The most iconic planes of WWII, the Supermarine Spitfire, Hawker
Hurricane, DeHavilland Mosquito and the Avro Lancaster, were all powered
by one engine, the Rolls-Royce Merlin. The story of the Merlin is one of
British ingenuity at its height, of artistry and problem-solving that
resulted in a war-winning design.
Published to coincide with the 75th anniversary of VE Day and the 80th
anniversary of the start of the Battle of Britain, Merlin is the
extraordinary story of the development of the Rolls-Royce engine that
would stop Hitler from invading Britain and carry the war to the very
heart of Germany.
The story of the Merlin engine encompasses the history of powered
flight, from the ingenuity of the Wright Brothers to the horrors of
World War I, and from the first crossing of the Atlantic to the heady
days of flying in the 1920s. There is also the extraordinary story of
the Schneider Trophy - an international contest wherein nations poised
on the precipice of war competed for engineering excellence in the name
of progress.
And at the heart of this story are the glamourous lives of the pilots,
many of whom died in their pursuit of speed; the engineers, like Henry
Royce of Rolls-Royce, who sketched the engine that would win WWII in the
sand of his local beach; and perhaps most importantly the Lady Lucy
Houston who after the Wall Street Crash singlehandedly funded the
development of the engine and the iconic Spitfire.
Never was so much owed by so many to so few - and without the
Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, the few would have been powerless.
