First run of Merlin 25 engine in 50 years! 

Angry. Powerful. Vengeful. Or in the case of something like a P38, hungry.

Just imagine a squadron of these planes taking off or coming back during WW11. The sound must have been incredible! Major music to my ears!

Now build a Go-kart around it!

@Jack Anders You're right, I don't care.

@Jack Anders That’s me with her in the pics in Mexico. Adios!

The old air warrior must have been grateful for what you did for him.

@@fronerbr2738 thanks, i hope so. I found out that his fiancee was killed in an air raid during the war. He was without family because she was the only one for him . Her photo was with him always for the rest of his life.

Standing next to a P51 starting up is one of the greatest experiences of my life, the sound of one would make anyones day.

They still do.

Yes they did and still do to this day. The British engineers are amazing!

Good chance my dad was piloting one of those B-17s that your dad flew escort for. Either way, some thanks to your dad is in order.👍👍

Might have been a Packard Merlin. American built and leaked oil less:). Talking to restoration guys swap any part between Hawkers products no problem(not so the Spitfire). Our tolerances on our early tanks was especially horrendous .

With out the Merlin the war might have turn out very different it powered so may aircraft for the RAF and for the USAF Mustang.

I'm working on a 1917 American Lefrance in my machine shop . It amazes me at some of the machine work they were able to do back then . They were machinist but also wonderful craftsmen .

@@ALABAMAHEADHUNTER Boet of South Africa fantastic gives me goosbums

Yes they are.

The Rolls Royce Versions were all hand built with mating surfaces hand scraped so no gaskets needed. RR were quite concerned when Packard started building them with unskilled staff and used gaskets. RR thought they would be unreliable but they were much the same reliability as the RR ones. As a result it is far easier to swap parts between Packard engines rather than the RR originals.

"Literally". Really? Or do you mean 'virtually?

The Miss Oh Boy Oberto was one of the last hydroplanes I remember there that had not converted to turbines; and I remember she invariably started out really strong and fast while the turbines spooled up; but then she'd invariably break something and just become a smoke bomb. Great fun!

I also grew up in south Renton Wa. Im 64 .And i remember the sound of the hydros on the lake way up on Benson hill as a kid also . There will never be times like that again, sadly.

My uncle flew Lancasters as well, got the DFC from the king I think.

@@briangriffin928 And I am sure you are incredibly proud of him and every one of the unfortunate 55,500 bomber command crew who perished in WW 2 . My uncle survived but was plagued with mental health issues due to knowledge that many innocents died on the ground due in part to his actions. Brave folk on both sides flying primitive machines into heavily defended targets. Rip all .

And in temperatures reaching minus 20 at times.

My great Uncle Frank (Frank Appleby) was Flight engineer on lancs, what a stunning aircraft they are. My auntie Amanda showed me his logbook, diary and many many personal photos of all his bomb missions he went on with 97 Squadron and then 617 Squadron, including the Dam-buster raid, Les Munro, even let him take the controls and fly from time to time, very lucky man...lol, What a dream it would be to go up in one.

@@dazza1825 My uncle was also 97 squadron. Les Munro only passed a few years ago surviving well into 90s and I believe the last pilot of 617.

You either woke your kids up or pissed the neighbours off! 😂

Real.............

Thank The Lord they did.

Brave young men, unlike today

@@leenunn6446 am sure they pop up today as well..

@@DavidBrown-cp2vm Exactly right David !. I can see where Kevin is coming from, but he's missing the point in that if it were not for "the few" young men we would all be speaking Gernman now.

Thought the same

I know right? that's a pro move.

Hi Peter, I lived in NZ in the South Island for 12 years and wondered (don't feel like you need to be too specific) whereabouts these beauties were located? I had been told previously, but had never seen, about some Mosquito/Merlin items around the Mapua area. Anyhow, wonderful to see and hear this, especially considering where they are heading!

@@Youchoob1 Hi, yes the farm was in the Mapua area. The shed was a pandoras box of things he had collected and stored for a long time. The Mossie cockpit looked brand new when I sat in it - didnt fly back then so I had no real idea what I was looking at, but everything was shiny and clear

Peter, I visited John's too...he would wander out his blue overalls and took us to the shed and got to sit in the mozzie. Even going up the drive was an adventure of hidden gems.

I get you, GT380man…But I'm very fortunate to say that the Biggin Hill 2-seater Spits fly over my family home in East Sussex several times a day during late-Spring, Summer and early-Autumn…Their sound always makes my heart sing and always gives me hope…Not least in these most troubled of times.

Oh no, you're one of those people.

@@realityboost4405 I used to work on the airport, I am amazed at how resiliant that aircraft is, during my time there I would see it taxiing to the runway 3 or 4 times a day every working day all summer. They rake in the cash with that thing.

or one with a bunch of 500 cals nestling in the wings...

In the whole world, there is no better sound than that made by a Merlin.

