North Weald DC-4 lives again!

Tony!!! I started my airline career on the 188C Electra and flew on them for about 6 years. Other than an extremely complex aircraft systemwise, the old “Paddle Steamer” was a joy. When we converted on to the DC8 we thought “How crude”. The DC10 was even simpler and when the 747 came along we were back in the steam age, but that was why they were so good. KISS.
Here in NZ we only have 100/130 octane but I run the Gipsys and a Continental C65 on that and they don’t seem to mind

All large piston aero engines are susceptible to detonation as they are all super-charged. For your information the DC4 was powered by The R-2000 which produced 1,300 hp @ 2,700 rpm with 87 octane, 1,350 hp with 100 octane and 1,450 hp @ 2,800 rpm with 100/130-grade fuel.

The dual rating of late war fuel was to reflect that on a petrol engine if you make the mixture rich it lowers the temperature and the risk of detonation, and HP can be increased. 100LL should be good enough for the R2000.

Funny that, I thought is what i said, self ignition is simply detonation or knock.

You don’t get more power out of a high octane fuel than a low octane one unless your engine has a compressor and you can increase the manifold pressure

You don’t necessarily require a compressor, you can increase the compression in an engine by simply skimming the head as an example, higher compression engines such as racing engines require a higher octane rating to prevent detonation.
Remember the octane rating of petrol simply tells you how much the fuel can be compressed before it spontaneously ignites, the higher the compression ratio of the engine the higher the octane it requires, fan or not nailed on it.

Thats quite an accurate explanation Ken.

One can easily get the impression that a fuel with a higher octance rating has a higher energy content, by reading this. Of course it is not so. A higher octane rating simply means that the fuel can withstand a higher temperature without self-igniting. The higher boost pressure (manifold pressure), the higher power and the greater the need for a high octane rating, beacuse the fuel charge gets hotter when the pressure goes up. On a normal car engine, without a compressor it is the compression ratio that determines what octane rating (i.e. detonation resistance) is needed. You don’t get more power out of a high octane fuel than a low octane one unless your engine has a compressor and you can increase the manifold pressure. Someone can surely explain this in fewer words. My father always thought that 100 Octane petrol was “stronger” than 95! It seems to me that he was not alone in that misconception.
Now where is my hat?

A rather non-legit but hopefully also non-damaging look into the DC-4’s here

A bit rough, but not beyond reprieve.

http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/military-sites/77867-run-airfield-2013-north-weald.html

Page not found. Link looks a bit wrong tbh

Here`s a clue to the new owner “look at post 2” the answers there, if not try this-:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Airventure-Ltd/424658594252108?fref=ts

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Airve…252108?fref=ts

nostalgair2
Your right, it`s not

G-ANPK (North Weald Ground Crew)

DC-4s

Its not Cornwall bound is it?

They looked in a pretty poor state when i was down there last in the summer time,perhaps if they do get one of them up and running they can do Taxi rides for Joe Public , that would bring in some much needed revenue

Happy NewYear Every one from Terry

What is?
If we are talking AVGAS, it has been reduced in octane over the years as the lead content has been reduced along with the cocktail of additives, it used to have an Octane rating of about 145, now with low lead it is down to 100LL, this on a DC6 if I remember correctly reduced the effective cargo weight it could carry by about 5 tonnes as the higher rating was to prevent detonation.. It’s like running ones car on 1 star instead of the old 5 star, the lower the octane the less effective power you can get out of the fuel… The new Unleaded version (when i went to a Shell seminar several years ago) Shell said they were struggling to get an effective power output from it with a mix of chemicals to repace the lead, and it could be the death knell for piston freighters..though they may well have solved it now.. Hence dumbing down..

Er, no. It’s made to exacting standards.

Yep avgas is getting an issue too, the more they dumb the stuff down the less power and hence the lower freight loads that can be carried.

I think that getting the fuel for them was also an issue that
was mentioned before ?

They were retiring one on one of the last episodes and were saying rule changes mean they will have to modernise with the like of the Electras…. Gawd awful things. They were saying spares such as exhaust parts were the getting hard to acquire….. It always amases me how we legislate items in daily use out of service, as per the pax carrying Daks…. So sad as they just keep on going and going, but with the commercial revenue earning aspects being taken away from them, few can afford to keep them going.

DC-4’s in commercial use are very much on the wane -I cannot see Buffalo flying them for very much longer.

Sometimes the price you are prepared to pay = spares purchased!

It was odd when I was watching Ice Pilots Joe was moaning he couldn’t get parts and I thought of them…. Hope it’s got a new home 🙂

Engine runs have happend on 2 engines! And the second one look like it will be worked on soon!

I can’t find it at the moment, but I thought I saw photos here of engine runs during November. I saw the aircraft on 24 October, when the other aircraft was open; it had an inspection platform postitioned near one wing, but there was no sign of work on engines at that point.

Found the earlier thread…

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=120593