines for automobiles. Barely surviving bankruptcy in 1933, the company was purchased by a group of ex-employees and renamed Aircooled Motors in 1937. Although the company name had […]