Warbird Information Exchange

A couple of points that haven't been brought up are efficiency and maintenance.
The Pratt has 5 more cylinders to feed and maintain (in 2 rows) and it weighs more (64 lbs from what I've read). While it should mean better performance and slightly higher takeoff power (250 HP from what I've seen listed) I believe if the fuel efficiency were calculated it would be higher than the Wright.
Then looking at the mechanical aspect of it, those 5 more cylinders mean 10 more spark plugs for service or maintenance and a lot more areas and parts to wear and places to be inspected. Warbirds are never cheap and more parts mean much more expense.
Not being the owner or operator of either, I can only speculate but it seems that possible that the cost of running a P&W would be more per hour.
But I really love the logo!...

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Always looking for P-51D parts.

Continental and Lycoming both have engines in the 360cid class. The six cylinder Continental makes 5% more power, and is smoother, but at the expense of a greatly larger parts count (both due to 50% more cylinders and design architecture), more stringent wear tolerances and a 20-25% higher overhaul cost.

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Lest Hero-worship raise it's head and cloud our vision, remember that World War II was fought and won by the same sort of twenty-something punks we wouldn't let our daughters date.

I have seen the F4F-4 (P&W) at 320 MPH top speed and the FM-2 (Wright) at 332. The version of the Wright engine was more powerful than the F4F-4 P&W.

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"I can't understand it, I cut it twice and it's still too short!" Robert F. Dupre' 1923-2010 Go With God.

I was going to ask if that could be the result as much of comparing early development engines to late ones since I believe that I've read that early R-1820 series engines had as little as 850 hp in some early model B-17's (the YB-17's had R-1820-39 engines) for example whereas later versions of that engine such as the -97 used in the B-17G had 1,200 hp and in the UF-2/CSR-110/G-111 variants of the Grumman Albatross had as much as 1,525 hp. Similarly, early Consolidated PBY-1's had 900 hp P&W R-1830-64 engines whereas late model PBY-5/5A's had 1,200 hp R-1830-82 or -92 engines.

But apparently not so. According to Wikipedia, the F4F-4 had a relatively late-development P&W R-1830-76 engines rated at 1,200 hp and the FM-2 simply had a more powerful Wright R-1820-56 rated at 1,350 hp.

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“To invent the airplane is nothing. To build one is something. But to fly is everything!” - Otto Lilienthal

Natasha: "You got plan, darling?"
Boris: "I always got plan. They don't ever work, but I always got one!"

Remember, any dummy can be a dumb-ass...
In order to be a smart-ass, you first have to be "smart"
and to be a wise-ass, you actually have to be "wise"