Re: B-36 origins
One of the more interesting things for me about the B-36 was how to change the air cooled P&W R-4360 engines into pushers. Took me some time to investigate. Having participated in rebuilding two R-2800s, and learning their structure, I could not see how it was easy to turn the engine around to become a pusher and maintain the ram air cooled aspect.
P&W engineers must have had some foresight as it was relatively easy. These P&W radials had each cylinder bolted to the crankcase with approx. 35 nuts on studs. Each cylinder had appropriate baffles to direct cooling. What they did for the B-36 was turn the engine around to be a pusher, then rotate each cylinder on it's base 180 degrees so the baffles faced in the proper direction so they still directed the ram air. Then some slight re-routing of the intake and exhaust pipes, and resetting the cam timing and the engine was an air cooled pusher.
Tony
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