MISSING PLANS

[Gil Boyd]

Not sure what the rules are abroad, but I understand here in the UK, they can't be built unless there is a recognisable ID plate to attribute to a new build.
Useless bit of information now, the Rolls Royce plates often survived crashes and gave a definative ID on a plane, because they were made out of brass, not thin alloy as many believe!!
See I told you, you learn something everyday

[CINDERS]

What I would like to see is a Mossie doing a gun run with A) 4x303 & 4 x 20mm cannon all at once and another with B) The "Molins" gun firing away.
We could have a B-25 Mitchell with the 75mm cannon followed by one with I think the 12 x .5's up front doing a strafing run now that would certainly make it a worthwhile competitor to the A-10 with its 30mm GAU

[Flying10uk]

There must be quite a few Rolls Royce Meteor engines about, based on the Merlin, out of Centurion tanks. Does anyone know if it's possible to convert/reverse engineer a Meteor engine into a Merlin engine, for aircraft use by way of modifications such as fitting a 2 stage supercharger plus numerous other modifications? Or is it technically impossible because of the way that the Meteor engine is constructed, to do such a conversion? I seem to recall reading that some components were common to both units?

[bigduke6]

Just some light humour Cinders, but to be honest I very much doubt anyone would part with a Merlin unless it was to keep a Spitfire, Hurricane or similar flying and I know I would be the same.

It would be nice to hear the sound of 2 Merlins roaring over head on a newly built Mosquito, but lets save them for the needy that are still flying....... Maybe someone has a shed full of them and willing to make a few ££, I would guess the alternative would be a Packard Merlin as these were mass produced, unlike the Rolls which were basically all hand built.

Maybe Jmoore has a few contacts for spare engines.


A small snippet from Sir Stanley Hooker's book.

While Rolls-Royce’s manufacturing techniques churned out very high quality engines, they simply didn’t jibe with Packard’s way of doing things (or Ford in Manchester for that matter). In his book “Not Much of An Engineer”, Rolls-Royce engineer Sir Stanley Hooker recalls his introduction to the matter with Ford:

“One day their Chief Engineer appeared in Lovesey’s office, which I was then sharing, and said, ‘You know, we can’t make the Merlin to these drawings.’

I replied loftily, ‘I suppose that is because the drawing tolerances are too difficult for you, and you can’t achieve the accuracy.’

‘On the contrary’ he replied, ‘the tolerances are far too wide for us.’ We make motor cars far more accurately than this. Every part on our car engines has to be interchangeable with the same part on any other engine, and hence all parts have to be made with extreme accuracy, far closer than you use. That is the only way we can achieve mass-production.’”

[Gil Boyd]

Funnily enough, I do know an ex RAF Aircraft engineer who has a working Boston engine in his garage in Coventry it is a 1,600 hp Wright Cyclone of which the Boston had two. I did a 30 minute film on the Boston Sqns at RAF Great Massingham in Norfolk many years ago as the aircraft fascinated me, one seat up front, but a very versatile bomber, and would you believe not one in the IWM collection flying. It all started from a chance meeting with a real wartime RAF hero of WW2 who lived ironically at Duxford Sqn Leader Evans DFC DSO.

He bought it in the days when noone wanted such junk in working condition on its cradle as that was his job during the war keeping the Bostons and Havocs flying, so I imagine on that basis alone, someone will have a Rolls Royce Merlin sat somewhere.

[bigduke6]

You could be wright Gil, see link below,

Bonhams : A Rolls-Royce Merlin V12 Aero engine,

[Flying10uk]

There is no indication of it's current condition but the £20,700 price tag, that it went for, sounds very reasonable even if it does requires a complete recondition.

[Gil Boyd]

Just think if you bought a Spitfire frame that had been built needing an engine......save a small fortune matching them together

[Flying10uk]

It would be a better investment than putting money into a bank or building society, at present, given the current levels of interest, Gil.

[bigduke6]

That was a 2009 auction and don't forget the 25% premium...........