Intriguing engine restored

An example of what is considered to be one of the premier radial piston engines ever designed is now on display at Classic Flyers NZ Aviation Museum at Tauranga Airport.
Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp engines were widely used in American aircraft during, and after, the Second World War.
The engine acquired at Classic Flyers is an R-2800-75, one of more than 8000 -75 variants made solely by Ford under licence to Pratt & Whitney.
The B series motor is rated at 2000hp, with a single stage two-speed supercharger. It ran Curtiss-Electric four bladed propellers, with a propeller diameter of 13 feet 6 inches.
The R-2800 engine was first built in 1939, and during the war powered fighters and bombers including the Grumman F6F Hellcat, F7F Tigercat and F8F Bearcat, the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, Douglas A-26 Invader, Martin B-26 Marauder and the US Navy's F4U Corsair.
The engines were also used in transport aircraft.
The Curtiss-Wright C-46 Commando was the largest twin engine aircraft operated by the US military during the war.
The workhorse aircraft transporting supplies to troops in the Asian and Pacific theatres, it was most known for its use in the Himalayan Mountain area known as The Hump.
C-46 Commandos continued to be used following the war as cargo transport aircraft. Those who may have see the National Geographic television series Ice Pilots NWT will be familiar with the two C-46 Commandos still operated by Buffalo Airways in North Western Canada.
Classic Flyers obtained two -75 variant engines from a C-46 Commando that had been on a disused site in Guam for many years.
They came to the attention of a member who thought they could be of interest for Classic Flyers engineers.
The engines arrived at Classic Flyers in mid 2008, and were handed over to the museum's volunteer restoration team.
Classic Flyers chief executive Andrew Gormlie's wish was that the team could get enough parts to restore one engine in operational running order, and the other to be a static display.
The engine destined to become the static display was moved offsite to the home of one of the engineers.
Classic Flyers crews have found it hard to reconcile the now-gleaming, polished engine with the corroded, dirty, blackened engine which Phil began work on almost two years ago.
Phil cut away parts of the engine, including the magneto and propeller mechanism, so the public could get an idea of how the internal mechanisms worked.
This engine is now on display in the main aviation museum hangar, where the operational engine will also be displayed on the completion of the restoration.