Ah...
Grasshopper.
It is the Antonov's
radial engine that makes the difference.
Like the sound that a Harley-Davidson makes from its own antique design lineage, a
radial engine makes a
very distinctive sound: If it's flying over Winnipesaukee, you can detect it.
The radial engine sound has even produced a cottage industry in CD recordings. (You can listen on-line!)
http://www.spitcrazy.com/sounds_of_aviation.htm
http://rareaviation.com/raenfrso.html
One recording company has even added
music to the sound:
http://sounddogs.com/results.asp? (Vocals!)
I don't know of any similar recordings of any other engine.
Too, it is the sound of our WWII American "Warbird" legacy. These designs produced engines of 3600+HP from a single engine.
Here's the radial engine principle.
Like
some boats on Winnipesaukee, Harley-Davidson motorcyclists try to project a kind of "Warbird" image. (Paint jobs, graphics, decals, leather jackets and "character"). It's just ridiculous that our Warbird legacy of WWII could be matched or experienced through paint jobs and appearances: think "poseur". All the other engine sounds that strike my ear at Winnipesaukee are projected through noisy Detroit-Iron exhaust pipes, housed in expensive fiberglass jukeboxes.
And the Antonov has never awakened me in the middle of the night.
AP
S