The Pratt & Whitney R-2000: DC-4 / C-54 Skymaster and C-7 Caribou

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This is Episode 4 of our 10-episode Poor Man’s Hangar Tour series. This Series highlights the evolution of the MAJOR radial aircraft engines and the best-known aircraft each powered. In this Episode 4 we continue our climb up the horsepower food chain and highlight the development and evolution of the 14-cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-2000 Twin Wasp D, an outgrowth of its ubiquitous R-1830 Twin Wasp that powered the notable DC-3 and others. We showcase its two primary applications, the four-engine Douglas DC-4/C-54 Skymaster and derivatives and the later twin-engine de Havilland DHC-4/C-7 Caribou, both heavy transports that played different roles in the latter half of the 20th Century. We also touch on two not-so-successful derivatives of the R-2000.
Planned future episodes will move further up the horsepower ladder culminating with the 3,800 horsepower, 28-cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major that powered the C-124C Globemaster II and the Convair B-36J Peacemaker strategic bomber that were both dominant in the 1950s.
Thanks for watching and please LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, RING THE BELL and SHARE.
Please contact me, John A. Reed with any useful information or simply if you want to discuss vintage aviation topics at
John A. Reed
j.reed3930@sbcglobal.net

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30 мар 2024

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Комментарии : 57

@assessor1276 3 месяца назад

My Dad was a passenger on a TCA North Star: he said they had an advanced noise control system: they kept all the noise INSIDE the airplane so that the outside was quiet.

@AeroDinosaur 3 месяца назад

THAT is a good one! Sounds like bureaucrats designed that system!

@guaporeturns9472 3 месяца назад

😂

@stuartelliston 3 месяца назад

In 1990 I helped return two Carvairs to the air. They were bought by an American company based in Hawaii named Hawaii Pacific. I was on the delivery of the 2nd aircraft in october 1990. It took us about 25 hours flight time spread over 3 days to arrive at Honolulu. We had 3 days on the ground for rest ,maintainance & sightseeing at Pago pago & Christmas Island. I got about 8 hours in the cockpit even though I was only an extra engineer. A flight to remember.

@AeroDinosaur 3 месяца назад

I think I remember reading about those Hawaiian Carvairs. I have a few books on that plane. Pretty bold of you guys to fly those old things over those expanses of the Pacific but I would not pass it up either. I've never ridden on a DC-4 or Carvair. Thanks for watching and for your story! J.A. Reed.

@rickinmi 3 месяца назад

Well done video! I was disappointed to not see the Caribou on which I worked for many years... N6080, which was s/n 2! Coming of age during the end of the piston powered freight dog era was of course bittersweet. I am grateful for having the opportunity to use the skills that my instructors at Spartan said I'd never use after passing my tests!

@AeroDinosaur 3 месяца назад

Thanks for checking us out and for your complement! Sorry I missed N6080 s/n 2! I know a few other Spartan grads, most likely from your era, who for a short time did skin their knuckles on round engines, but not for long! Thanks again. J.A. Reed.

@assessor1276 3 месяца назад

Superb video John - thanks so much and a Happy Easter to you and yours!

@AeroDinosaur 3 месяца назад

Thank you sir, I had a good Easter, hope you did too! J.A. Reed

@johnjettfothergill4231 3 месяца назад

Wow, NEVER heard of the R-2000 before this video! Not to mention the R-2180 as well. I must have never tried to figure out what engine powered the DC-4. However, I guess that my aviation interest has always gravitated more toward fighters and bombers over transport aircraft and airliners. VERY interesting video sir! I just now subscribed. Thank you very much! Idea perhaps- I would love to see a video covering the complete history of U.S. Avgas and what engines used what octanes.

@AeroDinosaur 3 месяца назад

Thanks for watching and glad to be of service, and thanks for subscribing! I too like fighters/bombers just as much, and our collection of available videos we produced features both categories because the technologies between combat aircraft and transports cannot be separated. Also, I like your idea on avgas/engine history--I have put it in my "ideas hopper." J.A. Reed

@guaporeturns9472 3 месяца назад

Always glad when I see you have a new video. I know I said it before but in the mid-late 90s I was crabbing and logging around the Gulf of Alaska and The Bering Sea and rode around in Electras operated by Reeve Aleutian Airways and even got to ride around a few times on a Grumman Goose(Akutan to Dutch Harbor or the other way around, often on the same day and often in terrifying weather). Was quite the experience. Thanks for these great videos

@AeroDinosaur 3 месяца назад

Thank you Guapo, I knew I would hear from you again! No, you never told me that story. I've never been on an L-188 Electra, would love to have filmed one, but now it's basically too late! I think I would have preferred nicer weather than you experienced!

