But Merlins also wound up in American planes beside the P-51, like the Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk. Given the Merlin’s British origins, the engine found its way into plenty of other aircraft in the Royal Air Force as well, namely the Hawker Hurricane and de Havilland Mosquito fighter planes, along with the Avro Lancaster heavy bomber. (Image: A Merlin Is Made- the Production of Merlin Engines at a Rolls Royce Factory, 1942 by Richard Stone) Workers at the Rolls-Royce factory assemble the V12 Merlin aircraft engine in 1942.
Those two aircraft were common sights in the skies above the European Theatre, as they were adapted to a range of pursuit, bomber, escort, and reconnaissance roles.Īnd interestingly enough, both planes shared variations of the same powerplant: the 27 liter, supercharged Rolls-Royce Merlin V12. If you asked a military historian to name the five most important Allied fighter planes of World War II, you can bet they’d include the North American P-51 Mustang and Supermarine Spitfire on the list.
