WIX Archives

Merlins and Griffons

Posted by Ron Henry on Mon Oct 28, 2002 10:02:40 AM

In reply top Re: ...late reply posted by Christer on Sun Oct 27, 2002 03:59:33 PM

: Thanks Tom,
: so, now when You?re off line we all know what You?re up to
: ...... ;-)
:
: Interesting to hear about the differences between the Merl
: in and the Griffon. Previously I?ve heard two conflicting
: statements, (1) - that the Griffon started with a lot of M
: erlin experience built in and, (2) - that the Griffon neve
: r reached the same level of development as the Merlin ....
: .. strange ......
: I was under the impression that the carbs were quite simil
: ar, of the injection type, and the superchargers too.
:
: About the Centaurus' for Australia and New Zealand, Mike N
: ixon rings a bell in my memory. Can?t remember the name of
: the company though but it?s in the US.
:
: Christer

Hope I've remembered this correctly.........

Merlin and Griffon are apparently very different beasts. The Merlin's ancestry lies in the Kestrel, and for the Griffon it was the "R" engine of the Schneider Trophy S6A & B seaplanes. I'm not sure when the Griffon first ran, but it may not have been long before (or even shortly after) the start of WW2. The Merlin must have had a few years headstart on the Griffon, so logic says that it must have been able to benefit from Merlin development. Specifically how, I don't know. If you want to follow this up, RR Heritage Trust sells a series of very detailed booklets that cover many aspect of the histories of their engines.

The Griffon never reached the same level of development as the Merlin ........ I think this can be simply put down to 2 factors. The first was the end of WW2 and the other was something called "jets" !! Possibly another factor too - the Merlin may have proved to have more potential than imagined, and it continued to be developed for applications that would otherwise have used Griffons.

US engine rebuilders - UK "Pilot" magazine printed a good article on them (Mike Nixon, Dwight Thorne, and A N Other) just a few months ago. I think the same article was previously printed in a Smithsonian magazine.

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