The Magical MERLIN

摘要

One of the primary keys to the success of the Hawker Hurricane was the legendary Rolls-Royce Merlin 12-cylinder engine. Both the Hurricane and the Supermarine Spitfire had been designed around the Merlin and were the first to use it, but the V-12's origins trace back several years earlier to the early 1930s. Rolls-Royce's Kestrel V-12 had powered the Hawker Fury and numerous other aircraft of the pre-war period, but as the RAF contemplated moving away from biplanes to heavier, faster monoplane fighter aircraft, Rolls-Royce recognized that the 600-700 horsepower produced by the 21-liter Kestrel would be insufficient. Development began on the 27-liter Merlin, and by the time the first production engines (designated the Merlin II) went into Hurricanes in 1937, the engine was making more than 1.000hp.