The Continental A80 is a 4-cylinder, 80 hp, air-cooled engine designed and built by Continental Motors in the 1940s. It is the last of the A-series family of small aircraft engines utilized in civil and light military aircraft. The military designation for this family of engines is collectively known as the Continental O-170 engine. Pushing for more horsepower, Continental engineers designed the A80 with new pistons and upped the max rpm to 2,700.

This engine did not have an electric starter and must be started manually by pulling the handle with the wooden grip seen hanging below the engine.

This particular engine is actually the left engine of the V-173 “Flying Pancake” on display in the Museum’s Main Gallery. When designing the V-173 prototype, engineers found the Continental A80 just small enough to fit.