Yup, that that was my conclusion too. Its not the engine thats the weak link in the chain, its the boiler. I think there may yet be a bunch of untapped potential in water tube boilers. The White ==> Doble boiler was a step forward. The Besler brothers repowered an airplane with one. The latest step forward, I think, was the LaMont boiler. Of course none listened to Commander LaMont, back before WWII. None except the Germans and Japanese that is. So their steamers were much faster than ours. “Lamont was very depressed that his inventions were used by the enemy and shunned in the U.S.”
But thats what Americans do. We never thought the Wright brothers had much going on either, until they went over to France and a bunch of Europeans got excited about them.
Rindert
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