American Muscle

Attention: Hollywood, Wall Street & Washington. Here's the real Power List, and you're not on it.

By Michael W. Robbins Posted 06.06.2002 at 2:51 pm 0 Comments

auto0702muscle_A1.jpg IT RULES, BUT NOT FOR LONG
The sun will set on Pratt & Whitney's reign as maker of the world's most powerful aircraft engine, the PW-4098 (pictured), when the GE90-115B arrives next year.

View Photo Gallery

A lightweight fiberglass powerboat called Fountain Lightning can top 142 mph on still water. That's a powerful boat. A tug now under construction in China will tow an entire offshore oil-drilling platform into place, even on a restless sea. That's also a powerful boat. When talk turns to machine muscle, it's often about the most powerful engine that will fit into and move a machine. But to build an authentic Power List you have to ask what the measure and purpose of the power is: horsepower, torque, acceleration, top speed, hauling capacity, lift. The short power profiles here focus almost exclusively on machines that are made (or at least assembled) in the United States. And no stunt machines, no machines built solely to demonstrate power, no school buses with jet turbines attached, were allowed. These machines do an honest day's work.