Packard Merlin V-1650
| Packard V-1650 | |
|---|---|
 Packard Merlin V-1650-7 |
|
| Type: | V- aircraft engine |
| Design country: | |
| Manufacturer: | |
| Production time: |
1941-1947 |
| Number of pieces: |
60,000 |
The Packard V-1650 , also known as the Packard Merlin V-1650 or Packard Merlin , is the version of the British Rolls-Royce Merlin aero engine built from 1941 to 1947 under license from the Packard Motor Car Company in Detroit ( Michigan , USA ) . The 12-cylinder - V engine was at the beginning, especially in the two American fighter planes Curtiss P-40F / L Warhawk and North American P-51D Mustang used, but later also in various British machines such as the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley , Vickers Wellington , Handley Page Halifax (some series) as well as Avro Lancaster and De Havilland DH.98 Mosquito installed.
history
The Packard V-1650 or Packard Merlin was created during the Second World War in coordination with the Ministry of Defense of the United Kingdom from a license agreement of September 1940 with the British Rolls-Royce Ltd. with the US American Packard Motor Car Company in Detroit. Since the aircraft engine Rolls-Royce Merlin when it was very important considered for the British war effort, began in that year negotiations between the two companies set up to an additional production line outside the UK because the UK even during the Battle of Britain on the one hand a landing of the German Wehrmacht on feared their own soil, but on the other hand also expected that the demand for these aircraft engines could not be met by their own industry in the medium to long term.
The first engine built by Packard ran in August 1941 and immediately afterwards mass production began under the name Packard V-1650-1 . The USAAF was immediately interested in the new "American" aircraft engine and had it tested in some domestic military aircraft and compared with aircraft engines from its own development. It turned out that the now well Packard Merlin called motor due to the technically better loader especially in medium and high altitudes was much more powerful than z. B. the American counterpart Allison V-1710 .
The new engine, built under license, was then chosen to replace the Allison engines of the Curtiss P-40 Tomahawk / Kittyhawk fighter aircraft and later the North American P-51 Mustang . The latter in particular was to develop into one of the best fighters of the war as the P-51D, but only the first version of the Packard Merlin was used in the Curtiss P-40 "Warhawk", so that it never reached the maximum of its potential. With the excellent flight performance of the Merlin-Mustang, which was used in increasing numbers and almost completely ousted the Lockheed P-38 and Republic P-47, which had previously been used as an escort fighter, the German fighter aircraft (e.g. Messerschmitt Bf 109 K-4 with DB 605 D ) did not catch up again until the end of 1944.
When the first Packard Merlin arrived in Great Britain, Rolls-Royce engineers immediately dismantled it to assess the manufacturing quality. The technicians involved were astonished to find that the quality of this aircraft engine, built on assembly lines or on assembly lines, was much better than they had actually expected. The material quality and the manufacturing tolerances of the individual components proved to be far superior to the in-house product. Up until this point in time, the Rolls-Royce-Merlin engines were handcrafted, whereby this time-consuming manufacturing process was a great burden for the highly qualified workforce and, moreover, did not allow for excessive production figures. The Packard engines caused a rethink among those responsible at Rolls-Royce, although a minority still did not want to be convinced of the quality of the American licensed engines, which were manufactured by less qualified female workers on the assembly line. But at the latest after the first test flights with British aircraft and the first missions that demonstrated the efficiency of the licensed engines, all doubts about the Packard V-1650 with regard to quality and execution standard were dispelled.
Although little known, the Packard Motor Car Company, as a recognized manufacturer of high quality automobiles and engines, went one step further and improved the serviceability of the licensed Merlin aircraft engines. Among other things, the US company streamlined production in a way that made it possible to keep the number of interchangeable individual parts among the various engine series or variants as large as possible, so that very few parts had to be specially made. Packard's improvements were later incorporated into Merlin production in Great Britain.
