Gas Turbine Install Pictures
 

a few more to come.

more Gas Turbine pictures
 

If anyone looking to use these in print. I can give you the high resolution pictures.

I have other stuff scattered about that I am trying to get organized. Somewhere I have a bunch of color slides of test runs

Thanks for sharing these here!

What an awesome project I dig all the pics those guys were definitely having a blast keep up the good work

These are awesome pictures! Thanks Mr Hartman!
Do you have any that show the markings on the boat, I still don't know what the circle on the side and toward the back says, I know that it has to do with the P&W engines.


I have been trying to figure out what kind of transmission that they used and there is a picture showing a transmission but I don't recognize it, anybody have any idea what it is? I don't think that it is a La salle transmission, they have a bottom access plate not a side plate like these do.
Keep the pictures coming, these help tremendously.
Thanks again!

Glassdave, thanks for the vote of confidence!
The real stumbling block has been trying to find the correct engines, if anyone has any leads please let me know. We now have excellent pictures to identify the engines, thanks to hornet marine.
For those that don't know, Hornet Marine is owned and operated by Dave and Greg Hartman, the sons of the man who headed the install of the turbine engines in this boat. They have designed several new boats and will be marketing them soon, looks like they are quality boats and well thought out! Check em out, worth a look!

some other info from the net
 

may allready have this but saw it and thought i would send it along

http://www.pt6nation.com/en/the-legend

Thanks for the link!
According to that article the transmissions are out of a chevy truck. I imagine that they would be 3 speeds. I wish I knew for sure what they were, saw a partial picture of the transmission in Hartmans pictures he posted. Looked like a side shift trans so it would have to be a three speed if it was out of a truck.
I was checking on the later model ST-6 APU out of the airliners and they are close to 900 hp, the original st-6's were 350-450 hp. It will take awhile to find the correct engines.

I gotta say this is great that you are doing this restore and take all the time that you need to do it, huge amount of history right there.

Couldn't help but notice that in the back ground of Hornet Marine's last pic there is a cardboard box from 'united aircraft of Canada ltd.' (which is now known as Pratt and Whitney Canada) and it is labelled PT-6 gas turbine engine.
Could it be from another project or for this boat?
By chance have you tried contacting P&WC in Quebec? Not much of a chance that anybody will know anything there, but you never know there always seems to be long lost paper trails that are hidden in some dark storage room.
Being that it certainly must have been one of the first turbine installs in a boat you would think they would have some record of it...

Thanks for the heads up on the P&W in Canada. I have actually talked to a person that works there and he sent me a video of the boat in an old ad, it was a copy of a copy and was poor quality but did show the thunderbird as it passed up brave moppie and seafury just before moppie sunk.

I think that the box you see in the background is the shipping box for the ST-6's, was just marked PT-6.

Dave I was wondering which person was your dad and if you know any of the other people in the pictures. It sure would be nice to talk to someone who was actually in on the install of these engines. I don't imagine there is much of a chance to find one of these guys but it is worth a try.
thanks

1965 thunderbird
 

saw this link about this guy apperantly has published a book or papers about turbine driven jet propulsion for a boat maybe worth contacting him. good luck with the restoration.


http://www.seacoaster.com/Resume.htm