Robert

The Beech 18/ C-45/ AT-11 were the same 'basic' airplane.

The first 40 built in the late 30's had 330 HP Jacobs with P & W 450
HP engines in the Military C-45/AT-11/etc.

I got some time in the C-45.with the 450 HP P & W engines.

Your R680 is the 300 HP Lycoming (Model HRE). Didn't find any mention
of this engine in the early D-18's but may have been a proto or first
engine before they went to the 330 Jake?

C-45 bird flew ok. Would fly on one engine after airborne an cleaned
up . Not any super performance of course. Max altitude on SE was
probably 5K or so (from memory).

Much better performer than 'Bobcat' on SE.

Was a good little twin for its era.

Some are still flying today.

On the Lycoming and Jacobs. Don't have the weight on these birds but
were probably much lighter than the military versions (Military always
added a lot o 'junk' and gross went up). Even with a light civilian
bird, I'd guess the Lycoming was a little short on power so they went
to the Jacobs?

Enough. Others may have some more first hand experience on the Twin
Beach and knowledge of very early versions?

Big John


On Wed, 19 Nov 2003 04:12:00 GMT, "Robert Bates"
wrote:

Does anyone have time in a R680 powered Beech 18? If so, what sort of
performance numbers are they capable of and are they reasonably safe on one
engine?