The Rolls-Royce Spitfire XIX PS853 – Rolls-Royce Home | About | Our story | The Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust | Articles | The Rolls-Royce Spitfire XIX PS853 The Rolls-Royce Spitfire XIX PS853 The Supermarine Spitfire is one of the best loved and widely recognised British aircraft of all time. It was designed by Reginald J Mitchell, who also designed the Supermarine S-series racing seaplanes which secured the Schneider Trophy after competition wins in 1927, 1929 and 1931. The prototype Spitfire, K5054, first flew on 5 March 1936 powered by a Rolls-Royce Merlin, the last of Sir Henry Royce’s engine concepts before his death. Delivery of the first production Mk1 Spitfires into RAF squadron service took place from July 1938. The Spitfire and the Hawker Hurricane with their Merlin engines achieved lasting fame during the Battle of Britain in 1940.

By the time production ceased, more than 22,000 Spitfires and Seafires (naval versions of the Spitfire) were built. Merlin engine developments brought the aircraft better performance, but the last marks of Spitfire used the larger, more powerful Griffon engine. A total of 48 variants were made during the development and production of the aircraft over 10 years. They served in every combat theatre, operating as fighters, fighter-bombers, and reconnaissance aircraft as well as the Seafires which operated from aircraft carriers. It was the only allied fighter to remain in full production and front-line RAF service both prior to and after World War Two. The Spitfire also served in 28 other air forces across the world. The Rolls-Royce Spitfire, PS853, is an unarmed, high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, one of a batch of 79 Mk XIXs built at Supermarine, Southampton.

The Mk XIX was powered by the 2,050 hp Griffon 65 or 66 and represents the pinnacle of the Spitfire’s development in terms of speed and altitude capability with a top speed of 446mph (730 km/h) and a ceiling of 42,000ft (12,800 m). PS853 was delivered to the Central Photographic Reconnaissance Unit at RAF Benson on 13 January 1945, before moving to Belgium and Holland. The aircraft was engaged on active service with 16 Squadron up until the end of the war and participated in “Operation Crossbow” to detect V1 and V2 launch sites. At the end of the war it remained on duty in Germany until March 1946 when it returned to the UK and was placed in storage. In 1950, PS853 was one of several Mk XIX Spitfires assigned to conduct meteorological research, known as the Temperature and Humidity of the Upper Air Masses (THUM) Flight. PS853 performed the last ever THUM sortie on 10 June 1957.

Along with sister XIXs PM631 and PS915, PS853 retired into ceremonial and display duties to form the RAF’s Historic Aircraft Flight, the forerunner of today’s Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF). It spent less than a year with the HAF before being transferred to other duties. In 1963 PS853 was selected for a very special mission where it was used in combat trials with an English Electric Lightning at RAF Binbrook. After completing these trials PS853 was returned to the BBMF in 1964 where it remained until 1995. In 1996, Rolls-Royce bought PS853 to replace the original Rolls-Royce Spitfire XIV, G-ALGT. The aircraft was re-registered as G-RRGN; the RR for obvious reasons and the GN after the drawing number prefix allocated to Griffon engine parts. The aircraft is painted as 'C' of No. 16 Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron, 2nd Tactical Air Force, being the identity PS853 wore during its wartime service.

The Rolls-Royce Spitfire, as PS853 is now popularly known, has become widely renowned as an ambassador for Rolls-Royce appearing at air displays and charity events as well as at our own corporate events. Not only does it represent the heritage of the Spitfire and the Rolls-Royce engines that powered them, it honours the pilots of all nations who flew them and the men and women who built and maintained them. The aircraft is based in a dedicated hangar at East Midlands Airport, near Derby. It can be seen around the display circuit between April and October and during the winter months the aircraft undergoes an annual maintenance inspection programme. In 2010, 65 years after its first delivery to RAF service, PS853 was taken out of service for its first major overhaul. The aircraft received full inspection and maintenance to all its structures and systems at the Aircraft Restoration Company and Historic Flying Limited at Duxford in Cambridgeshire. The first flight after restoration was on 9 October 2012 and PS853 was delivered back to Rolls-Royce in November 2012.

Unfortunately, the return to service was beset by an unfortunate accident on 7 January 2013, when the undercarriage was inadvertently retracted while on the runway at East Midlands. Fortunately it occurred at very low speed but left damage to the propeller, wings and fuselage. The pilot was unharmed and the aircraft was recovered with no further incident. The Spitfire was sent for repair at Duxford and returned to service some six months later. PS853’s first public display was part of a special thank you to the employees of Rolls-Royce when the Spitfire flew in formation over the Derby factories with the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner on the 8 August 2013. PS853 Technical Details THE ROLLS ROYCE V12 R MERLIN ENGINE Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce is a set of several companies, all deriving from the automobile and aero-engine company founded by Henry Royce and Charles.S. Rolls in 1906.

Rolls Royce plc, by far the most significant in economic terms, is a British engineering firm these days specializing in turbine-based products, particularly aero engines, but providing a wide range of civil and military engineering products and services. Official site: In 1928 Vickers Aviation took over Supermarine. In 1938 Supermarine and Vickers were taken over by Vickers-Armstrong. The first Supermarine landplane to go into production was the famous Spitfire, which proved to be a successful design and, along with the Hawker Hurricane, entered into legend after its role in the Battle of Britain. In 1936 the Air Ministry called for new fighter aircraft A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for attacking other aircraft. Compare with bomber. Fighters are comparatively small, fast, and highly manoeuverable, and have been fitted with increasingly sophisticated tracking and weapons systems to find and shoot down other aircraft. The Merlin engine was essential to Britain`s war effort, it not only powered the Spitfire, but also the Hurricane, Lancaster and Mosquito. The Spitfires in the Battle of Britain were fitted with the Merlin III of 1,030 horsepower.

