A little help on the engine - please help me

[wojtx]

Hi. I would like to know something about the engine. Is the tucker engine air or water cooled??<br>
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Please help me, I would like to know this <p></p><i></i>

[plancor 792]

The engine as used in the Tucker was water cooled. However it was originally designed as an air cooled helicopter engine made by Aircooled Motors of Syracuse, NY. Tucker purchased Aircooled Motors after Tucker employees in Ypsilanti, MI had successfully modified 3 helicopter engines. Employees at Aircooled made further modifications to the original air cooled engine. The engine as used in the Tucker was an outstanding success and today there are Tucker automobiles with over 200,000 miles on their engines still running strong. Aircooled employees also were working on an air cooled version of that engine that was to be installed in a Tucker automobile. <br>
Richard <p></p><i></i>

[Spoffo]

The engine Tucker used - and ultimately bought - was called the Franklin. Franklin engines were first built by the HH Franklin comany in 1893, and were used in Franklin automobiles from 1902 through 1934. Franklin was a significant car brand in thge WWI era, and their cars all used air-cooled engines. Somewhere in there, Franklin engines started being used for airplanes, too.<br>
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Franklin went bust in the depression, but 2 Franklin engineers bought the assets and name and formed formed Air Cooled Motors Development Co. They developed a large number of aircraft engine designs right after WWII that were used in both planes and helicopters. Relative to the dominant competitors - Lycoming and Continental - Franklins were considered smoother, more efficient and better-cooled. Still, there were always a distant #3 in the plane market and were best known in helicopters.<br>
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Tucker owned Franklin through sometime in the the early 1960s, when he sold it to a company called Aero Industries, inc, which kept it alive. It was sold again in 1975 to a Polish company called PZL, and they kept making engines and parts until today.<br>
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Sadly, it appears the the Franklin is about to disappear for good. United Technologies, the parent of Pratt & Whitney, bought PZL in 2002, and the word in the aviation community is that they are shutting down Franklin, since they have no interest in piston engines or light aircraft.<br>
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The irony of Tucker's "airplane" engine having its roots in a (successful) air-cooled car engine is too much. I wonder if he even knew about the Franklin car connection? <p></p><i></i>

[Tuckerfan1053]

The irony of Tucker's "airplane" engine having its roots in a (successful) air-cooled car engine is too much. I wonder if he even knew about the Franklin car connection?

Yup, he did. In his article My Car Was Too Good, he specifically mentions the history of Aircooled Motors and the connection to Franklin.