@guaporeturns9472 3 месяца назад

@@AeroDinosaur Thought I shared my stories with you before .. guess I’m wrong. Yeah in the heavy turbulence sometimes those wings would flex up and down so much it looked like a bird flapping it’s wings! They always got me there and back though.

@machpodfan 3 месяца назад

My brothers and I used to bicycle to the Rotterdam airport in the mid-seventies to watch the BAF Carvairs coming and going! Such a striking profile, real standouts on the ramp. Great video by the way👋👋

@AeroDinosaur 3 месяца назад

Thanks for watching and for your compliment! I saw two Carvairs over my neighborhood in the midwest US, one in 1995 and the other in 2005, but never on the ramp. Came into St. Louis all the time in the early and mid-1990s serving the auto assembly components industry here. Warmest wishes to you! J.A. Reed

@MarcosBuehler-nd6oy 3 месяца назад

Congratulations to preserve this unforgettable period in time, specially to those who had the chance to live it travelling in those fantastic aircraft!!!

@AeroDinosaur 3 месяца назад

Thank you very much sir! We enjoy doing this.

@chrisscott4896 3 месяца назад

Hi John, Thanks as always for your remarkable attention to detail, taking us another step in understanding of the Twin Wasp and its variants. Living in Rhodesia, I never got a trip in a DC-4, but in 1961 I got an unexpected ride in an East African Airways DC-4M from Johannesburg back to Salisbury after my Alitalia DC-8 flight from Rome had diverted. I had to wait till 1965 to get my first and only R-2000-powered ride in a BUAF Carvair from Geneva to Lydd-Ferryfield, due to family illness on a car journey across Europe. Two years later, I got a supernumerary ride on a R-1830-powered DC-3 (well, C-47 Dakota) with Morton Air Services (a subsidiary of BUA), and later did 500 hrs P2 on the type. FWIW, Freddie Laker's ATL Carvair first entered service with his Channel Air Bridge in 1962, just before that operator merged with Silver City to form BUAF (British United Air Ferries), part of the BUA (British United Airways) group. It was only after the latter was reorganised in 1968 that BUAF was renamed BAF, as shown in your video.

@AeroDinosaur 3 месяца назад

Hi Chris, great to hear from you again and thanks for watching again, for your compliments, and for your information! I enjoyed our past communication on the DC-7C and your Rhodesian experiences. You've flown in everything (DC4M, Carvair!) that I have not! I suppose that was before mass-market video camera technology--you could have made a killer RU-vid channel, even today. Wow! How did you get all those hours on that P2? J.A. Reed

@chrisscott4896 3 месяца назад

@@AeroDinosaur It was a long time ago, even by your standards, John! In case of any confusion, it was 500 hrs "P2" (co-pilot time) on the C-47 with Morton's (a subsidiary of British United Airways) out of Gatwick in 1967/8 - mainly newspapers and mail to Germany in the early hours for the BAOR (British Army of the Rhine) and the Channel Islands. The C-47 "Dakota" was my second public-transport type after flying school. Stay well, and keep making these fascinating presentations!

@AeroDinosaur 3 месяца назад

@@chrisscott4896 Looks like I got my designations mixed up! In the 1980s we had several Convair 440s flying Wall Street Journals out of St. Louis. These days it seems funny, if not primitive, to transport tonnage that consists of nothing but "information" with R-1830s or R-2800s --Kind of like Wells Fargo Stage Coaches moving huge boxes of cash! Thanks again, and we will keep the videos coming as long as we can. Still have a lot of material to use! J.A. Reed

@LetsFixItRight 3 месяца назад

Very well done! Super historical account of the evolution of the Pratt & Whitney R-2000 Twin Wasp D and aircraft it powered. Can’t wait until AeroDinosaur’s release of his next Poor Man’s Hangar Tour episode.

@AeroDinosaur 3 месяца назад

Thanks a million, will do everything we can to keep them coming!

