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 Holdings Allison is now known as Rolls-Royce Corporation, part of Rolls-Royce North America. In 1999 Rolls-Royce acquired Vickers plc for its marine businesses. The portion retained is now Vinters Engineering Limited. Rolls-Royce sold Vickers Defence Systems (the other major Vickers area of business) to Alvis plc in 2002, which then became Alvis Vickers. Rolls-Royce has established a leading position in the corporate and regional airline sector through the development of the Tay engine, the Allison acquisition and the consolidation of the BMW Rolls-Royce joint venture. In 1999, BMW Rolls-Royce was renamed Rolls-Royce Deutschland and became a 100% owned subsidiary of Rolls-Royce