Its an old motor, commissioned to power US war planes (later tanks) in WWI. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_L-12
It was far inside a cordoned area & the only telephoto I had before was small format. 'Wanted to get an mf shot of the valve train.
You definitely wouldn't like it, David.. it's a WW1-era American military aircraft engine. It's back story is almost kind of legendary. The military desperately needed an aircraft engine, so the government hired two automotive engine engineers and holed them up at a hotel, telling them they couldn't leave unless they had a complete engine design that met their necessary specs.
They emerged five days later with a complete set of blueprints, and the engine went into production two months later. Something like that. Pretty dang impressive turnaround and the performance was top-notch at the time.
Edit: Yes, that link HiHo responded with tells the story.
Nodda Duma said: You definitely wouldn't like it, David..
Oh, I bet David would love it. It was one of the worst government boondoggles in all human history. $640,000,000 in 1918 dollars were spent and only about 200 (very poorly built) airplanes got to Europe. Lincoln got a free factory, Packard made $8M, Ford $5M. The engines were so unreliable and plentiful that, until 1929, when an engine needed overhaul, the Army Air Corps would simply junk it and put in a new one.
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