@raybame5816 3 месяца назад

Fascinating, what a great channel. I still have a lot to learn it seems, even after a lifetime of interest and learning. Thanks... 80 y/o former PWA employee.

@AeroDinosaur 3 месяца назад

Well, you could surely teach me at ton of stuff I don't know either! Thanks for watching and glad you enjoy it! J.A. Reed

@Tom-Lahaye 3 месяца назад

I just found this channel, and I have to admit that it's great content. Describing the engine and then the range and models of aircraft it was fitted in, the operators and all make for a great understanding. So I didn't know the Canadair C-54M and even when you Google it not that many results show up, but now I know of this transport/civilian airliner which sounds as a Lancaster. Of the DC-4 there is an example brought back from South Africa by the Flying Dutchman Foundation here in the Netherlands, and plans are to return it to airworthy condition. This after the Dutch Dakota Association, the former owner of this plane, announced that they will cease operation of their operational DC-3 airplanes for round trips by the end of this year due to rising cost. So we hope that the plan with the DC-4 will be a success and we can keep on enjoying these radial sounds.

@AeroDinosaur 3 месяца назад

Hi Tom, good to hear from you, thanks for watching and your nice words. I've seen some good RU-vids on your Flying Dutchman Foundation DC-4 when it was with the Dutch Dakota Association. Thanks for the update on it--I always wondered what happened to it. We will keep our fingers crossed! Regards, J.A. Reed

@i.r.wayright1457 3 месяца назад

Let's see how many I can check off. 1st ever plane ride was on a DC-3, then Martin 404 and Convair 340 and finally the Caribou in Vietnam, operated by Aussies. I liked to watch them depart Vinh Long after dropping their cargo and leaving empty. They would get off the ground at about halfway down the 3300 foot PSP strip, suck up the gear, build airspeed and at the end of the strip, haul back on the yoke into a 75 or 80 degree climb until they lost airspeed and levelled off. (Had to avoid ground fire, even though there was never any in the daytime.)

@viksaini 3 месяца назад

Thank you for posting. I am also enjoying reading your book. I would love to see more content on turboprops...Viscounts, L-188 Electras, Vanguards, and Britannias/CL-44s.

@AeroDinosaur 3 месяца назад

Thanks a million for watching and getting our book. I agree with you about covering 1st generation turboprops--they have a special place in my heart for sure and I have a lot of very personal memories, especially the L-188 and CL-44. You will see the L-188 is discussed in several places in my book. I just don't have the immediate "rights" to video footage of them!. I get a lot of inquiries about that--will do my best to see if I can get a series going on early turboprops. J.A. Reed

@davef.2329 3 месяца назад

Always enjoyable. Thanks, John and hope you have/had a nice Easter.

@AeroDinosaur 3 месяца назад

Thank you Dave F, as well as for the Easter wishes. I'm having a good one and hope you are too! JA Reed.

@davef.2329 3 месяца назад

Off-topic: did you ever know the owner/operator Al Herreros from Miami's corrosion corner?@@AeroDinosaur

@AeroDinosaur 3 месяца назад

@@davef.2329 He flew an unmarked DC6/C-118 freighter out of Corrosion Corner in the early 1990s. I did not know him but my initial AeroDinosaur puff piece at the beginning of this R-2000 video shows an unmarked ex-C-118 taxiing in at Corrosion Corner that I filmed just south of the Trans-Air-Link facilities in March 1992. I also caught it taxiing out of the same place in 1991. I hypothesize that was him, but have no way of confirming that at this point. Feel free to email me to discuss anything further if you want to. Thanks, JA Reed.

@davef.2329 3 месяца назад

Yes, that was N22VX, bare metal with a red cheat-line. He also had another DC-6A, N11VX painted up briefly like the DC-6 prototype. He also restored that Martin 404 painted in EAL (#450) scheme that went around airshows for a bit and is now parked at a museum on the east coast. A pic popped up on-line recently of an early Super Connie he owned for a time along with his other Super Connie parked almost out of sight behind it by the old animal quarantine ramp in MIA in the early 70s. I'll try to contact you privately somehow to update you on recent events. Al was a personal friend and associate for many years.@@AeroDinosaur

@AeroDinosaur 3 месяца назад

@@davef.2329 Sounds good, Dave. Would love to compare notes. You can find my email in the written video description and my channel description. The other DC-6 he had was a junky-looking ex-Bellamy Lawson plan that was unmarked--this is the one I may have filmed. I understand his son was killed in a DC-6 crash some years ago.

