These planes helped fight back the German Luftwaffe and turn the tide of the war in the European Theatre. The Rolls-Royce Merlin LegacyĪs alluded to above, the Rolls-Royce and Packard Merlins were the go-to powerplants for two of the most prominent Allied fighters of World War II: the Supermarine Spitfire and North American P-51 Mustang. While most of the Rolls-Royce Merlins found homes in British aircraft, the Packard Merlin became the powerplant of choice for the North American P-51 Mustang. The Packard Merlin was dubbed V-1650 and it closely mirrored the Rolls-Royce Merlin evolution, as continually updated versions left the Packard factory while the war raged on. The P-51 Mustang can credit its signature engine snarl to the Merlin. The Packard Automobile Company stepped up to the plate with its factories and manufacturing capabilities.
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Thankfully, the beleaguered British were happy to license the Merlin to an American company in an effort to get more Allied airplanes into the skies above Europe.
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Besides, with U-boat Wolf Packs patrolling the North Atlantic shipping lanes, the threat of sunken cargo vessels full of new Merlins was daunting. Problem was, Rolls-Royce was already cranking out as many Merlins as it could, and all those engines were quickly snapped up by British aircraft manufacturers eager to get their planes out to the Eastern Front. The United States wanted some Merlin magic too. Packard Lends a HandĪs the RAF began to realize the Merlin’s potential, word of its capabilities quickly spread across the pond. And in certain configurations, in specialized high-boost environments, running high-octane fuels, Merlins could be tuned north of 2,000 horsepower. Near the end of the war in 1945, most Merlins were making closer to 1,800 horsepower. While the original prototype Merlins made around 700 horsepower, that number was over 1,000 by the time the Merlin entered production in 1936.
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Here, workers install the Merlin’s supercharger assembly at the back of the engine sometime around 1942. As the Merlin continued to evolve throughout the wartime years, improvements to the supercharger system played a big role in its increased performance and versatility. In addition to increasing the engine’s overall power output, forced air induction was central to the Merlin’s ability to perform at high altitude. Most experts would probably say its supercharger. So what made the Merlin engine so special? After a few years of development, testing, and refinement, the Merlin entered service in 1936 in a British Fairey Battle light bomber. As with a lot of military development programs, the design started with some established performance goals, specifically an airplane that can maintain a minimum airspeed above 310 mph. It evolved out of a program to improve upon the company’s V12 Kestrel engine originally designed in the 1920s. (Image/ Guiness323, Creative Commons) Meet the Merlinįor starters, the Merlin wasn’t Rolls-Royce’s first foray into aircraft propulsion. And thanks to the Merlin, it sounds pretty good too. With its signature elliptical wings, many consider the Spitfire one of the most beautiful airplanes ever made. But Merlins also wound up in American planes beside the P-51, like the Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk. Given the Merlin’s British origins, the engine found its way into plenty of other aircraft in the Royal Air Force as well, namely the Hawker Hurricane and de Havilland Mosquito fighter planes, along with the Avro Lancaster heavy bomber. Those two aircraft were common sights in the skies above the European Theatre, as they were adapted to a range of pursuit, bomber, escort, and reconnaissance roles.Īnd interestingly enough, both planes shared variations of the same powerplant: the 27 liter, supercharged Rolls-Royce Merlin V12. If you asked a military historian to name the five most important Allied fighter planes of World War II, you can bet they’d include the North American P-51 Mustang and Supermarine Spitfire on the list. Workers at the Rolls-Royce factory assemble the V12 Merlin aircraft engine in 1942.
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