Vehicles · Planes
Engines you hear first
A radial at idle sounds like a Harley the size of a house. A Merlin at full chat is the reason air shows exist. The crew goes for the engines and stays for the airframes.
Aero engines
Five you should hear in person
Rolls-Royce Merlin
Spitfire, Hurricane, Mustang, Lancaster. Supercharged, two-stage in the later marks, and the best sounding engine ever built. Fight us.
Pratt & Whitney R-2800
Corsair, Thunderbolt, Hellcat, DC-6. Two rows of nine cylinders and a start-up that fogs the ramp with oil smoke.
Nakajima Sakae
The Zero's engine. Light, reliable, the JDM of aero engines. The Mitsubishi A6M it powered is the most famous Japanese machine of the century.
Wright R-1820 Cyclone
DC-3s, B-17s, and the Harvard trainers still flying out of Ontario. The sound over cottage country on a summer weekend.
Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6
Built in Longueuil since 1963, over 50,000 made. Twin Otters, King Airs, Caravans. Boring in the way a 2JZ is boring: it never breaks.
Orenda Iroquois
Built in Malton for the Avro Arrow, and never flew in it. The Orenda 14 that powered the CF-100 did its job. The Arrow story is the FJ40-sold-too-soon story, at national scale.
Near Toronto
Where to stand at the fence
Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum
Hamilton. One of two airworthy Lancasters in the world, plus a B-25, Harvards and a Canso. Watch the Lancaster run up from the ramp.
Canadian International Air Show
Labour Day weekend over Lake Ontario. Snowbirds, jets, and the best seat is a lawn chair at Ontario Place.
Great War Flying Museum
Brampton airport. Flying replicas of Sopwiths, Nieuports and a Fokker Dr.I. Rotary engines, the kind where the whole engine spins.
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