The only Merlin I have ever actually heard in life was an American built racing hydroplane called Miss Budweiser here in Oz. My Dad was a RAEME and he worked on tanks doing his Nasho back in the day. He is still living but has dementia. He used to tell me that the Centurion tanks had two Merlins (I think they were Meteors, the non supercharged version) and a BMC (austin / morris) 900 side valve engine just as the genset to run the electrics. Or was it the 884OHV. He’s even starting to forget that.

Yep...just pencils, grid paper and slide rulers and compasses.

I had a Cox 0.49 baby bee as a teenager.

@@MegaDirtyberty Yup, that's the one!

you'll never forget the smell of that fuel

@@jerryeinstandig7996 8 parts metanol and 2 parts castor oil. =) Had a few little engines myself. The previous mentioned Cox Baby Bee, a O.S. Max 15 , a O.S. Max 20 Marine and a Enya 19.

TESTORS

During the months of late April until late September, we usually have a ‘Spit’ plus odd Mustang, together running across the town here in Folkestone along the cliff tops towards Dover & back. The Spit often carries out various manoeuvres en route back to based just outside the town ie barrel & victory rolls… Then when you hear that V12 underload purring !! It’s the sound of freedom…

Absolutely spot on David!! 👍

The bicycle chain throttles were certainly interesting...

I live not far from East Kirkby they ha a mossie there now too .

🤣 good one and me too 👍

Well said.

Hello, how are you doing. I hope you are safe and in good health. Looking for a new friend and i saw your pic here. I hope you don't mind thank you

maybe it was a Spitfire

Most of your Merlin's are made by Packard. All of our ones were made by Rolls Royce. The sounds was almost identical but being English, I'd got for the RR anytime.

During a flypast of a Lancaster with it's 4 Merlin engines the pilot must have realised that they were a bit low as they headed for my house which is slightly higher than the airfield. The pilot must have opened the throttles to gain height but it made the most beautiful sound. Why is it you never have a recorder ready when this happens ?

@@markwestwood9730 Liar !!!! Packard made and shipped 37,137 merlins to the Brits, 3,040 of the built in UK lancaster Mk BIII, and 300 Canadian MkX's used only the Packard built merlins !!!!!

Is that an actual aircraft tachometer? I thought it was awesome too!

It’s out of a Bristol Freighter.

Quite the unique collector pipe for those rear cylinders. Not sure about the clearance because the wing edge is above and behind the engine some 2-3 feet. Anyone know?

@@theophilhist6455 It is described in the Mosquito history books part 1 & 2. They did not all have dualed rear stubs and some only on one side. The argument against it was dualing the stubs last 5-7 mph from the top speed due to the reduction in the 'jet' effect.

@@johnmurrell3175 excellent reasoning...and thanks for recommending the book...I'll check it out

@@theophilhist6455 The books are de Havilland Mosquito an illustrated history Volumes 1 & 2. V1 by Stuart Howe & V2 by Ian Thirsk. I got mine from the de Havilland museum where I first saw the V12 Merlin with 11 exhaust stubs. The Haynes 'Workshop Manual' is quite good as well. I have only seen a Mosquito flying once when it arrived for ther Farnborough Airshow but that was a long time ago. Other than that it's only WW2 cine films - the film of the bouncing bomb tests on the Ashley Range in WW2 are quite interesting. The Mosquito dropped the bomb from such a low level that it had to pull up after release so the bomb did not nit the aircraft after the first bounce !

@@johnmurrell3175 Your knowledge and enthusiasm for this great plane is contagious. Ever since I built a scale model of the plane it has become one of my favorites of all time.

Unfortunately because it doesn't have a prop or flywheel overspeed is a big possibility with to much throttle because although they are a big engine they are very responsive. I was lucky enough to work on and test four merlins which are/were used for the Boscombe down wind tunnel. Here's a link to the layout we also did the fans which were massive 3/4ton steel hubs about 3ft6/4ft across with if I remember correctly 6 blades that ran a matter of mm's away from the interior of the duct tunnel. Got to see it operational when they were environmental testing the Eurofighter Typhoon.

And yes it did sound as good as you could imagine it would.

@@garethwood3474 Wow, Thank you for the info. My son who is an aircraft maintenance engineer will be very interested to hear that.

Just spoke to a workmate who told me the wind tunnel fans actually had ten blades. And here's the link I should have posted www.key.aero/forum/historic-aviation/146793-boscombe-s-blower-tunnel-no-more

And here's an idea of the size of the fan blades. www.amazon.co.uk/photos/share/0zdZpn0qZft03hycZcbAdys6o7BtUFLdcsB75arm60k

Great comment. 🇬🇧👍

The Lancaster, with 4 Merlin’s, flies over my house regularly from mid summer through the labour day air show in Toronto. It flew over quite low a couple of years ago and the sound was deafening. Couldn’t imagine hundreds going by.

