Ranger V-770

V-770
Preserved Ranger V-770
Type	Piston aero-engine
Manufacturer	Ranger Aircraft Engine Division
First run	1931
Major applications	Curtiss SO3C Seamew
Unit cost	$11,000 U.S. Dollars circa 1944

The Ranger V-770 was an American air-cooled inverted V-12 aero-engine developed by the Ranger Aircraft Engine Division of the Fairchild Engine & Aircraft Corporation in the early 1930s.

In 1931, the V-770 design was put to paper, based on the Ranger 6-440 series of inverted inline air-cooled engines, and test flown in the Vought XSO2U-1 Scout. In 1938 it was tested in the Curtiss SO3C Seamew and found to be unreliable with a tendency to overheat in low-speed flight. By 1941 a more developed V-770 was installed in the Fairchild XAT-14 Gunner prototype and was used in the production Fairchild AT-21 Gunner gunnery school aircraft.

Produced from 1941 to 1945, the V-770 featured a two-piece aluminum alloy crankcase, steel barreled cylinders with integral aluminum alloy fins and aluminum alloy heads. The V-770 was the only American inverted V12-type inline air-cooled engine to reach production. The engine was used in very few Army Air Forces aircraft, among them the short lived Fairchild AT-21 twin-engine bomber trainer, and in the two Bell XP-77 light-weight fighter prototypes.

Data from Janes Fighting Aircraft of World War II (1989)

...
Wikipedia