Developed as a replacement for the Kestrel engine that had powered the RAF's graceful Fury Biplanes in the `30s, and whose development had been spurred by the American Curtiss engines, it is perhaps surprising that the Merlin was designed at all. When the Merlin was on the drawing board a simple development of the Kestrel called the Peregrine promised to be very successful, and a 24 cylinder variant called the Vulture was hoped to give 1,700 horsepower. There was also the chance that the "R" engine that had powered the Supermarine S6 could be developed as a production engine (the Griffon). Thus the Merlin was seen as something of a stop-gap to fill the void between the Vulture and the Kestrel. It is just as well the Merlin existed, the Vulture engine had a very troubled time in development and two aircraft programmes based on it, the Avro Manchester bomber and the Hawker Tornado fighter had to be cancelled. The Peregrine overcame some early problems, but simply did not have the development potential of the Merlin, and the excellent Whirlwind fighter that was powered by a pair of Peregrines was only produced in small quantities.

The Griffon only became available in quantity during the last two years of the war. Of course there was another manufacturer of in-line engines in Britain, D. Napier and Sons, but again both of their major engine projects, the Dagger of 1,000 hp and the Sabre of 2,000 hp, had problems. Napier persevered with the Sabre, but it was only during 1942 that they became available in any numbers to power the Hawker Typhoon. Thus it was the Merlin that had to meet all Britain`s in-line aeroengine needs for the early war years. The Merlin was at first designed to have a novel cooling system. Evaporative cooling was to be provided by condensers in the wings with a small retractable radiator for use at low speeds and when taxiing. Evaporative cooling is a system in which latent heat of evaporation is used to carry heat away from an object to cool it. The latent heat contains a considerable amount of energy, and carries away more heat than if the same temperature liquid was simply removed physically. The simplest example would be sweat, which the body secretes in order to cool itself.

The amount of heat transfer depends on the evaporation rate, which in turn depends on the humidity of the air and its temperature, which is why you sweat more on hot, humid days. Then Rolls-Royce adopted Ethylene Glycol as a coolant, which is more efficient than water, a radiator for the new coolant could be much smaller than those used with water-cooled engines, the wing condensers were then done-away with. The cooling system was vulnerable to damage by gunfire, particularly as the header tank was situated at the very front of the aircraft. A hit here by the rear gunner of a German bomber would cause a Spitfire pilot to have to break off his attack and land before the engine overheated. Even worse, pure Ethelene Glycol is flammable and added to the risk of the engine catching fire. Ethylene glycol was first prepared in 1859 by the French chemist Charles Wurtz. It was produced on a small scale during World War I as a coolant and as an ingredient in explosives. Widespread industrial production began in 1937, when its precursor ethylene oxide became cheaply available, the engine was switched to this system instead.

Ethylene glycol (IUPAC name:ethane-1,2-diol) is a chemical compound widely used as an automotive coolant and antifreeze. In its pure form, it is a odorless, colorless, syrupy liquid with a sweet taste. Ethylene glycol is toxic, and its accidental ingestion should be considered a medical emergency. Designed by Rolls-Royce as a private-venture, the Merlin was able to take advantage of the new 100 octane fuel developed in the U.S.A. The Merlin only had one disadvantage when compared with German engines, the latter were fitted with fuel injection to deliver a precise charge of petrol to the combustion chamber. The Merlin still used a carburettor, which had the advantage of being much simpler and needing much fewer components, but it did cause the Merlin to "conk-out" if negative G forces were applied. Thus a German pilot with a Spitfire on his tail could simply pull negative G nosing into a dive and the Spitfire would fall behind until the engine picked up, only a matter of a second or two, but that second was all the German needed. Spitfire pilots developed a way around this by doing a half-roll before following into a dive.

This meant that the force of gravity acted in the opposite direction and the Merlin was unaffected. In 1941 a carburettor modification, developed by Miss Tilly Shilling, enabled the Merlin to carry on working with short periods of negative G, a vital stop-gap until the introduction of true negative G carburettors in 1943. Merlin development might have stagnated after 1940, any further increases in power needed a more efficient means of transferring the heat away from the engine. Rolls Royce responded with a mixture of water and Ethelyne Glycol which was put under pressure. This mixture also reduced the fire risk associated with using pure Ethelyne Glycol. This system was first used in the Merlin XII used in the Spitfire Mk II. The rapid introduction of this system was only made possible by everything Rolls Royce had learnt about pressurised cooling when developing the Goshawk and early Merlin condenser systems. The RR Merlin engine in Miss Bardahl, one of the most successful racing hydroplanes in the 1960s - three times Gold Cup winner. This the view from the cockpit forward.

Imagine the noise, hence the nickname 'Roar of the Dragon.' As piston engines get higher, they lose power because the air gets thinner. What is needed is a fan to suck more air into the engine and improve combustion, just like bellows in a furnace. Such a device is called a supercharger, today more commonly a turbocharger would be used. It was the introduction of a more powerful two-stage supercharger to the Merlin that produced the leap in performance of the Mark VIII and IX Spitfires. A supercharger is a gas compressor used to pump a fuel/air mixture, the charge, into the cylinders of an internal combustion engine. This increases the concentration of oxygen and fuel in the charge making the engine more powerful. It is similar in purpose to the closely related turbocharger, but differs in that the supercharger is powered by gearing (or belts) off the engine's crankshaft, while the turbocharger is powered by the pressure of exhaust gases driving a turbine. The Merlin was produced under licence in America by the Packard company.

