Building Merlin engines 1942

[VladTepes]

http://edge.liveleak.com/80281E/u/u/...9635%26embed=1

[Sprint]

great find

[dswatts]

thanks

[Lionel]

http://edge.liveleak.com/80281E/u/u/...9635%26embed=1

This clip is great, and almost certainly shows mass production of the Merlin in a factory such as the Ford works in Manchester, which used to make 400 a week when they got going.

According to Stanley Hooker's book ("Not Much of an Engineer", Airlife Publishing 1984),When mass production was proposed, Ford engineers had to re-draw RR's designs to tighten the tolerances. It seems strange, but Ford (and other mass producers) had to ensure that all examples of a part were identical & interchangeable, with no final fitting needed, whereas RR relied on craftsman assembly to a small extent. Typical of the difference between comparatively small volume and true mass production.

Hooker, BTW, was the man who worked on supercharger design for the Merlin, and improved it's high altitude performance (already quite good), so that with the 2 stage supercharger he developed, and the assistance of higher octane avgas, the effective power of the Merlin was doubled from 1000hp to 2000. He went on to work on jet engines and was the man brought back from retirement to rescue the RB-211 program when RR went bankrupt in 1971. His work saved RR, and earned him a knighthood.

Cheers,

Lionel