Just been reading an article in CMV about the Irish Army’s Churchill tanks and it suggested that they tried to fit a Merlin from one of the Seafires into a Churchill tank as a replacement for the Vauxhall engine. The article says that the transplant got as far as trials but the project was eventually abandoned.
Is this a true story or another bar story where, not for the first time, a Meteor engine was mistaken for a Merlin
By: Creaking Door - 20th April 2018 at 15:48
Blimey, surely the last thing you wanted was a slower Churchill tank!
From memory flat-out speed for a Churchill was 12mph on the road and 8mph cross-country!
By: stuart gowans - 20th April 2018 at 14:55
“For reasons not recorded it failed” maybe the 4:1 reduction on the output shaft gave a slightly disappointing top speed!
By: Creaking Door - 20th April 2018 at 13:50
The crankshaft rotation of the Merlin would have been wrong for the existing tank gearboxes also; that is the reason that the Meteor turns the opposite way to a Merlin.
I would also be surprised if they managed to fit the engine in the compartment designed for the Bedford Twin-Six; not so much with physically fitting it into the space, but in getting it working reliably in that space. Tank engines are notorious for having cooling problems so if you fit an engine that produces twice as much power, say 600 horsepower for a unboosted Merlin, you’ve then got twice as much heat to get rid off.
The Churchill was always underpowered (as were most British tanks of the period) but I think it is instructive that when an upgraded Churchill was produced, the Black Prince, it was still fitted with the same (lash-up) Bedford Twin-Six engine, despite there being no shortage of Meteor engines and it having a much larger engine compartment.
Pity the Irish didn’t have Griffon-engined Seafires; the Griffon engine is smaller and turns the right way too!
By: Firebird - 19th April 2018 at 20:24
The article says that it came out of a Seafire: if so then it certainly wasn’t a Meteor. However, making either fit seems like quite an achievement, but would the higher output of the aero engine not come at a operating price (revs? boost?) not acceptable to an AFV?
Not surprised it wasn’t a success, given the issues involved, as the Bedford engine, was effectively a Flat-12 configuration L-head engine, and mating a Merlin up to the Churchill transmission was probably a no-go as well.
And then you have to ask, why?
They only ever owned four of the bloody things anyway!!
By: antoni - 19th April 2018 at 16:52
https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=12989.0
It is true. You will find the story above link.
By: Graham Boak - 19th April 2018 at 16:39
The article says that it came out of a Seafire: if so then it certainly wasn’t a Meteor. However, making either fit seems like quite an achievement, but would the higher output of the aero engine not come at a operating price (revs? boost?) not acceptable to an AFV? Otherwise why didn’t RR use Merlins in the first place?
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April 19, 2018 at 3:31 pm