These engines were used in the Spitfire XVI, but they also found use as the powerplant that enabled the P51 Mustang to be transformed from a low altitude army cooperation fighter into the long range, high altitude nemesis of the Luftwaffe. One thing that is often forgotten is that the capacity of the Merlin was quite small when compared to the opposition. The Merlin had a capacity of 27 litres, whereas the DB601 of the Messerschmitt was 39 litres and the BMW801 engine of the Focke-Wulf 190 had 42 litres. The superiority of the later Merlin engined Spitfires (ie Mk IX) over these Luftwaffe aircraft is all the more remarkable when this is remembered. PACKARD V-1650 "MERLIN" ENGINE The V-1650 liquid-cooled engine was the U.S. version of the famous British Rolls-Royce "Merlin" engine which powered the "Spitfire" and "Hurricane" fighters during the Battle of Britain in 1940. In Sept. 1940, the Packard Co.

agreed to build the Merlin engine for both the American and the British Governments, and adapted it for American mass-production methods. The first two Packard-built Merlins to be completed were demonstrated on test stands at a special ceremony at the Packard plant in Detroit on August 2, 1941. Full production began in 1942 and by the end of World War II, 55,873 Merlins had been produced in the U.S.A. The Army Air Forces used the engine almost exclusively in the famed P-51 "Mustang", for it provided greatly improved high-altitude performance over the Allison V-1710 engine used in earlier series of the airplane. The V-1650 Merlin also replaced the V-1710 in the "F" series of the P-40. The British also used Packard-built Merlins during the last three years of the war in their "Spitfire", "Mosquito", and "Lancaster" airplanes. Rolls Royce Phantom "Waterspeed" commemorative edition drophead coupe. This special limited run of custom cars is dedicated to Sir Malcolm Campbell and the famous K3 .

The Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupï¿½ Waterspeed Collection was previewed to selected UK press and customers at an exclusive event on the site of the original Bluebird Motor Company ï¿½ now the Bluebird Restaurant ï¿½ on the Kingï¿½s Road, London on Tuesday 13 May 2014. Merlin (Falco columbarius) is a falcon found throughout the northern parts of the Northern hemisphere in Canada and northern Europe. In North America it was once known as the pigeon hawk, and its scientific name (from columba, a dove) also refers to this popular prey item. However, the merlin is a falcon, not a hawk, so the old name is to be avoided. (a small falcon ) Falcons A Falcon is any of several species of bird of the genus Falco, such as the Peregrine Falcon which are raptors or 'birds of prey'. Falcons have thin, pointed wings, which allow them to dive at extremely high speeds.

(Peregrine Falcons are said to have reached speeds of up to 200 mph.) also known as "pigeon hawk") rather than King Arthur's legendary magician An aircraft is any machine capable of atmospheric flight. The origin of engineering was the working of engines. There is an overlap in English between two meanings of the word "engineer": 'those who operate engines' and 'those who design and construct new items'. This website is Copyright ï¿½ 2014 Bluebird Marine Systems Limited. The names Bluebird ï¿½, Ecostar DC50 ï¿½, Blueplanet BE3 ï¿½ and the blue bird in flight logo are trademarks. The color blue is a registered feature of the bird mark. All other trademarks are hereby acknowledged. It's an 1100bhp Rolls-Royce powered boat! | Top Gear It's an 1100bhp Rolls-Royce powered boat! It's an 1100bhp Rolls-Royce powered boat! Rolls-Royce Have you ever heard a Supermarine Spitfire on a flyby?

It’s quite a thing, and largely because inside a Supermarine Spitfire sits a 27-litre Rolls-Royce ‘Merlin’ V12 engine. And while you might imagine fitting this magnificent piece of British engineering into many things to make them excellent, a design studio plans to do exactly that. Claydon Reeves is making a superboat, and in its superboat will sit a detuned RR Merlin V12. Tally ho! Reeves’ super-yacht is called the ‘Aeroboat’, and it is building just 12 of these 7700kg luxury seafarers, with the design inspire by the “sleek lines of the famous Spitfire fighter”, including an authentic air intake scoop, aircraft inspired switchgear and the shock-mounted forward seats, a nod to the Spitfire’s own landing gear. Then of course, there’s the engine.

Each of the 12 Aeroboats scheduled for production will be equipped with a reconditioned, fuel-injected Rolls-Royce Merlin V12 with ‘documented provenance’, detuned to around 1100bhp and allowing for a potential speed of between 75 and 95kts - that’s around 86mph to 110mph. We think. Though the engine is from a different era, the boat itself is all cutting edge elegance: it’s built using Kevlar, carbon fibre and lightweight wood veneers, can accommodate between four to six passengers and each is configured to the individual’s needs. “The Aeroboat is Claydon Reeves’ answer to anyone seeking a boat combining speed and contemporary elegance,” CR tells us, “a heady combination of old-school romance and modern-day technology.” A model of the proposed Aeroboat, along with an actual Rolls-Royce Merlin V12 engine will be on display at the Salute to Style party at The Hurlingham Club between 16-19 July. If you like what you see, best get down there.

Related content Supermarine Spitfire Supermarine Spitfire Engines Rolls-Royce Merlin The people at Supermarine�s design department have always expressed thankfulness towards Rolls-Royce for their part in the development of the Spitfire. The development of the Spitfire is a result of the co-operation between the 2 companies, which ensured that new ideas quickly could be transferred from the one to the other.After the victories of the "R"-engine in the seaplanes in the years 1929-31, Rolls-Royce tried to maintain the position that they had gained by transferring the results to the military engines, the 490-520hp Kestrel and 820hp Buzzard, but it was hard to increase the output of those engines without loss of reliability. In 1933 87 octane fuel was available and the 100 octane in 1939-1940. This fuel could take a higher compression without causing the engine to knock (self-combust). This meant that the outputs of engines could be increased to more than 1000hp, e.g. by using superchargers, and still maintain reliability.

Engine manufacturers are with few exceptions all privately owned companies who do their own design and solve their own problems. Rolls-Royce is such a private company, which at that time had Sir Henry Rolls as the general manager. He personally supervised the "PV12" project, which was the name of the new and more powerful aero-engine, because he knew what was needed. Unfortunately he did not live long enough to see the PV12 become the Merlin. Early prototypes had weaknesses, which delayed a 100-hour test. Cracked cylinder jackets and bread-downs of the propeller reduction-gear caused these problems. When these problems were solved a 100-hour engine-run was carried out in July 1934 on an engine which had an output of 790hp at 2,500 rpm at 2 lbs. boost at an altitude equivalent to 12,000ft. The following tests resulted in modifications of the engine, which then was called "Merlin B". More problems occurred with poor crankcase castings cylinder heads and connecting rods. Finally the "Merlin E" passed a civil test. The "Merlin G" became the production model Merlin II.

