3 ms·

piston powered airplanes run at full or nearly full power for extended periods.

• ufmace 12y ago
  My point may not have been as strong as I thought, but that tends to support it - airplane and boat engines do need to operate at max power nonstop, so they're designed for it. Consumer automobiles usually just accelerate for a few seconds and cruise at relatively modest speed, and I'm pretty sure their cooling and other related systems are designed around that.
  • danbruc 12y ago
    That's because you usually have a speed limit. If you have a car with say about 100 hp your top speed will be about 200 km/h and that is a speed you can drive at for extended period on an Autobahn in low traffic. A more powerful car will of course make it harder to keep the pedal at the metal.