Got to agree with you Wave!! 👍

!GG.

good point...didn't seem it went to full throttle

And the throaty growl of that V-12 Merlin..... an utter symphony to the ears of a recip engine lover.

It sure is

@@michaelpeacock6360 I

It sure is. Now attach a Spitfire to it and it’s complete.

@@guaporeturns9472 It has a Mosquito attached to it, so it is just as complete.

Dear Marty T. 👍👌👏 Definitely! Soooo nice meeting you here. Best regards, luck and health to all of you.

Hello David, how are you doing. I hope you are safe and in good health. Looking for a new friend and i saw your pic here. I hope you don't mind thank you

@@allysonhanks9159 Hey Allyson, so sorry to take so long to catch up with you! I'm well, thanks, hope you are too. Of course I don't mind, & you keep safe, okay?

@@photo3642u I understand David, thank you for writing me back. I'm doing well, hope you don’t mind us chatting sometimes to get to know each other, hope to hear from you again soon keep safe as well, kiss..

@@allysonhanks9159 Hi Allyson, of course I don't mind, but I have a question...why did you msg. me in the first place? And, what do you do to make a living? I'm a retired professional life coach, physio, head of marketing for a multi- national co., living in middle England.

Just imagine swapping this into a miata!!

Or the vibrations in their core!

But Better 😜

Certainly not me!

Some climate change/global warming wackadoo 😂😂

How do you even see that?

Greta Thumbbum 😂😂😂😂

The Luftwaffe

tango6nf477 This engine that was run was made in Detroit Michigan USA by PACKARD one of 55,525 built during the war, FYI incase you did not know !!!!

RPM gauge? Also thought those were tachometers.

The primary purpose of a tachometer is to show the revolutions per minute... rpm.

@@eac1235 The second needle would just show the hundreds while the big needle would show the thousands.

'Lovely noise' is an oxymoron. Noise is unwanted sound. This machine makes a nice sound

@@engasal Whatev ... it's a lovely noise that makes a nice sound ... if you were a flyer, you just MIGHT understand ...

@Navy Flyer - I thought your favourite would be ther Sea Mosquito ? Interesting to read about the first landing of a mosquito on an aircraft carrier the pilot Winkie Brown had to land several yards to port of the centre line otherwise the wing tip would have hit the island !

@@johnmurrell3175 I'll have to look into that escapade! I hadn't heard of the Sea Mosquito before. Even larger, the C-130 landed and took off from USS FORRESTAL several times to assess its carrier flying capabilities.

@@kerrynye3752 You should read 'Wings on my Sleeve' by Captain Eric 'Winkle' Brown. That has details of the trials and the modifications for carrier operation as well as lots of other great stories of Navy test flying. The Sea Mosquitos were intended for use in the war in the far east but did not arrive before the war ended. Soon after jet engines ( and the UK invention of the angled flight deck) allowed jet aircraft to operate from carriers and piston engines were consigned to history for Navy aircraft. Turbo props soldiered on in aircraft such as the Gannet but that was driven by endurance rather than speed. The most interesting Mosquito was possibly the 'Tetse' armed with a 6 pounder anti-tank gun. It saw limited service but had dramatic impact on some U boats with the shells going through the pressure hull, bouncing around the engine room before exiting out through the pressure hull on one occasion. Needless to say the U-boat sank.

I recently did a head gasket on a Toyota 2.7 truck engine , 97 Tacoma , and it looks very very similar.

michael actually not, The ALLISON V1710 had a better more modern design in that it used rollers on the rocker shafts, same as the latest high powered engines of today and the ALLISON ran waaay back in the mid 1930 before the Merlin and was a larger, simplar design !!!

The sound of a DB 605 AS. 👊😎🤘

Yawn, void cliché. Particularly in this prt-prt-prt case.

andrewdrabble That Merlin is a PACKARD version made in AMERICA !!!! DUUUUUHHHHH!!!!!

He’s laughing because he’s high from the wizards exhaust lol

@@bthompson1767 yes, that too

There are probably around 500 airworthy and in flying aircraft with near that many spares in various states of readiness. Add to that there may be about 500 being used in display aircraft and museums, and another 500 in various other applications such as drag racing, tractor pulls, boats, and static displays. With 150,000 having been made and at least 20000 left that's a large attrition rate, but there are plenty around and can be purchased for around $40 to $100,000 depending on condition. p.s. I made up all those numbers, but I'm probably not far off on any of them, and the applications noted are accurate.

Thank you. Are you following progress of the Mosquito project on Facebook? Look up the Omaka John Smith Mosquito Project.

Brilliant film Darryl Edington. Paul Mantz who flew the cut up 'aircraft' actually died during filming, the Phoenix crashed, film producers was to cancel everything, but a good friend of the pilot had told him that if he crashes it and dies, tell the producers to finish the film. Watch the horry crash [Not many know of this] ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-n82nN_lqn58.html

@@IanLanc Thanks! I did not know this.

@@OregonDARRYL Shocking footage! :-(