Once upon a time, I went to a talk given by a WW2 air-sea rescue pilot by the name of Nick Berryman. At one point a question about the merlin came up and Nick spoke a single word which sounded astonishingly like a passing spitfire. Does anyone have any idea what this V12 word might have been?
By: snibble - 4th February 2019 at 18:43
No, really. I think it was something along the lines of “bazadaaabaaashooooooo”. Onomatapeic (is that a word?) as hell. I thought the engine story to be far fetched, like trying to put a cylinder off a moto guzzi on a vincent so I researched it myself and hit the alfa romeo / bristol connection and passed the info on to Nick who was most interested, though he said no one had ever raised an eyebrow at the story.
By: Zac Yates - 3rd February 2019 at 02:42
Does anyone have any idea what this V12 word might have been?
Do you remember what the word was? I’m unsure whether you’re testing to see if anyone else knows or if you’ve forgotten.
I don’t use any words when I do my Merlin impression, just a lot of mouth movements and teeth clenching!
By: Creaking Door - 31st January 2019 at 22:37
Mmmuuuuussshhhrrrooooommm!
By: Arabella-Cox - 31st January 2019 at 19:26
No idea about what the “word” would have been but, regarding the latter point about the Walrus; This aircraft was powered by the Bristol Pegasus radial and the Italians were producing this engine under licence (Alfa Romeo 126, I think) so, the story about the fitter and the cylinder is entirely plausible.
Anon.
By: snibble - 31st January 2019 at 18:28
Merlin, not browning.
Nick actually told an interesting story of how his walrus went sick over the med and seeing an island nearby he landed and taxied up the beach. A fitter came out on another shagbat and having seen a crashed italian bomber on the island, walked off with some tools to return with a cylinder under his arm which he bolted onto the walrus and Nick flew it out!
By: olly_s - 31st January 2019 at 15:41
Dakakakaka
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January 30, 2019 at 6:36 pm