The Ranger V-770 was an American air-cooled inverted V-12 aircraft engine developed by the Ranger Aircraft Engine Division of the Fairchild Engine & Aircraft Corporation in the early 1930s.[1]
V-770 | |
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Preserved Ranger V-770 | |
Type | Piston aero-engine |
Manufacturer | Ranger Aircraft Engine Division |
First run | 1931 |
Major applications | Curtiss SO3C Seamew |
In 1931, the V-770 design was built, derived from the Ranger 6-440 series of inverted inline air-cooled engines, and test flown in the Vought XSO2U-1 Scout. In 1938 it was tested in the Curtiss SO3C Seamew but was found to be unreliable with a tendency to overheat in low-speed flight, but would still be the most produced aircraft to have the V-770, with 795 being built.[2][3] By 1941 a more developed V-770 was installed in the Fairchild XAT-14 Gunner prototype gunnery school aircraft, which went into limited production as the Fairchild AT-21 Gunner, of which 174 were built, not including one radial engine prototype.[4]
Produced from 1941 to 1945, the V-770 featured a two-piece aluminum alloy crankcase, steel cylinder barrels with integral aluminum alloy fins and aluminum alloy heads. The V-770 was the only American inverted V-12 air-cooled engine to reach production. The engine was used in very few aircraft, among them the short lived Fairchild AT-21 twin-engine bomber trainer,[5] and in the two Bell XP-77 light-weight fighter prototypes.
![]() | This section needs additional citations for verification. (July 2021) |
Data from Janes Fighting Aircraft of World War II (1989).[1]
Comparable engines
Related lists
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ranger V-770. |
Ranger/Fairchild aircraft engines | |
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Ranger military designations | |
Ranger civil designations | |
Fairchild turbojets | |
American Helicopter |
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See also: Fairchild aircraft |
United States military piston aircraft engine designation system | |
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H (four-bank H-configuration inline) | |
IV (inverted-V inline) | |
L (single-bank inline) | |
O (opposed) | |
R (radial) |
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V (upright-V inline) | |
V (inverted-V inline) | |
VG (inverted-V inline) | |
W (three-bank W-configuration inline) |
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