Ryan Falconer V12

[MadMaz]

Hi Eric

You're right about the photos making the engine look like a single block
casting - and the material which is now featured on the Ryan Falconer website
has been changed from which I read early last year. Back then it featured and
explained how two V6 engines were welded together and their crankshafts mated
to create the Falconer V12.

I'll send an e-mail off to them asking for a response to the question and I'll
post the reply if I get one.

Re the little T-51 Mustang replica, it's amazing to see just how well it
performs with just a 100hp powerplant and the replica Spitfire Mk26 with 240
Hp. I'll tell you, if I only had the money...but the old mortgage and
company taxes puts paid to those sorts of ideas for at least a little while
longer.

The free display the Thunder Mustang put on directly over my place last year
was stunning to say the least - the pilot was really going for it - with water
vapour streams coming off the wingtips during all the tight turns with a
fantastic sound from the engine.

There's some bright engineering cookies out there and it's great to read and
see what they come up with, just like the projects you read about on this site
- and cheers to Glenn for getting his Turbo MX5 project up and running - it's
great to hear just how well she fired up and idles.

Hope you don't mind me bringing this up, but this has stirred memories of a
once very good old friend who has since passed on and I'd like to say
something about the man.

Back in the early 90's when I was paying my way through tertiary, I was
privileged to mow the lawns in Whangaparaoa for Flight Lt Keith J MacDonald
formerly of RNZAF 485 Squadron who flew Spitfires MkVb through Mk9's and 16's
from 1942 through 1945. It was then I became very familiar with Rolls Royce
60 series Merlin engines with their two stage two speed superchargers, shaft
driven twin overhead camshafts, four valves per cylinder (no hemi head here!)
twin updraught carbs and five piece short blocks - Keith used to recondition
the engines in his Skyline garage!

When I finished mowing the lawn each fortnight, Keith would invite me inside
to sit with his delightful Swedish wife and have the old tea and sticky buns.
What he told me then about operations in WWII made a big impression on me and
I've never forgotten a single word of what he said. There was a lot of pain
in his face at times - and he told me things that he said he'd never told
anyone else before. Why he did I still don't really know.

The Messerschmitt Me109F and G series were formidable fighters despite what
the historians might say about them today - and then there was the FW 190.
The sight of them in your rear vision mirror always provoked immediate sweat
and terror.

20mm Cannon shells and 13.5mm machine gun bullets tended to make a nasty mess
of an aircraft loaded with high octane fuel - and to quote Keith exactly; "It
was a most disconcerting and uncomfortable experience to be on the receiving
end of that, which you knew should it hit it's mark, very often meant you were
a gonner".

Keith said he never flew an aircraft again after being discharged from the
RNZAF in 1945 - he said he'd used up all his nine lives.

I say good on all the old soldiers that helped give us freedom to do what we
can do today.

Cheers
Mark