There was a question about who was the woman that invented a fix for stumbling on a Spitfire RR engine in a dive. It was some kind of spring loaded float device. Also Britain received a tanker load of 100 octane fuel from the US. this raised the HP from 1030 to 1160 just in time for the Battle of Britain. Then later in 1940 it was raised to 1310 hp at 3000 rpm. manifold pressure to 54.3in Hg the variable pitch propeller was a factor also. Ago
The part in the carb bowl was a baffle above the float. It was called ms.............diaphgragm. it enabled the spitfires to manuever with the fuel injected ME 109's.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et9EtogGJfM&feature=related This is a U tube of a Merlin start up. Oh my...the sound..the sound!!!!! I believe that Packard made Merlin engines, these the V-12 1650 went up to 1400Hp. Most of the fuel during the war was 130 octane. (Purple in color) (Green..100 Octane) Blue 100 Low Lead) (Red..80/87 octane)Too much octane rating for most of the aircraft engines of civil aviation afterwards. Most became 100 leaded then. What an engine!!!!..Want a part? Rousch racing now makes a lot of the parts for them now. Engine shop in Omaha has rebuilt a couple of them. They also have a Allison V1710 in their shop now they just finished up on. It's to go into a boat for the owner. HellRaiser
I understand it was an SU carburettor, but not a constant-vacuum type like their better known designs. I almost got excited when I first heard of it. Rumours of 2½" SUs persist ...
US built combat engines used the Bendix "injection " Carburetor.This carb had no float and relied on mechanical devices sensitive to air flow and injected fuel directly into the intake or supercharger.I believe this also went on the Packard built Merlins.I also believe by 1944 the Brits had their own floatless carb. From what I have read the device used on the Brit carb helped a lot but planes like the Spitfire still suffered from carburation issues until the injection carb was fitted. The Merlin engine is thought of as the bullet proof hi performance V engine of WW2. In reality it had a lot of reliability issues early in the war and even later on.It was the installation in the US built Mustang and British Spitfires using the outstanding double stage supercharger designed by the British engineer Hooker that made it a world class engine. By 1944 the US built Allison 1710 was capable of in excess of 2000 reliable HP but with the exception of the turbocharged P-38 it never had the effective two stage supercharger of the Merlin.
Cool,I asked the question back here; http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=669797&page=4 having no doubt with the depth of knowledge found here on the hamb that the answer would appear. Good job guys! Ooops,didn't realize that thread had been closed, but I understand.
At the beginning of the war The British were more advanced with multi stage supercharging. The all time HP king of piston engine aircraft engines was the Napier Sabre , 24 cylinders, sleeve valves,35 liters. The post "The German" was pulled because of opinions . Ago
Kermit also has a Tempest V and two of the Napier Sabre engines. Hope I'm around to hear this one run again.... http://blog.kermitweeks.com/?cat=33 Don't know how he keeps up with ongoing projects around the world.
It's to bad that there is no way to use a 2800 or 3350 turbo compound engine in anything but a airplane. I heard plenty of them run. Especialy in the test cell where yoiu could get close to one they were something .
I love the Tempest's one of my favorite aircraft. The sound is different but I think it sounds great! Almost as good as a big radial like the Bristol Centaurus 18A from the SeaFury. When I was based at the Para School we lived on HMAS Albatross the Aussy Navy's air base, the SeaFury was a common visitor. Doc.
The US Wildcat powered by the P&W 1830 was the first fully combat ready aircraft with dual stage mechanical supercharging.The P-38 had dual stage,turbo and mechanical,and was combat ready by mid 1942,a short while after the same time as the Merlin 61. While we all discuss these advanced piston fighters that came later in WW2,the US fighters for nearly 18 months were the already obsolete P-40 and Naval Wildcat.They were thrown up against the far better German and Japanese fighters with more experienced pilots.But in the long run the US pilots learned techniques and relied on the rugged machinery to often come out the winner in combat.