The first version of the Packard Merlin engines in the Royal Air Force powered Hawker Hurricane fighters built under license in Canada , and then Boulton-Paul Defiant, which were used as target tugs . Then mainly bombers like the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley , some versions of the Vickers Wellington as well as the Handley Page Halifax (from Halifax B Mk.I Series III, B Mk.II Series II and III, GR Mk.II Series IA), the Avro Lancaster (from Lancaster B.III and Mk.X) and the multi-purpose aircraft De Havilland DH.98 Mosquito . The last British fighter equipped with the Packard Merlin was the Supermarine Spitfire Mk.XVI (otherwise identical to the Mark IX with the original RR Merlin).
In 1947 production of the Packard V-1650 or Packard Merlin ended after a total of 60,000 engines of all versions.
The following American aircraft types that used the Packard Merlin received further developed versions of the Allison V-1710 (e.g. the P-82 Twin Mustang ) based on the knowledge gained from this .
Versions
- V-1650-1 - First version like Rolls-Royce Merlin of the 20 series (1280 PS / 941 kW)
- V-1650-3 - Version for medium heights (1650 HP / 1214 kW)
- V-1650-7 - Version for great heights (1719 HP / 1264 kW)
- V-1650-9 - version for great heights with automatic loader control from Simmons and water injection (maximum 2039 hp / 1500 kW)
- V-1650-9A - As version -9 but without water injection (approx. 1830 PS / 1346 kW)
- V-1650-11 - As version -9 but with even more power (maximum 2270 PS / 1670 kW)
Notes :
- Versions V-1650-9 continued to be built after the war, -9A and -11 were post-war versions
- Power of the V-1650-9 according to another source also 2218 PS / 1631 kW
- Version V-1650-11 no longer used in production aircraft
Applications
US planes
| plane | Type | Remarks |
| Curtiss P-40 Warhawk | Fighter plane | P-40F: Packard V-1650-1 P-40L: Packard V-1650-1 |
| North American P-51 Mustang | Fighter plane | P-51B: Packard V-1650-3 or Packard V-1650-7 (RAF: Mustang Mk III) - 1988 pieces P-51C: Packard V-1650-7 (RAF: Mustang Mk III) - 1750 pieces P-51D : Packard V-1650-7 (RAF: Mustang Mk IV) - 7965 pieces P-51K: Packard V-1650-7 (RAF: Mustang Mk IV) P-51H: Packard V-1650-9 (555 pieces) CA- 17 Mustang Mk XX: Packard V-1650-3 (P-51D assembled in Australia) CA-17 Mustang Mk 21: Packard V-1650-7 (P-51D under license) CA-17 Mustang Mk 22: Packard V- 1650-7 (like Mk.21 but as reconnaissance aircraft ) |
| North American P-82 Twin Mustang | Fighter / night fighter | First two prototypes : Packard V-1650-9 (later referred to as F-82 Twin Mustang ) |
British planes
| plane | Type | Remarks |
| Hawker Hurricane | Fighter plane | In Canada in license-built machines: Packard V-1650-1 |
| Boulton Paul Defiant | Fighter plane | Partly instead of the original RR Merlin XX: Packard V-1650-1 |
| Armstrong Whitworth Whitley | Bomb plane | Some series instead of the original RR Merlin 20: Packard V-1650-1 |
| Vickers Wellington | Bomb plane | Some series instead of Bristol Hercules - radial engines : Packard V-1650-1 |
| Avro Lancaster | Bomb plane | Most of the machines instead of the original RR Merlin: Packard V-1650-1 |
| Handley Page Halifax | Bomb plane | Some series instead of Bristol Hercules - radial engines : Packard V-1650-1 |
| De Havilland DH.98 Mosquito | Fighter / bomb plane | Instead of the original RR Merlin: Packard V-1650-1 and Packard V-1650-3 |
| Supermarine Spitfire Mk.XVI | Fighter plane | Instead of the original RR Merlin: Packard V-1750-7 , otherwise identical cell to the Mk.IX version |
