Viewport: Engine Rooms
- By J.R. Dailey
- Air & Space magazine, March 2002
IN 1889, SMITHSONIAN SECRETARY Samuel P. Langley acquired for the National Collection a small one-horsepower steam engine built by aeronautical pioneer John Stringfellow. Langley was working on heavier-than-air powered flight, and he took great interest in the little engine, which became the first aeronautical artifact acquired by the Smithsonian and is now part of one of the world’s premier aero propulsion collections. That collection includes 368 reciprocating piston engines, 432 propellers, 131 gas turbine engines, and 788 associated items. Some artifacts are the only surviving remnants of famous aircraft.
For their heavier-than-air vehicle, Wilbur and Orville Wright had to design a lightweight engine from scratch. The engine, which is still mounted in their 1903 Flyer, turned out to be the first of many. The Museum has two examples of the Vertical 4 engine, one of which powered a 1912 Wright B-1 hydroaeroplane and is the oldest surviving aircraft engine ever operated by the U.S. Navy.
To mobilize U.S. industry for World War I, automotive engineers Elbert J. Hall and Jesse G. Vincent designed the Liberty engine (it took them only six days). U.S. auto workers produced 20,000 before the war’s end. The first Liberty engine is on display in the Museum’s World War I gallery. The U.S. propeller and woodworking industries also answered the call, and examples of their work will be displayed at the Museum’s Steven Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia.
The Air Transportation gallery houses a Pratt & Whitney Wasp and a Wright Whirlwind, radial engines that fostered the growth of aviation—a Whirlwind powered Charles Lindbergh’s 1927 transatlantic flight. Sanford Moss of General Electric mounted a turbo-supercharger on a Liberty engine to recover power at high altitude. The pilot could adjust the blade angle of the Army-developed variable-pitch propeller so the airplane could operate more efficiently. Moss’ engine and the variable-pitch propellers will be on display at the Udvar-Hazy center in 2003.
The Whittle W1.X turbojet, the first British jet engine to fly, can be seen in the museum’s Jet Aviation gallery. Our restoration specialists have just finished preservation of the Ne-20 turbojet, which powered the Japanese Nakajima Kikka jet fighter—one example of Japanese and German engines in the collection.
During the early days of the cold war, we had to decide: propellers and pistons or the turbojet? The U.S. Air Force went in one direction with the world’s largest aeronautical reciprocating engine, the 36-cylinder, 5,000-horsepower Lycoming XR-7755-3, but it never flew. In the collection are the prototypes of the J57 turbojet and the JT3D turbofan, which powered the first generation of military and commercial aircraft as Pratt & Whitney established its name in jets. All three of these engines are scheduled for display at Udvar-Hazy in 2003.
The Smithsonian has acquired many rare and unique aero propulsion artifacts, but there are still engines, propellers, and related components that the Museum does not have. The large exhibition and storage areas at the Udvar-Hazy Center ensure that this collection will continue to grow.
—J.R. Dailey is the director of the National Air and Space Museum.