I believe the Rolls Royce Meteor engine used in a late war tank (forgot the name) is in fact a Merlin engine minus the supercharger. 

Lots of these engines are available as Army suplus still in their crates apparently. 

The Meteor was indeed an unsupercharged Merlin but with more steel and less aluminium in it and was built by Rover. The story goes that Rover were having difficulty making the early gas turbines so RR did a straight swap - the tank engine for the gas turbine, a pretty shrewd move as it turned out.

The Meteor was used in nearly all late war and 1950s tanks (Cromwell, Comet, Centurion, Conqueror). There was also a cut down V8 version, the Meteorite, that was used in the Mighty Antar tank transporter that carried them about.

And navalised Packard Merlins were used in Motor Torpedo Boats as well.

The Merlin got everywhere!

T'was a wizard engine!

I recall reading somewhere that the Yanks used a radial a/c engine in one of their tanks, and because the lower cyl's used to flood with oil when standing (ie 0vernight) they had to crawl underneath the block, inside the bodyshell, to take the plugs out! 

About the first model Merlin (1/5 scale) was built by Barry Hares between 1976 to 1981. There is a video of it running here.

Merlin XX

Not content with that he went on to build a 1/5 scale model of the huge (46 litre) RR Eagle (24 cylinders, 2 cranks and sleeve valves!)   

Eric 

5 bob seems a little low, would that equate to about 2.5% of wage at £10 per week ( twenty shillings to the pound)?

You never did say if you are the famous hairy DJ, from 200 miles up the M6.

Erfolg

I have just seen a 1/3rd scale Merlin under construction for sale on Ebay. Most of the work has been done, mainly valves, rockers and camshafts to do.

Price is way out of my league.

Only eleven hours to go so rush if you want it.

EBAY number is;  220235909442

A 1/3 scale Merlin? That is BIG - like 3000cc! (183 cu in)

"Valves, rockers and camshafts". Looks great, but there is still quite a bit of difficult stuff to do! 

Yes but it does prove theat there are replicas out there.

As for the size, well I am sure that there are some of the LMA thinking, "Just what I need, pity it isn't a bit bigger"

I wonder if even he has £3500 to spare though.

Yes, it would only take his articles in a couple of issues of RCM&E to pay for it.

My Grandad used to tell me lots of lovely stories about Merlins, having been an engineer at RR in Derby from before the war to the RB211 when he retired.

 At Duxford before he died, his sight was failing and he couldnt really crane his neck round. He did however manage to distinguish a late supercharged Spit from a P51D when asked how he knew, he said he could tell by the note of the engine and that the P51 had a sharper cam profile (good for top end power, speed at altitude) but that the Spit  cam profile was more progressive and had subsequent better acceleration ( look at the long battle between the 109 and the Spit which came down to speed and power to get an edge in the climb).

Dont know how much truth is in this  (but it was my grandad so I like it) but you cant get away from the fact that nothing sounds like a Merlin and the clipped wing Spit at Woodspring Wings a few years ago had grown men standing around complaining about hay fever or a bit of dust in their eyes.

I beleive you can have a Spit made for you on the Isle of Wight, they will locate a box of bits for you, 2 year waiting list and prices from £900k - - seems a bargain.

If you fancy a little present for someone you can buy Merlin spark plugs from the Southampton Hall of Aviation on a little wood plinth for a fiver.