In the following years new Merlin variants were developed - such as the Merlin 61 with a 2-stage and 2-speed supercharger (or blower) and intercooler. The supercharger was driven by the oil pressure of the engine's scavenge system operating a clutch in between. The clutch should make sure that the supercharger was not damaged if the engine should momentarily run uneven, because it ran at 10 times the speed of the engine (i.e. 30,000 rpm at max. engine rpm). Because of the new supercharger the Merlin 61 had a much higher output compared to earlier Merlins. Since the Merlin-variants are generally alike it did not take that much work to replace one Merlin-variant with another, however, because of the new 2-stage supercharger the Merlin 60's were longer than previous versions the forward part of the Spitfire's fuselage had to be stretched. Furthermore an intercooler had to be fitted, in order to cool the pressurised fuel/air mixture before it was led to the inlet of the engine; the mixture could reach a temperature of 200� Cels.

after the compression and that caused danger of combustion in the inlet, which would damage the engine. The 2-stage supercharger assisted in raising the pressure in the engine and thus increasing the output. An "inter-stage cooler" was fitted between the supercharger's stage 1 and 2. A further developed supercharger increasing the manifold-pressure to 25 lbs. and the use of 150-octane fuel increased the top speed of a Spitfire Mk. IX by more than 30 mph (50 km/h). In 1944 150-octane fuel was used and water injection was fitted on a Merlin and that gave an output of 2,640 hp at 36 lbs. manifold pressure. Merlin engines were used on a number of other aircraft types such as Avro Lancaster, DeHavilland Mosquito, Hawker Hurricane, Handley Page Halifax, Vickers Wellington II, Fairey's Barracudas and Fulmars.

During the 6 years of WW II, 88 Merlin-variants were developed and about 150,000 Merlins were built on the factories in Derby, Crewe, Glasgow and by Ford Motor Company and by Packard Motor Company in the USA. Rolls-Royce Griffon When WW II broke out, Rolls-Royce started to develop a new engine type, which should basically have the design as the Merlin, but should have a bigger output. It should also be able to be fitted into existing aircraft types in order to secure that the production of these aircraft would not be stopped or delayed. The name of the new engine was Griffon and it brought forward the Rolls-Royce tradition for liquid cooled V-engines. All experience gained by the RAF and Fleet Air Arm, of course, was used in the new design. The basic design of the Griffon has some similarity the R25R engine used in the Supermarine S6B, however, it is not correct to maintain that is a scaled-up version of the Merlin. One of the new things on the Griffon was the separate gearbox for external components like the hydraulic pump.

Another is the lubrication of the crank shaft: the oil is distributed into both ends of the crank shaft. Normally the bearing caps are lubricated from outside. The early Griffons (II, III and IV) all had a single-stage and 2-speed supercharger. The Griffons III and IV were used in Spitfire Mk. XII. The Griffon II was used in Fairey's naval fighter - the Firefly. The Griffon 61 was fitted with a 2-stage and 2-speed supercharger identical to the one fitted to the Merlin 61 and it was used on Spitfire Mk. 21. The Griffon 65 was identical to Griffon 61 except for a different propeller reductiongear ratio and it was used on Spitfire Mk. XIV. The Griffons 72 and 74 were fitted in aircraft operated by the Royal Navy and used 150 octane fuel. The 2 engines had an output of 2,245 hp at 25 lbs. manifold pressure at 9,250 ft. (2,820 meters).

The Griffon 83 were built like the 65, however, it was fitted with a propeller reduction gear with 2 counter rotating propeller shafts. The inner shaft rotated in the opposite way of the surrounding outer shaft so that a contra-rotating propeller could be used. Packard In September 1940 the Packard Company accepted the job of building Rolls-Royce Merlin engines both for British and American aircraft. The first 2 Packard Merlins were fitted in testbeds in August 1941. In 1942 the production of Merlin 28 for Canadian built DeHavilland DH 98 Mosquito's and Avro Lancasters was running. The American Curtiss P40 was equipped with this engine, however, under the designation V-1650-1. By producing the Packard Merlin 266 (called PM 266) it also found its way to Supermarine Spitfire Mk. XVI. There were some minor differences between the Merlin 66 and the PM 266, partly in the way the tubing was done and the way the supercharger was driven.

In order to avoid ordering wrong parts and deliveries of wrong type of parts, two spareparts centres were set up; one for Merlin parts and one for Packard parts. --ooOOoo-- The jet engine was on its way and by the end of the war Rolls-Royce moved their investments to this new engine type, which quickly had shown its capabilities when fitted on fighting aircraft. These "old" piston engines were still used in commercial aircraft for many years, so Rolls-Royce concentrated on giving the Merlin and Griffon engines a longer life and higher reliability. Some engine data further below..... X-ray view of a Merlin single-stage Merlin. The intercooler system (not to be confused with the engine cooling system) - click for larger picture A single stage Merlin engine - click for larger picture Rolls-Royce Merlin Engine - History Learning Site Rolls-Royce Merlin Engine Citation: C N Trueman "Rolls-Royce Merlin Engine" historylearningsite.co.uk. The History Learning Site, 21 Apr 2015. 16 Aug 2016. The legendary Rolls-Royce Merlin engine powered numerous aircraft used by the RAF during World War Two.

The Merlin engine was used in forty aircraft during World War Two but it is primarily associated with the Supermarine Spitfire, Hurricane Hurricane, Avro Lancaster bomber and the de Havilland Mosquito. The Merlin was also used to upgrade the power of the previously underpowered P51 Mustang used by the USAAF. The Merlin engine was first run on October 15th 1933. It passed its type testing in July 1934 when on a test run it generated 790 hp and first took to the air in February 1935. To start with the Merlin was officially called the PV-12 but Rolls-Royce had a convention of naming their engines after a bird of prey and once the PV-12 received government funding for its development it became the Merlin. It was a major improvement on the Rolls-Royce Kestrel engine in terms of power. The Kestrel had been a reliable and well-received engine but Rolls-Royce realised that it needed an engine that quickly delivered more power and development was based around the Schneider Trophy winning ‘R’ engine.

