Thread: Merlins

Originally Posted by rick130

IIRC (and the ol brain is a bit hazy ATM, life's been a touch hectic over the last few months. Thank my deity for the AULRO relief ) the adoption of the Merlin over the Allison engine in the P51 totally changed the CofG and therefore the balance of the aircraft.

The Allison engined aircraft was apparently quite a nice thing to fly, with the Merlin being bigger and heavier and it really upset things in a steep dive and to a lesser extent general handling.
There was a fusealge fuel tank behind the R/T (which was a huge thing behind the pilot) that needed to be kept at least 1/2 to 2/3rds full or you may not pull out of a dive.

Col Pay (now deceased) had a P40, Mx IX Spit (David Lowy now owns it) and P51 (CAC-18 ??) and he preffered flying the P40 out of the three.
We'd sometimes be shopping in Scone and Col would be doing circuits over the town. Nothing sounds quite like a Merlin.

Alan Hewson from Mt. Cotton had a Mustang. Jack McDonald of Gumdale had a Mustang and a Kittyhawk. Jack still has a Hawker Hart under restoration. The late Guido Zuccoli from Toowoomba had a collection of at least a Spitfire, a Sea Fury, and a WWII Fiat fighter which had been repowered with a Merlin. Very expensive toys!

Stanley Hooker recorded that the Mustang could exceed the performance of the Spitfire at 25,000 feet using 296 less horsepower, and the Mustang could carry three times the fuel.

Originally Posted by JDNSW

Which raises the interesting point that none of the engines we have been discussing can be operated at their rated output today, because the fuel is not available. The Sea Fury, like the later Merlins and Allisons, were designed to run on 115/145 octane - best available today is 100LL. You would have to run at less than maximum designed boost unless running with extra octane enhancers!

John

You sure? Wikipedia disagrees:

100/130

Avgas 100/130 had a higher octane grade aviation gasoline, containing a maximum of 4 grams of lead per US gallon, maximum 1.12 grams/litre. 100LL "low lead" has replaced avgas 100/130 in most places, but Avgas 100/130 is still sold in Australia and New Zealand as one of the two manufacturers in Australia is unable to make Avgas 100LL.[citation needed]