How Rolls-Royce made history

DEVELOPMENT ROLLS- ROYCE MERLIN Spitfire Is undergoing final assembly at Eastleigh, with a number of Merlin IIs in the foreground awaiting installation to other airframes. AEROPLANE The Rolls-Royce Merlin is, by any reckoning, one of the great aero engines of all time, and is certainly the most famous British aero engine ever. Produced in greater numbers than any other engine of the Second World War, its variants powered front-line aircraft from the first to the last day of the conflict.