Two Lancaster bombers!

[Lawrie]

I know they also had good tool kits,my Dad was in the NZ airforce and he must have acquired some of them, they are now in my dragster tool kit,
lawrie

[rotorwrench]

It seems like Ford UK (Dagenham) tooled up for Merlin production and had a heck of a time getting the parts all squared away for interchangeable fit but they did accomplish the task. Here in the USA, Ford built Pratt & Whitney engines for the Libs they also built at Willow Run and they made a lot of the big overhead cam V8 engines for the M4A3E8 tanks or Easy 8s. Those engines were something else. They used them in the early M26 Pershing tanks but they were so heavy that the big Ford V8 lacked the power it needed to haul that big 90mm gun around.

Packard made most of the Merlins produced here in the states and they got some good ideas from Ford UK as they were tooling up. Lots of other companies were involved in fuel systems and blowers and stuff for those engines. The world didn't have a lot of time to mess around with production problems so all these companies shared as much information as was needed to get the job done as quickly as possible. The axis forces didn't know how to deal with our production rates once Rosie got started riveting.

[bk53]

There is a b-24, a b-17 and a b-26 well for the past few years anyway, have flown over my house. If they come back I need to take a flight. God i love that sound. Didn''t realize the 24's ran merlins. Obvious heavy multis. I will pay much closer attention next time they fly over. For flames and oil and raw hutzpa, a fellows got to love those 18 jug radials when they start first time a season. I got to live with DC4's and Super Connies for a couple years as a kid. Thanks for the memories.

[V8COOPMAN]

[QUOTE=bk53;927348] Didn''t realize the 24's ran merlins. QUOTE]

I believe you mis-understood what Rotorwrench was saying. B-24s did not have Merlin engines. They had Pratt-Whitney R1830s. Ford Built some of those engines under license to PW, as did several others. DD

[4dFord/SC]

Originally Posted by bk53

There is a b-24, a b-17 and a b-26 well for the past few years anyway, have flown over my house. If they come back I need to take a flight. God i love that sound. Didn''t realize the 24's ran merlins. Obvious heavy multis. I will pay much closer attention next time they fly over. For flames and oil and raw hutzpa, a fellows got to love those 18 jug radials when they start first time a season. I got to live with DC4's and Super Connies for a couple years as a kid. Thanks for the memories.

There's a whole generation that probably hasn't heard the sound of four radial engines, or watched them being fired up.

[paul2748]

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I had a short ride in a B-17 3 years back. Great.

[36coupe]

I think they auctioned off a seat on the flight over to the UK on the Canadian Lancaster. Something like 50k or more a Brit paid.

[tamnalan]

My dad's brother Stanley Johnson was a P-38 pilot. 9th FS, 49th Fighter Group. He went MIA on 7 Nov '43 as Dick Bong's wingman, on a mission over Rabaul. He was the second wingman to die flying with Bong. The first, George Haniotis, was killed only two days prior.
I still work in the DoD. Every time I have business at Mcguire AFB, I stop to stare at the P-38 displayed in a traffic circle there.

[Binx]

Originally Posted by 4dFord/SC

There's a whole generation that probably hasn't heard the sound of four radial engines, or watched them being fired up.

No sweeter sound than the hot cammed thump of those big jugs!!

Lonnie

[Binx]

Originally Posted by tamnalan

My dad's brother Stanley Johnson was a P-38 pilot. 9th FS, 49th Fighter Group. He went MIA on 7 Nov '43 as Dick Bong's wingman, on a mission over Rabaul. He was the second wingman to die flying with Bong. The first, George Haniotis, was killed only two days prior.
I still work in the DoD. Every time I have business at Mcguire AFB, I stop to stare at the P-38 displayed in a traffic circle there.

I worked with a retired bomb/nav/WSO who had Joe Kittinger (high altitude freefall record/Roswell red-haired captain?) as a Fighter Sq DO during Vietnam. Hated him. Did everything he could to avoid being in his back seat because he was reckless.

Lonnie

[scooder]

Originally Posted by Binx

No sweeter sound than the hot cammed thump of those big jugs!!

Lonnie

Radial engines are good, I'll give you that. But even they sound quiet and sedate compared to Merlins, if you really want to hear the best, the Avro Shackleton had four Rolls Royce Griffin engines, they be Big block Merlins! One of those at takeoff! Good Lord!
Martin.
Ps, the things about pilots preferred Packard built engines and Packard took 1000hp to 1500 and British worn out tooling mid war are all wives tales.
The Merlin was continuously upgraded and developed throughout the war by Rolls Royce, the power went up and up, eventually the Griffin came out the same but scaled up. Was fitted in the late Spitfire, the ones with the longer fatter nose.
A pilot had no idea where his engine was made, at Ford's UK plant or Packard or wherever, just that it made the right noise and power, got him to the drop and back home.
Martin.

[Graeme / New Zealand]

Originally Posted by V8COOPMAN

Would sound somethin' like eight P-51s in tight formation. DD

Or 8 Spitfires.

GB

[Graeme / New Zealand]

Originally Posted by scooder

Sort of Ford related, Ford factories built Rolls Royce Merlin engines during the Second World War.
For the first time in 50 years two Lancasters in the air flying next two each other. One lives andflies in the UK, the other flew over from Canada. There doing air shows together this summer. Then the Canadian one is going home.
Look out for film of theses two together. Turn the sound right up! The sound is unbelievable! Carefull though, it may make a grown man cry. This one did.
Possibly not fully on topic, but if the sound of flatheads makes you happy, the sound of eight merlins is incredible.
Martin.

.


Ford built Merlins at their Trafford Park factory near Manchester in the UK. Packard built Merlins under licence to RR, they powered the Mk XVI which was basically the same as the RR powered MkIX.

GB

[Ol' Ron]

Is there a link to the Lancasters???

[V8COOPMAN]

Originally Posted by Ol' Ron

Is there a link to the Lancasters???

Ron...Type "Avro Lancaster" into your search box and you'll be reading for hours. Note: Not to be confused with BRUCE Lancaster. DD

[Tim Ayers]

Originally Posted by V8 Bob

Ford built many items for the war, but Packard got the contract to build RR Merlins, as they had much experience building their own car V12 engines as well as V12s for the PT boats.

I read this somewhere as well.

[Tim Ayers]

Originally Posted by Binx

No sweeter sound than the hot cammed thump of those big jugs!!

Lonnie

At the antique tractor and engine show we go to, a guy brings a radial engine and fires it off twice an hour. My sons (7 & 11) love watching it. I don't know the make or model, but it sounds cool.

I'm fascinated by the fact of how it ran off a single crank journal and would fire off in a radial pattern. Not sure why, but I find it a really interesting design.

[TonyM]

Originally Posted by V8COOPMAN

I should have been more clear...on a P-38, the two engines turn in opposite directions from each other on the same airframe. #1 engine turns CCW (as viewed from the cockpit) and #2 turns CW from the cockpit. DD

eliminating P-factor

[Jack E/NJ]

Here's the cool radial animation again.


Jack E/NJ

[Henry Hopper]

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5rGyP6SSYM

It's a sound that makes your hair stand up and a lump in your throat....