No, not the enchanting enchanter of Arthurian legend.
The Merlin Rocket Engine.
American Thinker:
By Steve Feinstein– The SpaceX Demo-2/Dragon spacecraft was successfully launched into space on Saturday May 30, 2020, marking the first-ever collaboration between NASA and a private entity, Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The Falcon 9 booster was comprised of nine SpaceX Merlin rocket engines, which use RP-1 (refined petroleum) and liquid oxygen as propellants to develop the immense thrust necessary for a heavy space-bound launch vehicle.
All the news reports were dutifully filled with superlatives regarding this unprecedented public-private joint venture, and it was indeed a very significant accomplishment. It’s not often that the two normally-opposing spheres of industry come together in such a positive manner. It bodes well for future cooperative ventures, leveraging the best of both approaches.
But, lost in the deservedly congratulatory environment of this auspicious mission was a fascinating piece of trivia: The import and significance of the name “Merlin” as it applied to the Falcon’s engines.
The Merlin engine is well-known in historical aviation circles as the engine that powered the famous British Spitfire fighter plane and gave it such superlative performance. Manufactured by the famed Rolls-Royce company, the Merlin engine (named for a bird of prey, not the mythical wizard) was developed from an earlier Rolls-Royce engine, the Kestrel. (A purchased sample of the Kestrel, in one of history’s all-time great ironies, powered the first prototype of the German Messerschmitt BF-109 fighter plane, the Spitfire’s greatest WWII rival. Operational 109’s were powered by Daimler-Benz engines. Yes, that Benz.) Powering the front-line British fighter planes Hawker Hurricane and the Spitfire, the Merlin soon established a reputation for superb performance, reliability and the ability to sustain considerable battle damage and remain functional. Merlin-powered British fighters fought off German air force attacks in the summer of 1940 (after France had fallen to the Germans), saving Britain from German invasion and buying invaluable time until America entered the war in Europe on Britain’s side. read more
The shaking you see in the video is caused by acoustic coupling in the atmosphere between the engine and the camera and its mount. This should have been allowed for and anticipated.
Then again, this camera may not have been used for data acquisition.
Rocket engines, explosions, hell, venting off gas from pipelines like I work on create levels of noise that do damage all on their own. Most people think rock concerts are loud. When you feel your lungs jumping inside your chest because of external noise, it gives you an insight that we as humans are maybe not all that well constructed. The tenth time you feel that, you start wondering just how smart you really are.
Where’s the coyote?
The only nit I have to pick with the article is the oft-repeated myth that the P-51 had a “laminar-flow” wing. Advanced (for the day) aerodynamics for sure, but the Laminar-flow wing was a bit of wartime hyperbole.
Anyone wanting to get deep into the weeds:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqiG9VHuBbM
Hell, I just thought it was bad ass.
Reminds me of Nancy Pelosi spewing her BS.
Humans are literally the worst.
But every now and then we are awesome
Watch what you say about those Allisons, wise guy. Jeez, all I ever hear is “Merlin, Merlin, Merlin, Mustang, Mustang, Mustang”. Listen, you one-fan pony plane, me and the Allison twins was takin’ it to the Krauts and Japs while you were still on the drawing board.
Minus the thrust, looks like a pulverized coal burner in a boiler when it’s lit.
It would be nice to roast a few protesters with that fucker!
During the lockdown, I’ve had to do all my own cooking.
That’s me every morning.
Merlin’s vs. Allison’s in hydro’s from the late 40’s to the early 70’s. Generally, the Merlin’s outperformed the Allison’s. (Sorry, Thirdtwin.)
But both engines were fricken awesome in those boats with a roar every kid fell in love with. Hydro races were never the same after turbines were introduced. I so miss the sound of them and DC-3’s, 6’s, and 7’s.
I have a friend who flew many missions in F-4s in VN. He had a rich friend who had a stable of WW2 warbirds, one of them a Mustang. He got to fly it and I asked him what it was like. His answer? “*** ,it was like oral sex!”. He had no complaints…