@Ka9radio_Mobile9 3 месяца назад

Great video!🥰🥰🥰🥰

@AeroDinosaur 3 месяца назад

Thaaannnkk YOUUU! J.A. Reed

@threeparots1 3 месяца назад

Really good run down on the north star. One example was radial and was quieter than the Merlin powered version. Were reliable

@AeroDinosaur 3 месяца назад

Thanks for watching it and for your kind complement! The single radial example had R-2800s in it. J.A. Reed.

@user-hy1jn9jh5v 3 месяца назад

FANTASTIC PLASTIC MODEL AIRCRAFT COLLECTION. MY FATHER FLEW THE C47, C54, C118, B17G, B25H, ET CETERA IN THE USAF. HE WAS BASED AT ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, WHERE HE FLEW THE LOCKHEED CONSTELLATION. LATER ON, AT MATHER AFB, HE FLEW THE CONVAIR T29D. HARD TO BELIEVE THE VARIETY OF AIRCRAFT. YOUR VIDEO OF THESE AIRCRAFT IS EXCELLENT. REMEMBER ABOUT THE PIMA AIRCRAFT MUSEUM (OUTSIDE), WHERE THEY HAVE THESE PLANES IN REAL LIFE. (THIS IS SOUTH OF TUCSON, ARIZONA) YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED. RICK

@AeroDinosaur 3 месяца назад

Glad you like the models. I visited Pima in 1987 and took tons of photos (before many of the aircraft were refurbished or painted), but things have changed a lot for the better since then. Sounds like your Dad had a career I would have wanted--too late for me now! I may have been involved with several propliners over the decades, but by far not enough of them! J.A. Reed

@garrya100 3 месяца назад

HARS has two airworthy DHC-4 that fly regularly. They also have a C-54 that is under restoration to fly.

@AeroDinosaur 3 месяца назад

HARS does the best job in the world of preserving and flying large vintage props, both military and commercial. I did not know they had two flying Caribous--very good news. Thanks for checking us out! J.A. Reed

@billdurham8477 3 месяца назад

Request here explain propeller controls, as in set propeller rpm, then set throttles and boost, saw that in a B17 training film.

@AeroDinosaur 3 месяца назад

All that is good but I wanted to keep this one simpler and keep the running time down. I've done all that on several other videos available on our channel. I'd advise you to look on our AeroDinosaur video list for our flight deck videos on the DC-7C, DC-6 and B-29 FiFi and you will get blow-by-blow descriptions during each flight on what's going on with inflight power conditions including prop settings, manifold pressure, BMEP, spark timing, as well as critical V airspeeds, etc. similar to the training films. All those involve either the R-3350s or the R-2800s, obviously depending on the video you are watching. J.A. Reed

@wendellb36 3 месяца назад

There is a carvair at Gainesville Texas airport

@timothyirwin8974 3 месяца назад

Was the prop in the C-7 Caribou reversible for shorter landings?

@AeroDinosaur 3 месяца назад

Yes, it could even taxi backwards! Thank you for watching! J.A. Reed

@gerryellis3847 3 месяца назад

Air Lingus in Dublin used the carvair

@AeroDinosaur 3 месяца назад

Yeah, Air Lingus always had beautiful green paint jobs on their fleet. Carvairs were passed down to a lot of operators over the decades.

@wendellb36 3 месяца назад

Wasn’t the DC4E based on the XB19. ?

@AeroDinosaur 3 месяца назад

I'm not absolutely sure, but the wing design was similar. The XB19 was much larger than the DC-4E using early R-3350s vs the R-2180s in the -4E. I'm sure they shared the latest technology of the day, however. Thanks for watching. J.A. Reed

@06colkurtz 3 месяца назад

So how does a long range seaplane lack range?

@AeroDinosaur 3 месяца назад

Back then in the '30s, what was then considered "long-range" is now "medium-range" or less by today's aircraft technology standards. The big seaplanes had to do a lot of island hopping for fuel. Landplanes got to a point where they could make longer and longer runs nonstop.