Curtiss D12 engine.

[Phil Franks]

Was the design of the Curtiss D12 engine of the mid 30s used by Rolls
Royce in the early development of the Merlin?

--
Phil Franks - ph...@philfr.demon.co.uk

[Roger Wallsgrove]

In article <fzgUODAr...@philfr.demon.co.uk>, Phil Franks <ph...@philfr.demon.co.uk> says:
>
>Was the design of the Curtiss D12 engine of the mid 30s used by Rolls
>Royce in the early development of the Merlin?
>

No. The Merlin ultimately derived from the special engines developed
for the Schneider Trophy aircraft. Rolls Royce were building quality
aeroengines (water cooled, in-line) from WW1 on.

Roger Wallsgrove

[Emmanuel.Gustin]

Phil Franks (ph...@philfr.demon.co.uk) wrote:

: Was the design of the Curtiss D12 engine of the mid 30s used by Rolls

: Royce in the early development of the Merlin?

Yes and No. What happened was that Sir Richard Fairey brought back a
Curtiss D-12 engine, and production license, back from a visit to the US.
This he installed in a new biplane bomber, the Fairey Fox, which was built
ignoring the Air Ministry specifications --- which included use of a
British engine --- and outflew everything in the RAF. (The bureaucrats
were seething with anger.) The plans of Fairey to build the D-12
as the Felix never matured.

Rolls-Royce then developed its own engine on the lines of the D-12, the
Kestrel, which was much used in 1930s aircraft --- including the few
production Fox bombers, the Hawker Hart, and the Hawker Fury.

The Merlin was ultimately a development of the Kestrel. The ancestry of
the Merlin is often traced back to the "R" engines of the Schneider Trophy
racers, but these contributed more the successor of the Merlin, the
Griffon. Of course the experience of the "R" engines was still beneficial
for Merlin development.

Emmanuel Gustin

[Philip Morten]

Phil Franks wrote:
>
> Was the design of the Curtiss D12 engine of the mid 30s used by Rolls
> Royce in the early development of the Merlin?
>

> --
> Phil Franks - ph...@philfr.demon.co.uk

It had a lot of influence on the design of the Kestrel, and indeed it
was the RAF's decision to buy a batch of Fairey Fox light bombers
powered by the D-12 that caused Rolls Royce to produce the Kestrel in
the first place.

Philip Morten