This fire-breathing 27 litre, 1,800 horsepower Rolls-Royce Merlin aircraft engine powered the Spitfire, Hurricane, Mustang, Lancaster and Mosquito WW2 aircraft. Mounted on a demo trailer, it is truly a sight to behold and feel as it shakes the ground around you.
One of the many highlights of the Silverstone Festival, which will be held in central England from 23–25 August 2024, will be the Festival Auction. A Rolls-Royce Merlin Aero engine will also be sold as one of the lots, with a modest price expected of £50,000 (US$63,000) for the fully functional engine, mounted on a special trailer.
What is quite unique and absolutely fascinating about this particular engine is that it can be powered up and run as a display unit and what an amazing beast this engine is is beautifully demonstrated in this video.
The 27-litre V12 Rolls-Royce Merlin engine is named after the “bird of prey” rather than the wizard, but when you hear one of these things hum, you’d be hard pressed not to feel at least a little bit of magic when you get close to it. It started out with 1,000bhp in prototype form, but most of the ones produced produced between 1,800bhp and 2,000bhp.
This engine suits its legend better than any other.
Up close, the Rolls-Royce Merlin Aero engine is an experience
As impressive and awe-inspiring as it is to watch a Watt steam locomotive, a powerful steam train, or a Wartsilla two-stroke diesel ship engine do its job, these engines were quieted, civilized, and… tamed before they were put to work by humanity…
The Rolls-Royce Merlin engine was designed as a fighter jet engine and they were not concerned with anything other than horsepower.
The Merlin was meant to spend its operational life at altitudes where it didn’t matter how much noise it made, but it proved so powerful and reliable that it was soon powering armored tanks and MTBs (patrol boats) as well.
In its primitive form, it was used in aircraft such as the well-known Spitfire, Hurricane and Mustang fighter jets during World War II, and was also used in large quantities in the much larger Lancaster and Mosquito bombers.
Breathing flames from its nearly open exhaust ports, this engine is an awe-inspiring beast when started up, if you're around, and this trailer-mounted example can be started on-site, anywhere.
By the time the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine was retired from active warlord duty, more than 170,000 had been produced.