Spitfire-Rolls Royce Merlin Flybys

[McSkagit Tim Jones]

Probably the best sounding piston engine ever built, the Rolls Royce Merlin.
Low altitude flybys...those were the days. The Merlin is a 1650 cu in 60 degree liquid cooled V-12. It is unique in that it has a two speed-two stage supercharger.

One of the flybys is a Rolls Griffon powered Spitfire. The Griffon is larger cubic inches (2240) and has a deeper sound.

The Merlin was also built in the US under license by Packard Motors. Called the Packard Merlin. Packard made some improvements to the Merlin that Rolls Royce ultimately adopted.

The sound if a Merlin makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck!

McSkagit

YouTube - Pure Merlin Engine Sounds "Without Music"

[Tim McCrain]

That was great Tim, thanks!

My Dad was in the Army Air Corps in WWII, he said he never got tired of hearing the planes. He said it didn't take long before you could identify the planes by the sound of their engines, which was really important if the ones approaching the field weren't friendly.

Tim

[McSkagit Tim Jones]

RR Merlins were the prefered engine in early unlimited hydroplane racing. They didn't require a lot of modifications to get lots of horsepower. The supercharger was manually shifted into high gear, the governor disabled and more fuel poured in.

The first Merlin prototypes in 1930 produced about 850 horsepower and first production engines produced 1030 horsepower. By the end of the war, Merlins were producing 2500 horsepower at 3100 RPM.

In unlimited hydroplane application they produce between 3500 and 4000 horsepower at 4000 RPM.

Back in the 60's General Motors had a company policy of not less than ten pounds (vehicle weight) per horsepower. A 1966 GTO, for example, at 3600 pounds and 360 hp was right on the edge of GM's policy. If you've ever ridden in or driven a GTO or anything similar, you know how fast they are.

Now consider the unlimited hydroplane, the Slo Mos or Miss Thriftway or Miss Budwiser or Miss Bardahl. They are 28 to 30 feet long, weigh 7000 pounds and have on average 3500 horspower. That's a weight to horsepower ratio of two to one!!

In the Miss Bardahl hydroplane video in the "how to post youtube videos" section above, the boat goes from 85 to 90 mph in the corners, to 185 mph in the straightaways in about four heart beats. Must be a real adrenalin rush to drive!!!

Someof the hydros used Allison V-1710's and I'm not sure which boats used which engines...so don't quote me on t his stuff.

Love the picture of Bill Muncey

Tim

YouTube - Hydroplane Crash - Miss Thriftway

[ChuckB]

I can attest to the '6 GTO! I had a '66 with the 389 w/tripower and a 4 speed. Power to weight was scary!
Though I love the sound of the Merlins in the hydro's, i prefer the the Pratt and Whitney Double Wasp!!!:coolgleamA:

[Stan D]

Someof the hydros used Allison V-1710's and I'm not sure which boats used which engines...so don't quote me on t his stuff.


Tim



In these pictures Bardahl and Thriftway have Merlins, SloMo IV an Allison. The obvious difference is the exhaust. In all the pictures I've seen, Merlins have a pipe for each cylinder, Allisons had manifolds. Maybe that's why there were a lot of turbo Allisons later on. I don't remember any turbo Merlins. I think there was one turbo Griffon, though.