By Peter Grieve
Merlin XX engine, No 26071, built at the Rolls-Royce Hillington plant in Glasgow in March 1941. Fitted to Bristol Beaufighter IIF, serial No R2335 and served with the Fighter Interception Unit at Ford Airfield, West Sussex during 1941. Please scroll down the page for further information about this unusual aircraft and its engine.
Below, the engine as purchased, along with the sister engine, 25985, at Narborough, Norfolk in 1992.
Below is a photo of the same engine from a similar position taken in 2007, the engine was restored by replacing the badly damaged castings, repairing any minor damage to the rest by welding, which included using the original cylinder blocks and all the internal running gear, which had not suffered much corrosion damage. She has been running regularly at shows since 2001 and at the start of 2009 has 120 hours running since rebuild, consisting of short runs of between 10 and 15 minutes, although will happily run continuously if required, the fuel tank will just about give 20 minutes running from its 12 gallon capacity! |




