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 B range engines many Rolls-Royce B range engines are still in use. Rolls-Royce B range engines The Rolls-Royce B range was a range of petrol engines first intended to be installed in a car but in 1943 developed into a range to power the British Army's wheeled vehicles. The Alvis Saladin and Rolls-Royce Phantom IV were fitted with 8-cylinder versions. The B range of engines were all of the inline configuration, with crossflow inlet-over-exhaust cylinder heads and were naturally aspirated. They were heavily rationalized engines, which made use of as many common parts across the range as possible, for example, the 8 cylinder