jc wrote:
COLIN LAMB wrote:

snip
Someone must have done it, because in some of the old movies the pilot
yells out "wind 'er up" just before takeoff.

A starting method used for big engines (several 100 hp) involved a removable
handle with a gear train to a high speed flywheel. When the flywheel was
manually wound up to speed by ground crew the pilot engaged a clutch and
the power flowed back through the gear train to the crankshaft hopefully
starting the engine.


In the movie _The Great Escape_ James Garner and Donald Pleasance
steal a Luftwaffe trainer with that type of starter. I forget what it
is called.

Oh, and here is a bit of trivia. Donald Pleasance was an actual
POW during WWII. He was a crewman on a Lancaster (IIRC) that
was shot down.

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FF