A Look At B-17 Memphis Belle’s ENGINES! Genius Or Insanity?

We’ll take a closer look at the iconic “Memphis Belle” engines- the R-1820 in-depth, and we’ll find out whether or not it’s pure genius or just insanity.

Produced Before WWII?

The R-1820 is a second-generation air-cooled radial engine. An interesting fact is that while the B-17 is seen as a WWII bomber, it’s not a product of WWII since the first B-17 flew in 1935 years before it entered the war. That’s why it had this 1820 engine in the mid-1930s.

In the case of the Memphis Belle, has the more advanced model of the 1820. The B-17e had an A-65 model which is a little more powerful.

Production & the Turbo Supercharger

The engine was originally developed by Wright and the two big radial engine manufacturers were Pratt & Whitney and Wright. They were also produced by subcontractors.

The enabling technology is the turbo supercharger which is supercharging the air. It’s compressing the air and in the case of the B-17, the air was actually compressed twice. It was first compressed with a turbo supercharger and then it went to the engine where it was supercharged.

What’s remarkable about the B-17 is that there’s a supercharger on every engine. That air goes into the engine and at the back is another supercharger that runs off the engine.

Basically, the air gets compressed twice which maintains the horsepower at high altitudes. This enabled the survivability and viability of the daytime strategic bombing campaign.