Hand Startable WW2 aircraft

Gosh! The A50. The cutting edge in new cars in its day! 😀

I only ever managed to aspire to an A35, and since the thread has somehow drifted from hand starting aeroplanes to cars I’d observe that mine had its hand cranking handle which I regularly employed in deepest winter! Even on the A35s tiny engine, I recall, you could get a nasty sprained thumb or wrist if you weren’t careful!

Just for something different, I will photograph and post my selection of aircraft hand cranking handles over next day or so.

I must get out more…..

hand crank

The Fw190 also had a hand crank location – albeit you had to open the engine casing. The crank handle was kept on the radio hatch door along with all of the radio and aircraft data cards.

Would be a good idea to have a manual starting method if there was no acc or cartridge?

regards

Mark

The Vultee Vengeance, if my memory serves me correct.

Jboyle

Not my car – but similar LOL

Austin A50.

T6/Harvards…

I found this graph comparing the cranking RPM against temperature for an electric starter of an unnamed 900 HP aero-engine. It seems this loss of RPM is due only to the increased viscosity of the oil without considering the effect of low temperature on the battery (or trolley accumulator).

Useful information if you’re considering wintering your aircraft anywhere near Stalingrad!

As to ‘most’ =/about ‘American’ guess it’s a question of which spot you’re standing on. Not everyone regards an automatic transmission and driving on the right as ‘normal’ today. 😉
Regards,

Don’t fault Americans for having effective batteries and modern automobile electrical systems. 😀

Whilst I accept what Pete says about hand-starting a Merlin, it must have at least been theoretically possible on the early Mk Spitfires given the warning plate on the cowling? I am sure that somewhere I have seen film or images of it being done.

The mounting clips for the handle on F11 are on the later drawings IIRC.So handle might have been present for the Erks to help do work on the Merlin by handturning the engine over..

BRISTOL BLENHEIM
there is another one to add to the list. some what tiring task but as long as the engine is primed correctly and the boost coil is working a successful start can be acheived. Believe me it`s hard work though and another engineer required for number two engine.
oh those were the days:) one day! one day!

Just to refer to Merlin Pete’s post #20.

Whilst I accept what Pete says about hand-starting a Merlin, it must have at least been theoretically possible on the early Mk Spitfires given the warning plate on the cowling? I am sure that somewhere I have seen film or images of it being done.

Correct, you certainly can, I have managed it once myself. The warning about using a rope makes sense as well because what happens is that, although it has a 15:1 ratio, it is still very hard to turn the handle at any great speed, you really feel each cylinder coming onto compression. Then the engine fires and there is absolutely no resistance on the handle, at which point you basically go flying, so to speak! I cut my hand quite badly when I tried it so I won`t be doing it again, but that was standing on the ground with the engine at just the right height, must be awkward where the engine sits in a Spitfire.
The only other observation is that the exhaust ports are right in your face!

Pete

Thanks for the replies on the DC-3 question, I’d never realised that some cranks were purely for turning over than for starting. Would there be some sort of clutch on it to prevent the erk from unwittingly heaving a cylinder through a hydraulic lock??

Just to refer to Merlin Pete’s post #20.

Whilst I accept what Pete says about hand-starting a Merlin, it must have at least been theoretically possible on the early Mk Spitfires given the warning plate on the cowling? I am sure that somewhere I have seen film or images of it being done.

And I hate to contradict JDK in post 4 where he says most 1939 cars would be cranked. That may be true of some cars somewhere, but long before WWII, most American cars had electric start. True, some still had an auxillary crank holes (until the mid 30s at least), but they were seldom used.

Fair comment. Strictly I should’ve said that most cars has the fallback option to use a crank. Certainly the 1960s Black Maria my father owned had a crank I recall him using with much invective on a couple of occasions when the battery (I presume) was flat. I’ve just finished a whodunit (Frequent Hearses – Edmund Crispin) set in the 1950s in which the heroine doesn’t chose to try to restart her failed car by crank – clearly as written showing that was a normal option for the audience.

As to ‘most’ =/about ‘American’ guess it’s a question of which spot you’re standing on. Not everyone regards an automatic transmission and driving on the right as ‘normal’ today. 😉

Thanks to MerlinPete for the Merlin gen – we live and learn, and that I didn’t know.

As to the DC-3 / C-47, you can start it with a rope around the prop in an emergency, but that’s more like a big hand propping effort than a designed in crank option.

Regards,

Actually the turning of a radial engine propellor prior to starting was to ensure that no oil lock would occur in the lower cylinders caused by the oil draining down to the lowest point.

A hydraulic lock could do really serious damage to a cylinder. The plugs would have to be removed and the oil drained from the cylinder. The easy solution to back the prop up, while it would get rid of the lock, when the engine started it would suck the oil from the intake manifold and really do a number on the cylinder!

Not so much for starting as for turning the crankshaft so the mechanical oil pump would replace the oil that had drained out of the cylinders on top of the engine, and so that the excess oil that had collected in the bottom cylinders could be drained out.

I’ll agree with that, pre-oiling I believe it’s called. I’ve helped do it for a friend’s P&W Wasp powered antique.
In fact, I’ve seen film of B-17 crews doing it and even B-29 groundcrews.

Just out of interest…DC3 starting…

http://redirectingat.com/?id=42X487496&xs=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.douglasdc3.com%2Fprop%2Fprop.htm&sref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pprune.org%2Fprivate-flying%2F345242-starting-dc3.html

Jboyle

True, some still had an auxillary crank holes (until the mid 30s at least)

My first car was a 1956 Austin A40 Cambridge…it still had an auxiliary crank hole !As an impoverished apprentice (£3 per week) – I could not afford a new battery so hand cranking was fairly normal for that car…clothes peg behind the choke knob to keep it out and swing the handle ! 😀
Not my car – but similar LOL

Some (perhaps all?) DC-3/C-47’s could be hand-cranked, I’ve spoken in the past with an ex-RAF fitter who loathed the task!

Not so much for starting as for turning the crankshaft so the mechanical oil pump would replace the oil that had drained out of the cylinders on top of the engine, and so that the excess oil that had collected in the bottom cylinders could be drained out.

That way, the engine would start more easily (all cylinders fire quickly), and would experience less starting wear.

This was a problem with many radials, but not, I understand, with all (some manufacturers found a way to minimize this issue).

The L-4 was hand propped…not cranked.
Likewise the American Primary trainers cranked/propped too…the PT-17 and PT-22 come to mind. I know the Stearman has a crank provision.
In fact, some very authentic warbird Stearmans still don’t have electrical systems. One reason why many owners use the Continental 220 is that it has an STC for an electric starter.

To the best of my knowledge, the C-47/DC-3 could not be hand started with a crank.
I’ve looked it up in my father’s POH and there is no mention under normal or emergency procedures for hand starting.

And I hate to contradict JDK in post 4 where he says most 1939 cars would be cranked. That may be true of some cars somewhere, but long before WWII, most American cars had electric start. True, some still had an auxillary crank holes (until the mid 30s at least), but they were seldom used. Even the Model T, the most humble of American cars, had electric start by the mid-20s. I do know Cadilla introduced starter motors circa 1911, and by my favorite period roadster had electric start by 1914.
And while I’m less familiar with UK and European cars, I’d guess that most above the “entry level” had electric starts as well. At least I’ve never noticed a crank hole on the blower Bentleys I’ve lusted after at vintage car shows.

A DC3 or more correctly a C47