An excellent example of why British aviation manufacturing hardly exists any more - far too complex for what it was. Generally they designed and built things without thinking about how to maintain it all. Though to be fair, during WW2 not many engines and airframes were surviving long enough to need long term maintenance. US manufacturers also struggled to keep things reliable as reciprocating engines reached their practical limits of performance, even though their designs were much 'cleaner'. This is an actual cutaway of a Wright R3350 as used on the B29, the Lockheed Super Constellation and other aircraft during the 1940s and 1950s. The old Qantas 'ginger beers' used to say it was rare for a Connie to do a London round trip and arrive back with the same four engines it had on the wing when it left Sydney. Exhaust valve cooling was the main problem. [Video sound track is dubbed in later and is a bit annoying, IMO] https://youtu.be/B4ZDwC3Nhng
When you look at the absolute elegance of modern combustion turbines, like the General Electric CF6 as used on the B767, the B747-400 and the Airbus A330 etc. with many times the thrust of a reciprocating engine, it is easy to see why nobody except aircraft museums use reciprocating engines these days. Many combustion turbines, aka gas turbines or jet engines, stay 'on the wing' [i.e. out of the workshop] for tens of thousands of hours. I think the current record is more than 40,000 hours flying, or more than ten years of hard work, on an American Airlines B767. Drawing and photo are different versions of the CF6, but the reader will get the idea:
