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The Griffon I was seriously overweight and had to be extensively redesigned. The Griffon II was really a different engine.A detuned R was tested by Rolls-Royce as the Griffon I in around 1933.
The Buzzard, on which the R was based, had 800hp and weighed about 1,150lb.
The R of 1931 had around 2,500hp and weighed about 1,650lb. Albeit a lot of that was the huge supercharger.
I'm not sure how much power a Griffon I could have done. Perhaps 1,500hp for 1,500lb.
The Griffon I was seriously overweight and had to be extensively redesigned. The Griffon II wasreally adifferent engine.
The mystery to me is why was the Merlin started with its bore and stroke, and not Griffon sized to start with?
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I'm not sure how much power a Griffon I could have done. Perhaps 1,500hp for 1,500lb.
A P-51 may struggle to get to Berlin and back with a Griffon.
For sake of discussion, let's say that early big engine makes 1250 HP at @ 2600 rpm 15000 ft, 87 oct fuel, 1500 lbs dry weight. How this might influence the design of the Battle, Hurricane or Spitfire? Performance of the fighters should be improved by a good margin?
What about licence production in other countries, once the UK production is under way? Germans and French look at their engines and go "damn"?
This doesn't quite get you a Griffon II of WW II early. You are almost 300lbs too light. It also rather ignores the trial and tribulations the Merin went through, like the ramp head excursion and other problems. You might well be able to make a 1250hp engine that weighs 1500lbs but when you push for the 1700-2000hp versions things may start to break or at least wear out quickly. RR was able to use everything they learned with the Merlin over 4-5 years on the "new" Griffon engine.
In this scenario, RR from mid-30s to early 1940s have just one powerful engine to perfect, not two.
They could have both, can the Exe and the Vulture
Both demonstrate, however, the technical complexities thought to be needed to get maximum power from the available fuel of the time. As fuel got better and higher boost could be used to get more power from smaller (or less complicated) engines the interest in such engines faded, only to come back again as fuel limits began to be reached once again. RR Eagle 46 liter 24 cylinder sleeve valve, Sabre on steroids.
Or, in other words, RR de-tunes & modifies 'R' engine in early 1930s so it can be produced in series, for military aircraft mostly. For the sake of discussion, they do this instead of designing the Merlin. How much the RAF can gain with this? What is likely to change in aiframe design of future fighters and bombers? Expected performance of engine on 77, 87 and early 100 oct fuel?
I think the Spitfire XIV was a brutal fighter, but the tiny numbers produced tend to suggest it was also not really a necessity
If the war had gone on further we all know that Griffon Mustangs and Mosquitos were planned
I was purposely conservative on what kind of power the early big engine will make, not just in order to make the scenario realistic (at least the 'what if' kind of realistic). The 1250 HP at 15000 ft will mean 1400-1500 HP down low with 100 oct fuel and/or 2-speed S/C. Please note that I've never mentioned Griffon II here.
In this scenario, RR from mid-30s to early 1940s have just one powerful engine to perfect, not two.