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Alan K | all galleries >> Western Australia >> 2013 Day 01: Perth and Bull Creek, Western Australia (Sat 03 Aug 2013) > 130803_135003_30361 Meet Merlin. Lancaster B.VII (Sat 03 Aug 13)
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03-Aug-2013 AKMC

130803_135003_30361 Meet Merlin. Lancaster B.VII (Sat 03 Aug 13)

RAAF Association of WA Museum, Bull Creek, Western Australia

An airframe by itself is no good without engines. In the case of the Lancaster (and many other front line British aircraft) that engine was some variant of the Rolls Royce Merlin. (Note: The name did not come from the magician from the legends of King Arthur as many think. A Merlin is also a small species of falcon found in North America and Eurasia. Most Rolls Royce engines of the time used a birds of prey naming convention.)

The Merlin was a V12 piston engine. It had a capacity of 27 litres (1,650 cu in), and was liquid cooled.

Here, we see the cowling off which allows us to get at least a partial glimpse inside the workings of the engine.

As I mentioned in a previous image this is actually a Lancaster Mk VII which is impersonating a Lancaster Mk I. The real Lancaster Is generally used the Merlin XX engine which produced 954 kW (1280hp) at 3,000 RPM. (Some used the 22 model.)

A Lancaster VII, however, used a Merlin 24, which generated 1,201 kW (1,610 hp) at 3,000 RPM. Presumably this is the latter model, though it's academic since this Lanc is unlikely to be flying anywhere soon.

Both types, as far as I have been able to determine, used a 3 blade De Haviland variable pitch, constant speed propeller as shown here.

(A constant speed propeller automatically changes its blade pitch (roughly the angle between the blade and the rotation of the propeller) to allow it to maintain constant revs per minute regardless of engine torque, airspeed or altitude. It makes for more efficient flying.)

Addendum: My personal opinion is that Facebook is a sociopathic organisation that steals other peoples' intellectual property (including the images in this gallery) despite being explicitly denied permission to do so.

Canon EOS 40D ,Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM
1/10s f/8.0 at 28.0mm iso640 hide exif
Full EXIF Info
Date/Time03-Aug-2013 13:50:03
MakeCanon
ModelCanon EOS 40D
Flash UsedNo
Focal Length28 mm
Exposure Time1/10 sec
Aperturef/8
ISO Equivalent640
Exposure Bias-0.67
White Balance0
Metering Modematrix (5)
JPEG Quality (5)
Exposure Programaperture priority (3)
Focus Distance2.720 m

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