Rolls-Royce Limited its unreliable Rolls-Royce Vulture engines), Vickers Wellington (twin-engine); it also transformed the American North American P-51 Mustang into a competitor for the best fighter of its time, its engine a Merlin engine built by Packard under licence. Over 160,000 Merlin engines were produced, including over 30,000 by the Ford Motor Company at Trafford Park, Manchester. During the war most Rolls-Royce flight testing of engines was carried out from Hucknall Aerodrome. The Merlin crossed over into military land-vehicle use as the Meteor powering the Centurion tank among others. Many Meteor engines used engine blocks and parts that failed requirements for high
Rolls-Royce RB162 change from vertical to horizontal installation. With the RB162 fitted the Trident 3B had a 15% increase in thrust over the earlier variants for an engine weight penalty of only 5%. A design study for a turbofan version of the RB162 was designated RB175. Another projected derivative, the RB181 was to be a scaled-down version of the RB162 producing approximately 2,000 lbs of thrust. Seven of these lift engines were to power the unbuilt Lockheed/Short Brothers CL-704 VTOL variant of the F-104 Starfighter. Rolls-Royce RB162 The Rolls-Royce RB162 was a simply constructed and lightweight British turbojet engine produced by Rolls-Royce