The Merlin was a liquid-cooled V-12 engine and was first used in a Hawker Hart biplane in February 1935. In the same year the Air Ministry issued a directive that required a new fighter aircraft that could fly at a minimum speed of 310 mph. The two companies that best responded to this requirement were Supermarine and Hawker. Both companies developed their prototypes around the Merlin. In 1936 both companies received orders for their aircraft – the Hurricane and the Spitfire – from the Air Ministry. Early production Merlins had numerous problems that led to their reliability being questioned. The leaked their coolants and the cylinder head frequently cracked. However, by version Merlin ‘F’ all major issues had been resolved and the engine officially became Merlin Mark I. The engine was constantly improved. In 1937, a highly modified Spitfire was fitted with a strengthened Merlin engine that in a test generated 2160 hp. This showed a Merlin’s potential and by the time World War Two started it had gained a reputation among pilots for its reliability. There are records of the Lancaster bomber losing an engine but being able to carry on flying on just three Merlin engines left at full throttle.

One of the men involved in the Merlin’s development was a mathematician named Sir Stanley Hooker. One weakness of the early Merlin engines was the lack of power generated by its supercharger, especially at lower altitudes. Hooker solved this and the new engine with his improvements was the Merlin XX. The increased extra power was to be of great importance to the Spitfire and Hurricane during the Battle of Britain where a great deal of combat was below 6000 feet – an altitude at which the previous supercharger had not worked very well. Hooker’s improvements gave the Merlin XX an extra 22 mph power boost. Later versions had an added 30% power boost. However, the supercharger of the XX still weakened at higher altitudes. To attack high flying Luftwaffe bombers, Hooker used two superchargers in a series and the new variant engine became the Merlin 61 and was fitted to the Spitfire Mark IX. One weakness of the engine was that it cut out under negative g force during a steep dive. Me-109’s had fuel-injected engines and were not affected by this but Spitfires and Hurricanes were as they used the carburetted Merlin engines.

This problem was partially solved in 1941 by “Miss Shilling’s Orifice” – a diaphragm fitted across the float chambers designed by Miss Tilly Shilling. The engine was manufactured at factories in Crewe, Derby and Glasgow. During World War Two, the engine was considered so important to the war effort that an arrangement was made to make them outside of the UK and so away from any possible chance of bombing. The Packard Motor Company was given a contract to make them. The Mark II and Mark III engines generated 1,030 hp. The Mark XII was used in Spitfires Mark II’s and generated 1,150 hp. The Mark II Hurricane used the Merlin XX and generated 1,480 hp. The Spitfire Mark V – the most widely produced variant – used the Merlin 45, which generated 1,515 hp. The first operational versions of the Avro Lancaster bomber used four Merlin XX engines. Each engine generated 1,480 hp giving the aircraft a total power output of 5,920 hp. More Merlin engines were produced for the Lancaster than for any other aircraft in the RAF.

The twin-engine de Havilland Mosquito was the second largest user of the Merlin engine. The engine was also used by the USAAF P51 Mustang, which greatly increased its power. Production of the Merlin engine only stopped in 1950 by which time nearly 150,000 had been made. However, the Merlin is still used to power the aircraft of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. 80 years of the Rolls-Royce Merlin – Rolls-Royce Home | About | Our story | The Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust | Articles | 80 years of the Rolls-Royce Merlin 80 years of the Rolls-Royce Merlin October 2013 marks the 80th anniversary of the first run of the most produced Rolls-Royce engine type of all time; the Merlin. In 1932, Sir Henry Royce wished to develop an engine that had the reliability of his Kestrel design, combined with the power of the 1931 Schneider Trophy-winning “R” engine in the Supermarine S6B racing seaplanes.

The result was called the P.V.12, a 27 litre, V-12, liquid cooled, single-stage supercharged engine (P.V. standing for Private Venture). Royce died on 22nd April 1933 without ever seeing this engine run and without knowing it would eventually become his most produced design. Just six months after his death, the first P.V.12 engine run was conducted on 15th October 1933. The prototypes of two other private ventures, the Hurricane and Spitfire fighter aircraft, were designed around the 890 hp (663 kW) Merlin ‘C’. The early engine design’s performance needed improvement but was sufficient to show off the potential of these new low-wing monoplane fighters. Rolls-Royce even contributed £7,500 towards the total cost of £15,000 (equivalent to about £850,000 today) of the Spitfire prototype, K5054, which first flew on 5th March 1936.

By 1937, after significant alterations to the cylinder head design, the Merlin II was capable of 1,030 hp (768 kW). All Spitfires and Hurricanes in RAF service at the outbreak of war in September 1939 were fitted with the Merlin II, with the Merlin III being fitted in ever larger numbers by the Battle of Britain in 1940. Merlin development never ceased and more and more power was extracted from the engine using improved superchargers and fuels. In 1942 the Spitfire Mk IX was equipped with the two-speed, two-stage supercharger, 1, 280 hp (954 kW) Merlin 61. The Mk IX’s performance was improved both in speed and ceiling and immediately outstripped the opposition to gain outright air superiority. This improved Merlin was also used in other aircraft, the most famous application being the North American P-51 Mustang which became one of the most successful fighter aircraft of WW2. The Merlin was successfully fitted in many other aircraft types, not least the Lancaster and Mosquito.

