Maybe the onset of middle age has made me soft hearted, but I appreciate that some things just refuse to go away. Take radial engines. Back in the late 1950s, when my father was flying for Pan American, the Boeing 707 was the rage, and the radial engine was predicted to go the way of the Dodo. "Jets are the future young man…"rnYes, jet engines do the job, but they lack the romance. Countless jets can come and go with little notice. But let the air be filled with the deep, throaty rumble of a Jake, Wright or Pratt and every true aviator will stop to take a lustful look. The whir of blades, the belch of blue smoke and the roar: it makes one's heart quicken.
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