Design
The I-1430 featured cylinders with "hemispherical" combustion chambers and two sodium cooled exhaust valves. Although it retained the separate cylinders, the change to a V-layout allowed the individual cylinder heads to be cast as a single piece. Mounted at either end, a Y-shaped plate provided stiffness, while containing the camshaft drives. Continental built the first I-1430 engine in 1938 and successfully tested it in 1939. At the time it was an extremely competitive design, offering at least 1,300 hp (970 kW) from a 23 liter displacement; the contemporary Rolls-Royce Merlin offered about 1,000 hp (700 kW) from 27 l displacement, while the Daimler-Benz DB 601 offered slightly more power at 1,100 hp (820 kW), but was much larger, at 33 l displacement.
While the engine was producing exceptional power for it's displacement, the reason it was not put into production may have had to do with it's weight. Both the Rolls Royce/Packard Merlin V-1650 and the Allison V-1710 were in production, with similar power and better Power/Weight Ratios. The V-1710 was 1395 lbs, 385 pounds lighter than I-1430 with a power-to-weight ratio of 1.05. The Merlin V-1650 weighed in at 1640, 25 pounds more than the smaller and unproven Continental with about the same power/weight ratio of about 1.00. It did not seem the XI-1430 would be the solution to any important problem. It was not until 1943 that the 1,600 hp (1,190 kW) IV-1430 was tested extensively in the Lockheed XP-49, a modified version of the P-38 Lightning. It was also to be used in the production version of the Bell XP-76, which was canceled before production began. In 1944 it was also tested in the McDonnell XP-67.
Interest in the design had largely disappeared by then; piston engines with the same power or greater ratings were widely available, the Merlin for example had improved tremendously and was offering at least 1,500 hp (1,120 kW), and the military and aircraft builders were already starting to focus on jet engines.
Only twenty-three I-1430 series engines were delivered, later redesignated the XI-1430 to indicate the purely experimental use.
A 24 cylinder H-style engine, the XH-2860, based on the XI-1430 was designed but probably not built.
Read more about this topic: Continental XI-1430
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