The famous Thunderbird fires up one of her massive Allison aircraft motors for the crowd at the 2011 Lake Tahoe Concours d'Elegance. See the Thunderbird in action here! : • Thunderbird Boat Ride
I saw the Thunderbird in the boathouse at Thunderbird Lodge on Lake Tahoe about a month ago. Beautiful piece of work. The tour of the lodge is cool, too.
Some of you people are not seeing a one of a kind 1940s custom mahogany boat made to haul people and supplies to a lodge on Lake Tahoe. Yes its probably overpowered, but who doesn't like bigger and badder? It was built for a plush hotel, large lake waves, and to look good. I think it succeeds, and glad it has survived as a classic wooden boat.
Great wooden boat classic. 100 % AMERICAN MADE. LOVE IT. FIRST SAER AT 5 YEARS OLD. NOW 66...STILL BRINGS TEARS TO MY EYES. THE BOAT NOT THE GAS FUMES. LOL
yea it was Bill Harrah's on display in the auto collection in the late 70's. Id seen it there on display in the third wharehouse at the collection, Im glad it has a good home there on Tahoe,
Very nice boat indeed. Looks good. For sound though, once you've heard The Sorcerer Skater lighting up, the world of fast powerboats will never be the same.
the P-51s flown by outfits such as the red tails had RR Merlin engines, the P=51s flown in the Pacific had Allisons. RR could not make enough engines for their own needs and licensed out the design. British engineers realized that the P-51 was a great fighter but the Allison engine was a gas guzzler compared to the Rolls so they switched them giving the P-51 the range it needed to escort the bombers all the way to the target and back.
High altitude performance was the reason for putting a Merlin into the P-51. The Allison powered Mustang was actually faster than the Merlin powered version at low level but above mid altitudes it started to dog badly. The increased range was, in part, a fringe benefit of higher altitude flight - less air drag = more range. Oh, and the original reason to license build the Merlin in the US was at that particular point in time - 1940 - it was unclear whether or not Great Britain would be able to prevent German occupation and they wanted to ensure an allied nation had the Merlin's design.
Incorrect. The only P-51's that used Allison engines were the P-51A and a few P-51B's The use of that engine limited the P-51 to 15,000 ft altitude so ALL subsequent versions used the RR Merlin or, more often, the license built Packard version. The switch had nothing to do with the gas usage but everything to do with the combat altitude at 30,000+ ft. The Allisons did a superb long range job in the Pacific in the P-38, P-39 and P-40 aircraft where most combat was at lower altitude. Only when the B-29's were introduced were the high altitude P-51's brought in for escort duty, and none of these used Allison engines.
Fuel usage was the least of the allison's problems. A major flaw in it was a single stage supercharger which limited high altitude performance. Besides the addition of the merlin, the later P 51's also had fuel tanks added inside the fuselage, the entire plane was basically a fuel tank with guns. P 38's in the European theater used the allison, but without the GE turbochargers as our government didn't want enemies to get that technology (as though the germans didn't already have them figured out). The brits weren't happy about that, if the 38 had the turbos it would have been far better.
And the American PT boats were powered by Packard engines. Sub Chasers were powered by V12 Hall-Scott engines. The Allison's were not fully developed mostly due to the Army Air Corp not wanting the more expensive and upgraded versions Allison was offering. They do sound good though.
12 year old video. Life long wrench and I have a few dumb questions. (1) what size of screws and shafts does she have? (2) What drive is in her to push the screws?, is it a velvet V-drive of sorts? (3) how much fuel does she burn ROB and how much fuel can she carry?
Probably not the cheapest way to power a boat, but would punch through the water like a missile. Not to mention, will always sound angrier and more raw than any modern Perkins, CAT or Volvo Penta
Aye, all big WWII engines tended to sound good, it is merely a case of deciding which is more-good than the rest! I tend to prefer the V12s over the radials, but they're all pretty amazing to hear. The Allisons were good, but just not cheap enough, powerful enough, or reliable enough to compete with the Merlin earlier on, so more money went into that. The ones that impressed me were half the engines destined for the P-38s. They turned the wrong way, to counter the torque of the other. Nifty.
Ummm....this boat does not have a "captain's call" exhaust system. "Captain's call" uses diverters and a y pipe to force exhaust to exit underwater so the the boat is muffled or silent. (Also called silent choice)
I used to have a powerful fairground organ and a day spent round the back with all the loud noise blasting in my ears, was tiring and uncomfortable. Spending an hour or two in that boat, charging up Lake Tahoe, would be an experience that I would only relish for half an hour at most.
Some interesting info from the guy with the bullhorn, but mostly blah, blah, blah. Skip to 4:30 if want to actually enjoy the point of the video when the Skipper finally starts that big, bad Allison!
With the engines detuned down to only 1,100hp coming from 1,710cu/in, and with low compression (about 8:1) why is it necessary to run expensive 110 octane gasoline?
Good question, in theory these engines will consume around 0.5 lb/HP hour. My estimated calculation is that it consumed between 1 and 2 gallons, so this is approximately between $ 4 - 8 at the current cost of fuel. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-mwOPO7ezEcU.html
lake tahoe has all sorts of ridiculous bans on old boats. they very likely were not allowed to run this boat at all on the lake. all of the old boat clubs have a lot of trouble. you are only allowed to put an outboard motor in the water if it is a 4 stroke- even just for an antique boat show
I have to laugh at the narrator. He bothers to bring up 110 octane av gas as if it is somehow more dangerous or flammable than pump gas. Should we tell him higher octane means less flammable? The older high compression engines needed that high octane contamination to prevent it from lighting before the spark.
Aviation fuel still has lead in it. I wonder what the lead coming from the wet exhaust does to that water body. I’m not a tree hugging green new deal fanatic, just wondering
+montwolfman Its been clearly stated multiple times that the engines are from a P38. "The Allison V-1710 aircraft engine was the only indigenous US-developed V-12 liquid-cooled engine to see service during World War II. Versions with a turbosupercharger gave excellent performance at high altitude in the twin-engined Lockheed P-38 Lightning...." - Wikipedia.
montwolfman the P38 had 2 engines in booms connecting the wing and the tail. Pilot in a pod in the middle. Radiators in the booms, on each side of each boom. About 3 feet behind the wing.
Except the Allison wasn't all that great... kept blowing up at high altitude. Now the Rolls Royce Merlin, powerplant of the Spitfire, P-51, Lancaster, Mosquito and more... That's the sound of freedom...
Flat bottomed boat that is WAY overpowered, if the lake was glass smooth it can probably nearly fly, but hit a ripple and you'll really be flying but the landing won't be pretty. I believe the Allison was based on the Rolls-Royce design Merlin egine, it could do 3000hp for brief bursts in the supercharged version that I suspect this is not. In any case a 20" prop would have a lot of trouble handling 3000 hp.
Nope, the Allison owed nothing to the Merlin. Totally different. Also, the Packards that PT boats used weren't Merlins either. Packard did license build Merlins, but the Packards in PT boats were purely marine engines that shared no parts or design with the Packard Merlin.
You're, apparently, attempting to be an "expert" on wooden boats. You're not. The Thunderbird was designed over 70 years ago by John Hacker specifically for use on Lake Tahoe. It is NOT a "flat bottomed boat." It is a modified deep-V design with an aft planning section. It has a 3' 8" draft and weighs 18 tons. It was originally outfitted with twin, 550 HP, 12 cylinder Kermath motors. The boat was refitted by Bill Harrah after he purchased it from the estate of the original owner. The current Allison motors are 1,100 HP each. So there is no need to speculate on whether a 20" prop could handle 3,000 HP.
