A friend of mine (Jim) in Saginaw worked with Les Staudacher. Staudacher, in Baytown Mi, was behind the Allison engines / hydro boat marriage, specifically Miss Budweiser and others. Jim worked on those engines with Les and has in his possession a set of service manuals for the Allison V12 engines.
Jim and I've been to the air races in Reno to see the unlimited class races, in particular "Voodoo" P-51 (Merlin V-12 powered) piloted by Steven Hinton, Jr. Steve's uncle, John Hinton, took me for a ride in one of the P-51s owned by the Planes of Fame museum in Chino, CA. Fun times.
Talk about derailing a thread...