Rolls-Royce designed the engine and first ran it in 1933 as a private venture. Initially known as the PV-12, it was later called Merlin following the company convention of naming its piston aero engines after birds of prey. The first operational aircraft to enter service using the Merlin were the Fairey Battle, Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire. Production ceased in 1950 after a total of almost 150,000 engines had been delivered.
About Rolls-Royce Merlin in brief
Rolls-Royce designed the engine and first ran it in 1933 as a private venture. Initially known as the PV-12, it was later called Merlin following the company convention of naming its piston aero engines after birds of prey. The first operational aircraft to enter service using the Merlin were the Fairey Battle, Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire. The Merlin remains most closely associated with the Spitfire and Hurricane, although the majority of the production run was for the four-engined Avro Lancaster heavy bomber. Production ceased in 1950 after a total of almost 150,000 engines had been delivered. Merlin engines remain in Royal Air Force service today with the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, and power many restored aircraft in private ownership worldwide. The engine was originally designed to use the evaporative cooling system then in vogue. This proved unreliable and when ethylene glycol from the U.S. became available, the engine was adapted to use a conventional liquid-cooling system. In 1935, the Air Ministry issued a specification, F1035, for new fighter aircraft with a minimum airspeed of 310 mph. The Rolls- Royce Griffon was largely superseded by the Rolls-Roycé Griffon for military use, with most Merlin variants being designed and built for airliners and military transport aircraft. The Packard V-1650 was a version of the Merlin built in the United States.
The 1,700 hp 42-litre Rolls-royce Vulture was fitted to the Avro Manchester Xhaha. This was an larger version of an earlier Rolls Royce engine, forming an Xha-24 layout. Although the Peregrine was never allowed to be a satisfactory design, the Merlin soon pushed itself into the 1,500 hp range and was soon pushing the Merlin itself into 1,800 hp. A de-rated version was also the basis of the RollsRoyceRover Meteor tank engine, and the very latest version as used in the de Havilland Hornet over 2,000 hp, and is still in service with the British Air Force today. The Vulture saw use in only two aircraft: the Westland Whirlwind fighter and one of the Gloster Foster 937 prototypes, but proved unreliable in service – the planned fighter Hawker Tornado – was cancelled as a result. As a result, the Pere Grine was replaced by the Merlin Vulture, which is now the world’s most powerful piston engine, with a capacity of 27 litres. It was first run on 15 October 1933 and first flew in a Hawker Hart biplane on 21 February 1935. It first flew on a 1,100 hp -class design known asthe PV- 12, with PV standing for Private Venture, 12-cylinder, as the company received no government funding for work on the project. In 1936, the first production variants of the Merlin were completed in 1936.
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This page is based on the article Rolls-Royce Merlin published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 11, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
