Rolls-Royce Merlin Rolls-Royce Merlin The Rolls-Royce Merlin is a British liquid-cooled V-12 piston aero engine of 27-litres (1,650 cu in) capacity. Rolls-Royce designed the engine and first ran it in 1933 as a private venture. Initially known as the PV-12, it was later called "Merlin" following the company convention of naming its piston aero engines after birds of prey. After several modifications, the first production variants of the PV-12 were completed in 1936. The first operational aircraft to enter service using the Merlin were the Fairey Battle, Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire. The Merlin remains most closely associated with the Spitfire and
Rolls-Royce Trent April 1996. Initially Rolls-Royce had difficulty selling the engine; British Airways, traditionally a Rolls-Royce customer, submitted a large order for the competing General Electric GE90 engine. The breakthrough came when it won orders from Singapore Airlines, a staunch Pratt & Whitney customer, for its 34 Boeing 777s. The Trent 800 has a 41% share of the engine market on the 777 variants for which it is available. In 1998 Boeing proposed new longer range variants of the 777. Taking advantage of the Trent 800's growth capability, Rolls-Royce designed and built an improved engine designated "Trent 8104", which was later scaled