Many people know that the Supermarine Spitfire had a 27-litre Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. What they might not know, though was that later models of the Spitfire used a 37-litre Rolls-Royce Griffon engine. And almost no-one knows that the Griffon was first run nine months before the Merlin, back in 1933! The Merlin was a petrol … Read more
The vast majority of Spitfires were single seaters. But some Spitfires carried an unexpected passenger as well as the pilot. How? In 1945 Margaret Ada Horton was a WAAF (Fitter Mechanic Airframes) at RAF Hibaldstow airfield, a satellite airfield to RAF Kirton-in Lindsey, Lincolnshire, just south of Hull. It was a nasty day on 9 … Read more
19 facts about the beautiful Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire was a short-range, high-performance fighter plane designed in the 1930s by Reginald Mitchell, chief designer at the Supermarine Aviation Works in Southampton. 2. Mitchell was diagnosed with bowel cancer while doing his best work on the Spitfire. 3. The Spitfire was named after the daughter of … Read more
A Spitfire very nearly broke the sound barrier in 1944. In the 1930s a small number of aero-engineers recognized that the piston-engine and propeller were providing diminishing returns. Despite reductions in drag and increases in efficiency provided by slippery airframes and variable-pitch propellers, huge increases in engine horsepower were yielding smaller and smaller increases in … Read more
Mary Anning’s discoveries of fossils along the coast of Dorset brought home the fact that southern England once was filled with giant monsters more strange and terrible than the wildest dream.
Which engine was fitted in the Supermarine Spitfire? Most Spitfires had the 27-litre Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. Later marks had the 37-litre Rolls-Royce Griffon engine.
A Supermarine Spitfire flew over Mount Everest in May, 1945. Then on 16 June another Merlin-powered aircraft, a Mosquito, made an “accidental” flight over Everest.
When I was writing my book about the Rolls-Royce Merlin I discovered some amazing facts. There has never been another engine more thoroughly, continuously, aggressively and successfully developed than the Merlin.
The Merlin engine was used in over forty aircraft during World War Two but it is mostly associated with the Supermarine Spitfire, Hawker Hurricane, Avro Lancaster bomber and the de Havilland Mosquito.
The Merlin was a petrol engine, which in a car or an aeroplane has to have many cylinders to make it run smoothly and powerfully. A single cylinder is OK for a small bike, and you can hear how rough they are! The Merlin had 12 cylinders.
