8 Merlins

[dave524]

I see you fellows like old warbirds

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f12/dltclt/Dave/3100_10153836555661280_4837484552636363326_n_zpsnn cgqss9.jpg

[DougGuy]

A piston engined choir singing to the heavens!

[Blackwater]

Can any of us today even conceive of what it must have looked like seeing a big flight of these coming overhead to the Germans? I've seen one real beach landing exercise on the sea, and it was so intimidating it was a shock, the first time you came over a dune and saw all those ships out there and those small boats heading toward shore! To see many of those in the air, coming right at you, HAD to make a Christian out of even the most devout athiests! The scale of some of those air attacks was unprecedented and unrepeated, I think. My best buddy's dad was in the 8th Air Force, and prior to that flew with the Eagle Squadron in England before the US finally got into the war. My old doc in my earlier life was a tail gunner on a B-25. So many, many of those great men I grew up among were vets of just about everything in that war. Went to the big USAF bone yard once and saw a B-36, I think it is, with the 8 rear facing engines? What a plane! The B-25's and B-17's were the real workhorses, IIRC (?). It's amazing what those old planes and men both went through, achieved, and survived. One of the most truly touching movies to come out in a very long time was "Memphis Belle." Who could not be moved by that movie? I salute all those great old fliers and men who maintained the machines on the ground, plotted and directed them, etc. It took all of them to win that damnable war, and on many occasions, we almost missed doing that.

Some things in history one just has to kind'a gawk at because there's really no means of fully understanding of the real scope of what those old engines, planes and men went through, just so we could be here today in this etherous world. Awfully humbling!

[Mytmousemalibu]

I don't have blood, I have AvGas, Aeroshell, 5606, and Jet-A coursing through my veins!

I love a cranky old radial firing up, the purr of a big V-12 and the smoke and thunder of old turbojets!

[dave524]

This video has all ten

http://rnzaf.proboards.com/thread/20363/merlins-warplane-heritage-hamilton-airshow

[Echo]

There is no mistaking the voice of a Merlin. One time I was in my backyard doing something - and heard a Merlin! Looked up, and it was a P-51 serenading overhead. I believe Packard built more Merlins than did Rolls - I know the mechanics would rather work on a Packard Merlin than a Rolls - on the Rolls, everything had to be hand-fitted. On the Packard, just bolt the rascal on and go flying! And I believe most Lancasters flew with Packard Merlins...

[Artful]

Excellent!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceuU1UQuwVU

[Col4570]

http://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=A7x9Un2P8UdXxlcAlAp3Bwx.;_ylu=X3oDMTBydWpobjZ lBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMQRjb2xvA2lyMgR2dGlkAw--/RV=2/RE=1464361487/RO=10/RU=http%3a%2f%2fwww.stokemuseums.org.uk%2fblog%2fv isit-rolls-royce%2f/RK=0/RS=n4QKc4HWzeU00OJLV8LtLv_FaFc-

[Plate plinker]

I was lucky growing up as a child we lived near a small airport where the old warhorses would stage from for airshows. Those old birds would really roar.