This B-17 Wright R-1820 Cyclone radial engine table is built from a decommissioned R-1820 engine – this is the motor that powered every wartime example of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and Douglas SBD Dauntless bombers as well as countless other aircraft, armored vehicles, and tanks including the M4A6 Sherman and the M6 Heavy Tank.
The Wright R-1820 Cyclone first entered production in 1931, it’s a 9-cylinder radial engine that was loosely based on the Wright P-2 engine, and it was built under license in the Soviet Union as the Shvetsov M-25 and in Spain as the Hispano-Suiza 9V.
Over the course of its decades-long production run the R-1820 was developed into dozens of different engine specifications including diesel variants. The most powerful example was the R-1820-82WA which was capable of an eye-watering 1,525 hp.
Although there are still a considerable number of Wright R-1820 Cyclones in service, most of them have been retired, and a lucky few have been converted into functional art like this one. With a diameter of 1,600 mm (5′ 3″) and a height of 1,100 mm (3′ 7″) it’s not a diminutive piece of furniture, meaning it’d make an excellent centerpiece and an ideal beverage consumption platform in a suitably large drawing or billiard room.
https://youtu.be/pMZKt6zN2gE
Images courtesy of Bonhams
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
