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Video: This 1,800-bhp Rolls-Royce Merlin aero engine is a beast

This fire-breathing, 1,800 brake horsepower V12 Rolls-Royce Merlin engine is worth a quick look and listen ... and feel
This fire-breathing, 1,800 brake horsepower V12 Rolls-Royce Merlin engine is worth a quick look and listen ... and feel

This fire-breathing 27-liter 1,800-horsepower Roll-Royce Merlin aero engine famously powered the Spitfire, Hurricane, Mustang, Lancaster and Mosquito WW2 aircraft. It has been mounted on a trailer for demo purposes. It really is a sight to behold and feel when it shakes the ground around you.

One of the many highlights of the Silverstone Festival in Central England on 23-25 August 2024 will occur in the Festival Auction, where a Rolls-Royce Merlin Aero engine will be sold as one of the lots, with quite humble expectations of £50,000 (US$63,000) for the special trailer-mounted, fully-functional engine.

The quite unique and absolutely enchanting aspect of this particular engine is its ability to start and run as a display unit and just what an awesome beast this engine is, as beautifully demonstrated by this video.

The 27-liter V12 Rolls-Royce Merlin engine is named after the “bird of prey” rather than the magician, but stand up close to one of these things when it hums along and you’ll be hard pressed not to feel at least a little magic. It started out with 1,000 bhp in prototype form but most of those made were producing between 1,800 bhp and 2,000 bhp.

This engine lives up to its legend more so in person than any other.

As impressive and awe-inspiring as it is to watch a Watt steam engine or a powerful steam train or a Wartsilla two-stroke diesel ship engine do their thing, those engines were quietened and civilized and … tamed … before they were put to work by mankind.

The Rolls-Royce Merlin engine was conceived as a fighter aircraft engine and they weren’t concerned about anything but horsepower.

The Merlin was supposed to spend its operational life at altitudes where it didn’t matter how much noise it made, but it was found to be so powerful and reliable that it was soon also powering armored tanks and MTB (patrol boats).

In its original uncivilized form it powered the aircraft which became household words during WW2 - the Spitfire, the Hurricane and the Mustang fighter aircraft and it was also used in numbers in the much larger Lancaster and Mosquito bomber aircraft.

Unmuffled with flame-belching from the near-open exhaust ports, this engine is an awe-inspiring beast if you are nearby when it starts, and this trailer-mounted example can be started in-situ anywhere.

By the time the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine was retired from active warlord duty, more than 170,000 had been made.

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7 comments
NMBill
Pretty awesome. I'll bet it will go for way more than the pre-auction estimate. Please follow up on the outcome.
Username
Reverse the prop and you have one crazy power assist trailer!
McDesign
hmm - worth it just as a piece of art. Shipping to US?
paul314
One of the stories about the Spitfire (and by extension the Merlin engine) is that the designers dressed a guy in a flight suit, sat him in a chair that was pushed back against a blackboard, and drew a generous outline around him. That was the profile of their fuselage, and everything (including the engine) had to fit inside that shape. One reason for the engine to end up tall and thin when so many aircraft engine of the time ended up squatter or even rotary.

Don't know how much truth in the story, but it inspired generations of engineers.
Daishi
It would be a fascinating collectors item. For me I used turbine engines in the military and fell in love with the sound they make starting up. The Y2K bike uses a Rolls-Royce turbine and if I had the spare cash I think I would own one just for the sound it makes: https://youtu.be/vck_5ouRaPw?t=83

Rusty
If you've never experienced seeing and HEARING one of those engines in my favorite WW2 airplane, the North American Aviation P-51, you are missing out.
That sound!
vic008
I remember seeing this, or identical at the Christchurch NZ, A&P Show about 10 yr ago. Same or different?