As pilots (sailplane fliers aside), we all need our engines. While they’re a source of worry (we do need them to keep running), pain (overhauling one is not for the faint of heart or checkbook) and frustration (who doesn’t have a bad hot-start story?), we still love our engines. Even for non-pilots, they’re fascinating. Watching the history of engines is in many ways watching the history of our technological know-how. Going from pioneering primitive gas piston models to turbines and scramjets, we have seen the capabilities of our airplanes go from just barely flying to out of this world.
In Flying Magazine’s 50 Amazing Aircraft Engines, we spotlight a number of engines you’ve never heard of but that were critical to the development of technology or that allowed pioneers to push the bounds of flight. Check it out at flyingmag.com/50engines.
