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Monday 30th August over top left hand of the Wirral, some place called Hoylake or something

Griffon engined Spitfire..........

Big fat 4 engined plane going into Manchester at about 12-30 today..
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Rover418275 wrote:Griffon engined Spitfire..........

I thought most Spitfires where powered by a Merlin engine

I thought most Spitfires where powered by a Merlin engine

Yes and no.

The Rolls-Royce Griffon is a British 37-litre (2,240 cu in) capacity, 60-degree V-12, liquid-cooled aero engine designed and built by Rolls-Royce Limited. In line with company convention, the Griffon was named after a bird of prey, in this case the Griffon Vulture.

Design work on the Griffon started in 1938 at the request of the Fleet Air Arm, for use in new aircraft designs such as the Fairey Firefly.
In 1939 it was also decided that the engine could be adapted for use in the Spitfire.
However development was temporarily put on hold to concentrate efforts on the smaller Merlin and the 24 cylinder Vulture, and the engine did not go into production until the early 1940s.

The Griffon was the last in the line of V-12 aero engines to be produced by Rolls-Royce with production ceasing in 1955.
Griffon engines remain in Royal Air Force service today with the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and also power the last remaining airworthy Avro Shackleton.

According to Arthur Rubbra's memoirs, a de-rated version of the "R" engine, known by the name Griffon at that time, was tested in 1933.
This engine, R11, which was never flown, was used for "Moderately Supercharged Buzzard development" (which was not proceeded with until much later), and bore no direct relationship to the volume-produced Griffon of the 1940s.

In 1938 the Fleet Air Arm approached Rolls-Royce asking if a larger version of the Merlin could be designed.
The requirements were that the new engine have good power at low altitude, and it needed to be reliable and easy to service.
Work started on the design of the engine soon afterwards.
The design process was relatively smooth compared with that of the Merlin, and the first of three prototype Griffon Is first ran in the Experimental Department on 30 November 1939.

Although the Griffon was designed for naval aircraft, on 8 November 1939 N E Rowe of the Air Ministry suggested fitting the Griffon in a Spitfire. Three weeks later permission was given to Supermarine to explore the possibilities of adapting the Griffon to the Spitfire; in response Supermarine issued 'Specification 466' on 4 December. This decision led to a change in the disposition of the engine accessories to reduce the frontal area of the engine as much as possible.
As a result the frontal area of the bare Griffon engine was 7.9 sq ft (0.734 sq m) compared with 7.5 sq ft (0.696 sq m) of the Merlin. This redesigned engine first ran on 26 June 1940 and went into production as the Griffon II.

In early-1940, on the orders of Lord Beaverbrook, Minister of Aircraft Production,
work on the new engine had been halted temporarily to concentrate on the smaller 27 L (1,650 cu in) Merlin which had already surpassed the output achieved with the early Griffon.

Merlins and Griffons are closely related. Not sure how close, but similar base.

Fantastic soundtrack, either way....

OK, so JDC has better info. Again.

Duncan wrote:OK, so JDC has better info. Again.

Thought this time not to put just Yes and No.

i stand corrected wasn't the Merlin engine also retro fitted into the P-51 Mustang at some stage.

Ah the P51 Mustang, what a lot of people do not realise that although this is an American aircraft, it is of British origin. The British Air Purchasing Commission requested a substitute for the Curtiss P-40 which it considered unsuitable for European combat. They approached North American Aviation, and the rest is history, as they say. Also it was the RAF who gave the P51 the name Mustang.

The early Mustangs had the American Allison engine but a number of influential people realised that the Mustang needed a Merlin. Again there was a developement idea to use the Griffon engine, but this did not proceed anf further.

The Merlin engine was manufactured in America by Packard and this engine not only powered the Mustang but also a number of different marks of the Spitfire. The Packard engines was supposed to be interchangeable with the Rolls Royce manufactured engines, but guess who got a dimension wrong? The Packards were slightly longer than the RR engines and would not fit........

....whatever next from Michael O'Leary? Aircraft to take off from giant slides to save on tyres?

What planet is this man on? His idea of having standing passengers was, I thought pretty barmy, but now he has trumped that with his latest money saving idea.

Cabin crew landing an aircraft instead of the co-pilot...........

Does the man have a grounding in aviation or is he ex-Tesco?

I have one for him, save money on all of the ticket issuing and booking technology etc, just leave an honesty box at the exit when an aircraft lands.........