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Aviation History
1942
1942 - 0459.PDF
FEBRUARY 26TH, 1942 FLIGHT A BRITISH MASTERPI ECE Diagram of the two-speed drive the supercharger. Production assembly and servicing have been facilitated by making the supercharger and the carburettor as separate but com plete sub-units ready to bolt on to the engine. For start ing both hand and electric gear are provided. The increase in the operational altitude of the latest . engine, as compared with its forerunners, has necessitated improved magneto performance. Intensive development was necessary to provide efficient ignition in the rarefied atmospheric conditions encountered at higher altitudes. This effect of height also reacts adversely in other ways, notably on the fuel and lubrication systems, and, as may be imagined, many problems have had to be solved in this connection. It will not be overlooked that all high-per formance fighter aircraft at present in the service of the R.A.F. are powered by liquid-cooled in-line engines ; simi larly the fastest fighters of other nations engaged in the war are equipped with this type of engine because of the small frontal area, and thereby minimum drag. For Twin-engined Aircraft The clean lines of the Merlin Spitfire installation are an excellent example of the reduced frontal area presented by liquid-cooled engines, since the size of the bulkhead to which the engine installation is fixed is only 10.5 sq. ft. in area This area is not governed entirely by the size of the engine, and it has been demonstrated that, by ^.rrangement of various auxiliary fittings, a bulkhead as iaPa^ as 8-5 sq. ft. can be utilised on twin-engined aircraft. .? In the Merlin XX engine there are nearly 11,000 separate pieces. Included in this total are parts of 4,500 different varieties. Although aluminium enters very largely into the design of this light weight engine, the total of 1,450 lb. weight is divisible as follows: — Steel .. ..47 per cent. Aluminium . . 43.6 ,, Brass and bronze 2.5 ,, Other materials 6.9 ,, The makers state that only 12 differ ent classes of steel are used throughout, including special-purpose steels, one grade of cast aluminium alloy and two grades of wrought aluminium. All the aluminium is produced from the world- famous Rolls-Royce Hiduminiurn range o< Alloys developed by the Rolls-Royce Company The Test Houses The rows of test houses, a feature of the different Rolls-Royce factories, are 01 extremely modern design with the latest dynamometer equipment. Bright neatly maintained control rooms, sound and vibration proof with a varied and A pair of forked H section connect ing rods with lead bronze lined steel bearing shells array of recording instruments, enable the test ing staff to watch through the observation win dow the 2^-hour endurance test of engines lit up by floodlights in the adjoining test house. What a contrast to the days of escaping oil, freezing air currents and deafening noise reverberating through the body and the necessity to use ear plugs! After two hours the engines are stripped for examination, reassembled and subsequently given the final test of J-hour duration. The test houses are a department where male labour, perhaps naturally, is now used exclu sively, but it would be an omission on the writer's part if particular mention were not made in this summary of the manufacture of the Rolls-Royce Merlin to' the increasingly important part that women are playing. Just whether the skilled management, the guiding influence which carries the eventual responsibility, or the women opera tives themselves, deserve the greater measure of credit, I will leave others to decide, but the pro portion of women workers and the skill and dex terity of their work have to be seen to be believed. In the largest of the dispersal factories the management have built up the creditable proportion of over 50 per cent, women labour, as well as a high percent age of unskilled workers, and remember, this is on compli cated mechanism composed of the finest and most expen sive materials demanding a degree of accuracy unsurpassed in any other branch of engineering. Not only in the machining and fitting shops, the metallurgical, radiological and standards rooms has this desirable state been reached. The foundry is another example ot the successful employ ment of women operatives where their deft fingers are par ticularly suited and busily applied to aluminium-alloy cast ings of every conceivable shape, save only the largest sizes where undue fatigue might be experienced. Their work, too, is highly appraised, a common remark of the management being that they are ready and eager to learn, and are, generally speaking, more manageable -./hen proficient in thai they obey assiduously the production technique laid down Their keen spirit and seeming pride in their work are apparent to any observer. But the particular foundry I refer to is no ordinary one. Surely nothing exists in this country to surpass it either in layout or equipment, with possibly one notable exception. A Mechanised Foundry It is almost completely mechanised, with progressive roller-track systems, automatic delivery of materials, reclamation methods and a remarkable sand-reconditioning plant. But so much could be said of that efficient and impressive foundry and its equipment that it must remain for the moment as a subject for special treatment. From the test-beds the engines are conveyed to the despatch department, where, having learned something of the "engine every hour" speed in the largest of the works, I anticipated see ing long lines of iinished engines such as occasional impressive photographs por tray. You will see nothing of long lines of idle aircraft engines at Rolls-Royce. As quickly as they reach the terminal point of the track with their pass tags affixed, one by one they are placed in substantial wooden cases and slung on to trucks waiting in the sidings. With a confidence born of the knowledge and conviction that they constitute a British engineering feat well and truly done, the engines are despatched for operational duty in manv spheres to add lustre to the al-eady brilliant achievements of the R.A.F. pilots who operate them.
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