A.M.T.Alison aircraft engines

Allison produced a whole line of aircraft engines starting with WWI and really advanced in WWII. I have heard little of the kit and it sounds like a real dog. It is an inaccurate engine from WWII, but I'm not sure which type.

Is it a turboprop or recip?

It's a V-12 recip, and from an automotive point of view, it's an awesome kit. Lots of potential for this one. I just picked up an original issue on ebay a couple of months ago.

The engine is most likely an Allison 1710 which was used in early P-51s, P-40s, P-38s, and a few other aircraft that were designed for in-line liquid cooled engines.

In the early days of drag racing and salt flat speed runs a number of enthusiast tried using aircraft engines from WWII aircraft. The Allison was not in great demand for aircraft enthusiast as the Rolls Royce engines were far superior, so the Allison engines were a "dime-a-dozen". The lack of performance was not the fault of the engine manufacturer. Allison gave the military exactly what they ordered.

Note: You can find Allison engines in Deusenbergs and Auburns, as well as other autos of the 20s, 30s, and 40s. The engines can also be found in trucks (today).

Art Arfons and his brother Walt built 2-3 cars powered by the Allison aircraft engine. They are also being used in hot-rod modified tractors for tractor pulling . I asked Art Arfons few years ago if he still had any of his old vehicles and he said he has used most of them for parts in building new vehicles.

Note: The Allison engine performed superbly at low level missions in the early P-51s, P-38s, P-39s, and P-40s. The lack of superchargers or turbo chargers limited the high altitude performace. Again the military got what they ordered, but found out they needed something different when the US entered the war in Europe. So, as a power plant the Allisons did great at low levels (on the salt flats and at the drag strips).

The Monogram Deusenberg (1934? I think) has a great Allison engine in the kit.

Allison also built thousands of the Rolls Royce Merlins and Griffons under license during the war for the P-51 Mustang. Sometimes these superb V-12s are referred to as Allisons, too.