After the war the civil aviation industry restarted with Merlin-powered Lancastrian and York transports and the Canadian-built DC-4M Argonaut, many of which supported the Berlin Airlift in 1948. By the end of production in 1951, a total of 168,040 Merlin engines were produced including over 55,000 built under licence as the V-1650 by Packard in the USA. The P-51 Mustang’s Merlin Engine Combat History Merlin Engine Specifications Mustang Facts Inside the Cockpit The Rolls Royce and Packard built Merlin engine is universally acknowledged as one of the finest piston engines that has ever been manufactured. Remarkably, over 50 years have elapsed since the last Merlin engine rolled off the production line, yet it is still in widespread daily use in warbird aircraft, including the P-51 Mustang. Just as North American Aviation would never have envisioned their Mustangs would still be flying, Rolls Royce probably never considered that their beautiful Merlin power plant would still be in "front line service" in the 21st Century.

The overall success of this famous engine is built on one simple fact: By employing technology many years ahead of its time, fueled by the urgency of war, Rolls Royce produced a piston power plant that even today has no equal. Ironically, but not atypical of British industrial practice in the 20th Century, the British government, through the Air Ministry, declined to fund a new engine despite the Schneider Trophy success of the early 1930s. In December 1932 the Rolls Royce board, in the true spirit of British entrepreneurship, elected to finance the engine themselves as a private venture. Thus, early development of the engine was designated P.V.12. No one could have envisioned that this step would contribute so significantly to the Allied victory in the air. Few would dispute the Battle of Britain was won as a result of the Merlin II and III. Another significant development was the brilliant discovery of a simple idea, by Royal Aeronautical Establishment scientist Miss Shilling: A small metal diaphragm in the float chamber of the carburetor enabled the engine to continue running during negative G situations in combat. 1938 saw Stanley Hooker join Rolls Royce.

It was Hooker who concentrated on the development of the Merlin's supercharger. Even modern day Merlin builders will tell you that the engine's supercharger is the finest of its type ever produced. Why? It improves the power envelope from 12,000 to 40,000 feet. This unit is at the heart of the engine’s remarkable performance over a significant altitude range. At the beginning of World War II and the Battle of Britain, every front line fighter aircraft was fitted with the Merlin. One of the main Luftwaffe tactics was low flying, and the sea level power of the Merlin had to be enhanced as a result. Rolls Royce achieved a 40% increase in power at sea level due to the supercharger development and this forced the Luftwaffe to fly higher to combat air superiority at low level. With the success of supercharger development, the Merlin XX and Merlin 45 were introduced into the Spitfire and Hurricane, enabling the Royal Air Force to maintain fighter superiority. During the war years over 150,000 Merlin engines were manufactured in the U.K. and U.S.A.

The Packard Motor Car Company undertook the latter and it was this version that was to power the legendary North American Mustang. However, many people don’t realize the huge differences in the Packard built version. Packard manufactured some 57,000 Merlin engines, over a third of all Merlin production. From its earliest version, the Merlin was clearly a precision, hand built work of engineering art constructed by some of the best British engineers. Even in its infancy the power plant was built in small lots and had a string of design changes incorporated in an effort to squeeze performance and increase reliability in combat situations. The problem, however, was this level of detail was not possible in order to support the mass production needed. So in 1940, when the British Government turned to Packard for help with production of the Merlin, some provisions had to be made. In June 1940, Packard was asked to undertake the production of some 9,000 Merlin XX engines. It took just three days for the company to respond positively but on the condition that some modifications would be made to the power plant to enable American accessories such as carburetors, fuel and vacuum pumps to be utilized.

Packard then began the monumental task of organizing an engineering group to handle drawings and redesign for American production. In parallel effort, Packard organized U.S. sources for carburetors, magnetos, spark plugs, and other accessories. Packard assigned some 200 personnel to the project including the draughtsman who would undertake complete revisions of production drawings. At the outset the Packard engineers ran into problems, generally due to the fact that the engine was not designed for mass production. The fact that the project was completed at all is a testament to the determination and skill of those assigned to the task. After the end of hostilities in World War II, the Merlin saw extensive commercial service, particularly in Great Britain and Canada, extending well into the late 1950s. The Merlin 600 and 700 series were the subject of testing and modification until as late as the 1960s. Since the Merlin emerged, there have been three categories of operators in aviation. Broadly, these can be categorized as the original Military operators, commercial operators and the present day civilian warbird operators. In the late 1950s the Mustang was released for sale to the general public.

Most airframes sold had low times and warbird owners enjoyed a period of three decades where engine overhaul posed little problem, and very often a spare engine (or two) had been acquired with the airframe anyway. Overhauls undertaken during this time were similar to military schedules where the engines were disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled. Though new seals and rings were sometimes installed, major rework was just not necessary. We speculate there are approximately 500 Merlin engines (not counting museum static airplanes) in circulation amongst warbird operators - either installed in aircraft or held as spares. Some parts are becoming critical, and there are a number of programs being undertaken to manufacture these critical items to enable the Merlin to run for another 50 years, adding yet more achievements to what is already history. The Development of Rolls-Royce Merlin Engine — Articles | history | Reference The Development of Rolls-Royce Merlin Engine The Rolls-Royce Merlin III [Crown Copyright] One of the British technical achievements which proved most important for the country’s war effort was the Rolls-Royce ...

By John Dell, Martin Waligorski and Wikipedia | Posted on 2010-04-10 | Comments (20) | Category: Articles , Variants & Technology | Tags: history , Reference The Rolls-Royce Merlin III [Crown Copyright] One of the British technical achievements which proved most important for the country’s war effort was the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. It not only powered the Spitfire, but also the Hurricane, Lancaster, Mosquito and the Mustang, together with some variants of the Halifax, Beaufighter and Wellington. The vast majority of Spitfires produced were fitted with various variants of the Merlin. Even today the Merlin is one of the most celebrated piston aero engines of all time. This article attempts to describe the origins of its development. It Began With a Kestrel The design of the Merlin owns much to the company’s most successful aero engine of the early 1930s, the Rolls-Royce Kestrel. The Kestrel was a successful inline V-12 engine which provided excellent service on a number of RAF aircraft of the period.

