After commenting on Mike F's great avatar in his thread "Wow, what an offer..........NOT" it prompted me to consider the aircraft I have most admired in my life. This is basically anything with four piston engines!

As a child in Malta I used to love the sight and sound of RAF Shackelton maritime patrol planes, the successor to the wartime Lancaster (and its four wonderful Merlin engines, the ultimate V12!

) which sounded so sweet.

(Yes I also love the Spitfire for it's looks and that beautiful Merlin engine; but that is the exception not for this thread!)

There was also the B17's and B24's that reminded you of the 80,000 American airmen who lost their lives flying from England fighting tyranny.
Then you had civilian four engine prop planes; the DC6 I flew in when 10; the Constanation; the Vanguard. In modern times there is the Hercules, which I used to admire flying in and out of RAF Lynham in the 80s and 90s; what a site they were, and with the sound of power with often exhaust trails, you could just imagine them being Lancasters on bombing runs (with those handsome heros inside). Wow!

How sexy!

You just cannot beat four V12 piston engines in motion; even wonderful four engined jets ('V' bombers, Comets, Concord, etc)do not have the same element of visual and audio excitment.
On a separate note, although it did not have four engines, and never (well I don't think so!) took off and flew, there was a car called 'The Beastie' in the 1970s and 80s which had that beautiful Merlin V12 engine fitted. It could do a minimum of 70 mph in reverse, and an uknown top speed (250 mph?) in forward gear

. Rolls Royce objected to it wearing their grill (the car itself wasn't a RR) but it seemed to represent a great memorial to THAT engine and all those pilots who sadly lost their lives flying planes with it.
