Oh I have a pretty good idea - those were the biggest combustion based air cooled engines we could possibly build before the jet engine, and turbofan engine came along.

The reason TURBINE engines caught on was because they were lighter by the pound, and could PROCESS more fuel into thrust than anything else we ever saw before. But that is about turning RAW FUEL into power..... And it took a lot of it. You see where this is going?

Modern turbofan engines seek to make more power out of less fuel. You could spot a B-52 against the ground visually because of it's exhaust trail, which was black. And the main thing that kept B-52's around was low flight profiles, ground following radar and computers.

But IF YOU COULD SEE THEM - they were vulnerable. And that lead to the next generation:
"STEALTH"

All of that began in Sunnyvale California, right next to Edwards Air Force Base

If you really wanted to go fast, and fly high - there were only two things you could do:
1) Join the AIR FORCE
2) Become a TEST PILOT

Edwards was the place where all of the really cool stuff was going on...

But keep in mind:
IT WAS SECRET

I could tell ya, but you would be imprisoned

But things that are common knowledge today were developed there, and held as high technology that the Russkies should never gain from us.... Those were the cold war years.

We were scared to death that enemies of our way of life should know more than we did ourselves.


*In LATER YEARS, the Japanese took advantage of our patent rights and learned how to build better televisions. Their explanation was that Japanese patent laws did not exclude them from copying technologies that they were introduced to...

So it is true in a way that they stole our technology - after WWII we wanted to put them on their feet again, so we could trade with them

But I doubt we ever expected them to be so much like US


I have to admire them - they are fascinated with new tech, they are creative, and they understand how MONEY works.
Their people are also dedicated, and have a work ethic that is amazing.

The quality of their products is superb!


There is a good chance that somebody out there is going to hate every bit of that.

 

bolt 2 4 bangers together? what about the oldie's? olds, flat head buick, OHV, pontiac flathead. mopar flat head all were inline 8's? how about lincoln with a v12, caddie with v12 and 16's. vw's Vr 6 was a 15 deg v engine, one cylinder head covered both banks. vw also made the passat vr 8 and vr 10 and 12's found in Bentley's, flat plane cranks like ken wrote they go way back, mostly found in boxer engines still used by subaru and toyota as 6's but found working great in race motors like the 5.2 shelby