Most notably, it was selected to power the entire family of highly successful and acclaimed family of Hawker biplanes, the Hart, Audax, Demon, Hardy, Hind and Osprey two-seaters and Fury and Nimrod fighters, the aircraft which had a prominent role during the RAF’s inter-war period. The Kestrel was Rolls-Royce’s first cast-block engine. Earlier aero engine designs had used individually machined steel cylinders that were screwed onto a crankcase, whereas the cast-block design used a single block of aluminium that was machined to form cylinders. The result was both simpler to build as well as lighter, requiring only an investment in new machining equipment. The idea of a cast-block came about through excellent American Curtiss D-12, one of the first truly successful cast-block engines. The D-12 was one of the most powerful engines of its era, and continued to swap records with other high-power engines of its era. No British company could offer anything like it, and when Fairey selected it for their Fairey Felix design the Air Ministry had enough and ordered Napier & Son and Rolls-Royce to start work on cast-block engines of their own.

The most gifted engineer at Napier and the designer of the famous Napier Lion, Arthur Rowledge, had become disillusioned by Napier’s management and Rolls-Royce quickly seized the opportunity to offer him a job and a position in charge of the Kestrel development. Applying every known advance since the D-12 was introduced, Rowledge designed the new engine to use supercharging at all altitudes, allowing it to outperform “naturally aspirated” engines by as much as they were willing to increase the boost pressure. The third key advance in the Kestrel was the use of a pressurized cooling system. Water boils at 100 °C at standard atmospheric pressure, but this temperature decreases with altitude. As it does so its ability to carry heat away from the engine drops, to the point where at high altitudes a gigantic radiator needs to be used to cool it again. The solution was to pressurize the entire cooling system, thereby not only preventing the drop in cooling performance with altitude, but in fact increasing the boiling point even on the ground. The Kestrel was built to maintain enough pressure to keep the boiling point at about 150 °C.

The Kestrel was first produced in 1927 at 450 hp, which soon improved in the IB model to 525 hp. This model saw widespread use in the famed Hawker Hart family that dominated British air power during the early 1930s. However it was not long before line improvements increased power dramatically; the V model provided 695 hp at 3,000 rpm with no basic change to the design, while the XVI used in the Miles Master delivered 745 hp. In 1935, Messerschmitt also tested its Messerschmitt Bf 109 V1 prototype monoplane fighter with Kestrel engine. Increased availability of higher octane aviation fuels in the late 1930s allowed the engine to be boosted to even higher power levels without suffering from ping, and the Kestrel eventually topped out at 1,050 hp (780 kW) in the Kestrel XXX model of 1940.

The Peregrine In the early 1930s, Rolls-Royce started planning for the future of its aero engine development programmes and eventually settled on pursuing two main designs. The 700-horsepower Rolls-Royce Peregrine was to be an updated, supercharged development of the existing 22 litre Rolls-Royce Kestrel. Two Peregrines bolted together on a common crankshaft into an X-24 layout would create the 1,700 hp 44 litre Rolls-Royce Vulture for use in larger and heavier aircraft such as bombers. There was also the possibility that the famous 36-litre ‘R’ engine from the Supermarine racing planes, itself a development of the Rolls-Royce Buzzard, could be developed into a 1,500 hp-class engine, a sort of scaled-up Kestrel. This line design materialized only much later, leading the Rolls-Royce Griffon. Initial development of the Peregrine promised to be very successful.

However, the Peregrine-Vulture plan left a large gap between 700 and 1,500 horsepower, and Henry Royce saw the need for a more powerful 12-cylinder engine that would utilise the technology developed from the Kestrel production and could be fitted to single-engine aircraft. The company management authorised the project to develop on a new 1,100 hp-class design under the designation PV-12. PV stood for “private venture” as the company received no government money for development of such engine. PV-12 becomes the Merlin The PV-12 was initially designed to use the new water/steam evaporative cooling system then in vogue, similar to one previously (and unsuccessfully) used with the Rolls-Royce Goshawk. The new engine was first run on 15 October 1933 and first flown in April 1935 powering the Hawker Hart biplane. Later on the old the company-owned Hawker Horsley became testbed aircraft for the second prototype engine.

In 1936, Rolls-Royce decided to invest in a more flexible flying testbed and the choice fell on Heinkel He 70, high-performance German courier aircraft which also had an enclosed passenger cabin from which several engineers could monitor the engine in flight. One example of He 70G powered with Kestrel V was purchased by Rolls-Royce and subsequently used in the Merlin tests during 1936-1937. Never resolved problems with the evaporative system manifested themselves with all clarity during trials. The system was notoriously failing during taxiing, when there was no cooling airflow around the condensers and thus the steam could not be cooled quickly enough. Similar problems occurred during climbs at high power, this time for the surplus of heat produced by the engine which exceeded the maximum capacity of the cooling system. Fortunately, in mid-1930s Prestone in the United States has perfected the use of ethylene glycol as a new and cooling medium, much more efficient than water. As glycol became available, the PV-12 was changed to the conventional liquid cooling system instead. In 1936, the Air Ministry revised their requirements for new fighter aircraft.

One of the most fundamental changes was the requirements for airspeed over 300 mph (480 km/h). This would clearly require an engine with more power than the planned 700 hp of the Peregrine, and having learned about the performance of the new Rolls-Royce engine, the government became instantly interested and decided to fund its subsequent development. It is then that the engine received the name Merlin. The name came from the bird – a small falcon also known as “pigeon hawk” – rather than King Arthur’s legendary magician. However, in the film The First of the Few, Sir Henry Royce refers to King Arthur’s Merlin rather than the bird, but his could be due to some propaganda purposes of the day. Further modifications to the prototype were designated by capital letters. Thus the Merlin B became the first to use ethylene glycol cooling system; further modifications included changes to the cylinder head and cylinder block castings well as the the cooling system. Merlin C was sufficiently developed to power the prototypes of new metal stressed-skin monoplanes for the RAF.

