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Old January 22nd 04, 06:31 PM
Ken Duffey
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The Raven wrote:

"Keith Willshaw" wrote in message
...

"The Raven" wrote in message
...
Can anyone tell me how similar these engines were to the Merlin? I know

they
were a derivative but being intended for ground use may be so totally
different as to be useless for any aviation application.


I think thats probably true, they certainly didnt have the supercharger
fit the aero engine had


Absolutely. I saw one up close (on a stand) but they weren't starting it at
the time. Hard to recognise it as an aero engine in caterpillar yellow.


Why do I ask? An acquaintance has just acquired a complete Meteor engine

and
is looking to sell it off. I don't believe he wants to profit from it

beyond
recovering costs. If the engine is valueless or he can't find a buyer

there
is a possibility (slim) it may be scrapped. However, it would be better

if
someone would purchase the engine and put it back into one of it's

intended
applications.

If anyone is interested in the engine, even for parts, please post a
response here and I will pass it on to him.

For those interested, the engine is in Canada (despite me being in
Australia).


There is almost certainly a market for it, there are a number of
Centurions owned by collectors

see http://www.milweb.net/go/select/sales.htm


Thanks, will look into it. Hopefully someone in Canada is interested.

--
The Raven
http://www.80scartoons.co.uk/batfinkquote.mp3
** President of the ozemail.* and uunet.* NG's
** since August 15th 2000.


Just an aside..............

I used to work for the UK MOD as a Civil Servant - one job I had was in NATO
Codification - the allocation of parts numbers to NATO Stock items.

We were told the story about the reasons behind the drive to standardise
parts/stock numbers between the NATO allies - and even between the UK Services.

In the olden days if a Royal Navy Landrover broke down or had a puncture outside
an Army barracks - it could not get spare parts at the Army stores - the part
numbering systems were completely different!!

The Army landrover rode on Tubes, Inner & Covers, Outer, the RN landrover
probably just had Tires and Inner Tubes!!!

Meanwhile - back at RR Meteor/Merlins.........

Apparently during the Korean war a USAF Sqn of P-51's were grounded due to a
shortage of spare parts for their Packard Merlins.

Over the next hill was an Australian army tank battalion - equipped with British
Centurion tanks.

The Centurions had RR Meteor engines - and if they had only had a common parts
nomenclature/numbering system, the Aussie could have supplied the Yanks with
parts!

It is probably an apocryphal story - and certainly exagerated, but a good one
nonetheless.

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Ken Duffey - Flanker Freak & Russian Aviation Enthusiast
Flankers Website - http://www.flankers.co.uk/
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