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The true story, that they are still trying to keep secret, is the British made a mistake with the order. Someone put 170,000 instead of 17,000. By the time the mistake was realised Packard were involved, so designs like the Lancaster, Mosquito and P-51 were ordered to soak up excess Merlin production. I read it somewhere on the net, so its true.I'm pretty sure we all know this and the myth of the 'mericans showing the British how mass production works has been debunk numerous times but alas the rumour still persists.
And the British sausage, don't forget the sausage, we lost an empire but retained our traditional sausage.Stay tuned for true stories of how Packard saved RR.
Meanwhile, Packard built 55,000 production engineered Merlins with gaskets in 4 years
Of course it is true that Packard showed the British how to do it.
The British were using Garden Gnomes to hand fit the pistons and since the Gnomes couldn't reach the shelves where the pistons were kept they had to use ladders. Gnomes carrying heavy pistons up and down ladders was not a good situation and after many falls and injuries RR was facing a Gnome shortage. Packard stepped in showed RR how to install ramps to replace the ladders and another Merlin crisis was averted.
Stay tuned for true stories of how Packard saved RR.
I heard that there was a shoe shortage in Britain during the War years - this might be the cause...You are wrong.
The British struggled to build a few hand-built engines during the day. But when the workers went to bed the elves came out and pumped out thousands.
Come on now, didn't you know RR were using bubble gum to seal their engines, it was packard that introduced them to gaskets.What gaskets?
Pat, did you actually read what he said?....No they weren't, all they could do was put up resistance stopping total air superiority by the enemy, nothing more.
Come on now, didn't you know RR were using bubble gum to seal their engines, it was packard that introduced them to gaskets.
Between that and it's lack of armor and self sealing fuel tanks, it wouldn't have lasted long in Europe.
There were plans to use French Gnomes from Rhone, but they ended in May 1940Is there any secret video of the garden gnomes by day and the elves by night? Has anyone searched you tube? Maybe in the category of "faces" or "model color".
It would have been interesting to see how the Fw190 fared against the A6M in a low-down turning fight.
Throughout 1940?This is a myth. There's no evidence to say the Zero "wouldn't have lasted long" in Europe. Let's not forget that Bf 109s and Spitfires and Hurricanes were flying around Europe without self-sealing tanks and armour plating throughout 1940. Until that experience, no-one had armour plating and self-sealing tanks installed on the production line and besides, the Japanese added these things to the Zero following combat experience, just like everyone else, so that really doesn't apply at all.
Let's not forget that all Horikoshi's subsequent designs had these things.
Throughout 1940?
Its an interesting 'what if'.
The Japanese certainly didn't face radar coordinated interception for much of the early part of the war in the Pacific, did they? And the Hurricanes and Spitfires over the UK would also have other significant advantages they didn't have in the east:
#1 Not being fitted with the Vokes filters which robbed them of performance
#2 Being able to be vectored to interception with height advantage. With the Zero having a Vne of only 370mph and RAF pilots being specifically briefed to ignore escorts and destroy bombers, I suspect in that context, RAF pilots may have learned much more quickly not to dogfight a zero?
#3 Much of the combat taking place at much higher altitude than in the PTO
I think most of that indicates that it would not have been anymore effective opposition than the 109s and 110s.
The nightmare scenario might more believably have been if they'd been used in the Mediterranean the following year. That really might have been the final nail in the coffin for the Royal Navy
There may be a little confusion here. The P-51 radiator was a Meredith radiator but not all Meredith radiators were shaped like the Mustang.could a Meredith radiator be incorporated into the design (since it'd probably be hard to run leading edge radiators on a single seat/single engine fighter's wings)?
Actually that's not correct, they didn't have armour protection during the Battle of France but they all received pilot armour, either off the production line or in retrofit kits before the BoB based on lessons learnt from that battle, we had a very good thread on this subject. Sir Hugh Dowding made sure his pilots were protected and front line Luftwaffe squadrons demanded it fitted to their aircraft.Let's not forget that Bf 109s and Spitfires and Hurricanes were flying around Europe without self-sealing tanks and armour plating throughout 1940.