On 6 November 1935 the prototype Hawker Hurricane (as yet unnamed), took off to its maiden flight, powered by Merlin C producing 900hp and driving a Watts fixed-pitch two-bladed wooden propeller. This was followed by the Fairey Battle which first flew on 10 March 1936, and the Supermarine Spitfire prototype K5054 on 5 march 1936. Altogether, Rolls-Royce built and tested at least 33 prototype engines, ending with the production-ready Merlin F. This engine could develop 1,035 hp and was, among other trials, fitted to the Spitfire prototype. Merlin Enters Production The first production version Merlin I was assigned for Fairey Battle production. Only 175 had been built and these were considered to be rather unreliable. As a result, Rolls-Royce introduced an ambitious reliability-improvement programme to fix the problems. This consisted of taking random engines from the end of assembly line and running them continuously at full power until they failed. Each was then dismantled to find out which part had failed, and that part was redesigned to be stronger.

After two years of this programme the Merlin had matured into one of the most reliable aero engines in the world, and could sustain eight-hour combat missions with no problems. A particular problem with Merlin I was its ‘ramp head’ where the inlet valves were at a 45-degree angle to the cylinder. This solution was not a success and was replaced with Kestrel-style conventional flat head arrangement wherein the valves are parallel to the cylinder. This modification was designated Merlin II. The Merlin II was introduced in 1938 and after that the production was quickly stepped up. Development of a constant-speed propeller lead to the Merlin III, which was the Merlin II adapted for the use of such propeller and provided with a constant-speed unit. Merlin II and Merlin III were produced in great numbers, over 9700 in total. These engines powered just about every new RAF aircraft of the period: Hawker Hurricane Mk. I, Supermarine Spitfire Mk. I, Boulton-Paul Defiant Mk. I, Fairey Battle Mk. I, Hawker Henley.

The Only Alternative As it turned out, the Peregrine saw use in only two aircraft, the Westland Whirlwind and the Gloster F9/37 prototype. Although the Peregrine appeared to be a satisfactory design, it was never allowed to fully mature; Rolls-Royce’s top priority was then troubleshooting the Merlin. More importantly, the Peregrine did not have the development potential as the Merlin, and the excellent Whirlwind fighter that was powered by a pair of Peregrines was only produced in small quantities. The Vulture was developed, but proved unreliable owing to excessive problems with lubrication. Consequently, it had a very troubled time in development and two aircraft programmes based on the Vulture, the Avro Manchester bomber and the Hawker Tornado fighter had to be cancelled. With the Merlin pushing into the 1,500 hp range, the Peregrine and Vulture were both cancelled in 1943. It was supplanted in service by the Rolls-Royce Griffon which was a development of the R engine. The Griffon only became available in quantity during the last two years of the war.

Britain’s second manufacturer of in-line aero engines, Napier, was pursuing the development of 24-cylinder H-pattern engines, of indisputable potential but far greater complexity. Napier Dagger of the 1,000 hp-class was the first engine with this layout and had problems with cooling, maintenance, manufacturing and weight. These problems weren’t solved during the Dagger’s lifetime. The Dagger powered the Hawker Hector and Handley Page Hereford, both produced in strictly limited numbers and never used operationally. The 2,000 hp Napier Sabre became available in any numbers during 1942, but the unresolved problems of its predecessor plus unreliable valves dogged its service introduction on the Hawker Typhoon during entire 1943. Thus it was the Merlin that had to meet all Britain’s in-line aero-engine needs for the early war years. Rolls-Royce Merlin III Specifications Merlincar John Dodd's Hand-built Rolls-Royce Merlin Aircraft Engined Car. The engine is the same as installed in many fighter and bomber aircraft in the Second World War, such as the Spitfire and Lancaster. etc.

This one was originally fitted in a Boulton-Paul trainer, is of 27 litres capacity and was rated at over 1.000 horse-power. The following is as in the Wikipedia report on this car: In the 1960s, Paul Jameson put a Merlin engine (some say it actually was a Rover-built Rolls-Royce Meteor , which was a de-tuned Merlin without superchargers and with steel components replacing some aluminium ones) into a chassis he had built himself. He did not get around to building a body, and sold the car to Epsom automatic transmission specialist John Dodd, who fitted a fibreglass body based on the shape of the Ford Capri and named the machine "The Beast" . Originally it had a grille from a Rolls-Royce, but after complaints from R-R themselves he had to change it. According to Dodd's account, he once drove past a Porsche driver on the autobahn who then called Rolls Royce asking about their "new model". The Beast was once listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's most powerful road car .

The engine came from a Boulton Paul Balliol training aircraft which would give 1,262 hp (941 kW) at 8,500 feet (2,600 m). No supercharger was fitted to the engine in car so it "only" delivered about 850 hp (630 kW). The car used a General Motors TH400 automatic transmission . The Beast is alive and well in Marbella , Spain and is still owned by Dodd. It is still taxed in the UK; a DVLA search shows the engine capacity as 27000cc. For more on thsi: #.22Miss_Shilling.27s_orifice.22 It is said that the drivers and passengers in many high-powered sports cars have witnessed the rear end of this "station wagon" or estate car disappearing in the the distance in front of them. John uses it for fun as it does about 1 km per litre of fuel, and the noise is "marginally legal", but is is registered for the road albeit still with an English plate. A side-view of the John Dodd RR-Merlin engined car.

It has an automatic transmission and the bodywork is mainly fibre-glass. With its long "hood", or bonnet in English, short-sighted drivers are not encouraged. The mighty Rolls Royce Merlin engine. A 27 litre V-12 with 4 valves per cylinder, double overhead cams, originally with a superch arger (later higher-altitude versions had two in line superchargers). This model has the supercharger removed and an American 4-barrel Holley carburettor fitted. The engine produced over 1.000 bhp when new or 775 Kw. The rear of the Merlin engined car, the one most usually seen by other drivers in a straight line. While the car is incredibly quick on acceleration and speed, the handling is not up to expensive sports car standards.

Question: Which Rolls-Royce engine was fitted into the Spitfire fighter plane?
Answer: Merlin