FPW Model 32E802 Wright R-1820 Cyclone

The Wright R-1820 was an American interwar and WWII aero engine manufactured by Wright Aeronautical. It was tested for the first time at the turn of the 1920s and 1930s. The engine - in the R-1820-G2 version - weighed 537 kilograms with a displacement of 29.9 liters.

The Wright R-1820 was an air-cooled, single-star, 9-cylinder radial engine. The engine was based on the Wright P-2 unit. It took over from it the general design assumptions (single star system), but it had much more refined mechanical solutions and numerous, small, improvements and modifications. From the moment of entering serial production in 1931, the Wright R-1820 engine was constantly improved and in subsequent versions it achieved higher and higher maximum powers, for example: the R-1820-4 had a power of 700 HP, the R-1820-32 model - already 780 HP, and in the R-1820-86 version it reached 1425 KM! Some versions of this engine were adapted to operate at high altitudes by changing the design of the turbocharger and the radiator. The Wright R-1820 engine served as a power unit for several successful American aircraft of the Second World War. It powered such machines as, for example: Curtiss SBC-4 Helldiver, Douglas SBD Dauntless, but especially - Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. It was also licensed in the USSR under the designation M-25.