RR Merlin or Radial . . .

I would vote the RADIAL.

‘Real aircraft have round engines’ :diablo:

I vote for the round… Spent several hundred hours between/behind a variety of Pratts. A few double Wrights, but they were known for offering more three engine time than four for the pilot’s log.

Anything big and heavy with pistons is glorious, but I think on balance I’d go for a vee – perversely, I like the RR Griffon sound. A real, rasping roar. Could still listen to Merlins all day though, in whatever airframe you care to mention.

Was leaving the house a while ago to head over to the bank. Upon walking outside I hear an almighty clattering sound & looked up to see 2 B25’s going directly overhead. They flew right over Plant 42 & then headed off in the direction of Chino.
My guess is mass B25 flyover someplace on SoCal tomorrow (11th)

Merlin combined with a Mustang sounds about as good as it gets…

I always have preferd a radial or a rotary engined sound to an inline or a jet.

Hey now that was good reading ! Thanks DoraNineFan 🙂

Radial, in my book…

I must admit that I prefer the round motors over the inlines. (Although a snarling DB engine is an attention-getter, too.) Radials make such wonderful music. I always go outside or pause and look up if I detect the faintest hint a radial flying by. I can recommend “Round Sounds Volume One” and “Round Sounds Volume Two” from aircraftrecords.com and a good pair of earphones. You’ll be in radial engine heaven!

Below is an essay on turbines verses radials that’s been posted before, but worth sharing again here:

(Author Unknown–to me anyways)

Round Motors

We gotta get rid of those turbines, they’re ruining aviation and our hearing…

A turbine is too simple minded, it has no mystery. The air travels through it in a straight line and doesn’t pick up any of the pungent fragrance of engine oil or pilot sweat.

Anybody can start a turbine. You just need to move a switch from “OFF” to “START” and then remember to move it back to “ON” after a while. My PC is harder to start.

Cranking a round engine requires skill, finesse and style. You have to seduce it into starting. It’s like waking up a horny mistress. On some planes, the pilots aren’t even allowed to do it…

Turbines start by whining for a while, then give a lady-like poof and start whining a little louder.

Round engines give a satisfying rattle-rattle, click-click, BANG, more rattles, another BANG, a big macho fart or two, more clicks, a lot more smoke and finally a serious low pitched roar. We like that. It’s a GUY thing…

When you start a round engine, your mind is engaged and you can concentrate on the flight ahead. Starting a turbine is like flicking on a ceiling fan: Useful, but, hardly exciting.

When you have started his round engine successfully your crew chief looks up at you like he’d let you kiss his girl too!

Turbines don’t break or catch fire often enough, leading to aircrew boredom, complacency and inattention. A round engine at speed looks and sounds like it’s going to blow any minute. This helps concentrate the mind! Turbines don’t have enough control levers or gauges to keep a pilot’s attention. There’s nothing to fiddle with during long flights.

Turbines smell like a Boy Scout camp full of Coleman Lamps. Round engines smell like God intended machines to smell.