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Merlin: The Story of the Engine That Won the Battle of Britain and WWII
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.
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.
332 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 9, 2020
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61 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 10, 2020
Knowing from personal experience how much work goes into trying to ensure all of one's facts are rock solid, I am simply gobsmacked by the amount of research which has gone into this splendid book.
Without diminishing the depth and quality of the author’s research, he was onto a winner as soon as cursor touched screen, since his writing style is so instantly accessible. "Merlin" could have so easily descended into a fairly dreary collation of technical and historical facts, but the ways in which he has woven details of the evolution of the Merlin engine, the personnel involved, geographical descriptions, historic war-time accounts and THE most delightful collection of anecdotes means that the narrative fairly races along. I read the whole in two sittings, resenting the need to put it down in favour of feeding the inner man or answering calls of nature.
I have come away believing I have learned so much about so much, and still enjoying belly-laughs for such as his description of Lady Lucy Houston working her way through Debrett's Peerage for prospective husbands.
“Merlin” will appeal regardless of whether readers have special interests in aircraft, wartime accounts or social history, and is a welcome addition to the plethora of books written on war-time themes. A salute to Graham Hoyland!
Without diminishing the depth and quality of the author’s research, he was onto a winner as soon as cursor touched screen, since his writing style is so instantly accessible. "Merlin" could have so easily descended into a fairly dreary collation of technical and historical facts, but the ways in which he has woven details of the evolution of the Merlin engine, the personnel involved, geographical descriptions, historic war-time accounts and THE most delightful collection of anecdotes means that the narrative fairly races along. I read the whole in two sittings, resenting the need to put it down in favour of feeding the inner man or answering calls of nature.
I have come away believing I have learned so much about so much, and still enjoying belly-laughs for such as his description of Lady Lucy Houston working her way through Debrett's Peerage for prospective husbands.
“Merlin” will appeal regardless of whether readers have special interests in aircraft, wartime accounts or social history, and is a welcome addition to the plethora of books written on war-time themes. A salute to Graham Hoyland!
July 17, 2024
A book for an extremely specific audience. Luckily that's me! I've read several books about the development history of the spitfire but none examined the merlin engine, a crucial component, in much detail. This book plugs that knowledge gap. Taufht me all sorts of design trivia such as what rotol is in the context of propeller pitch and how design decisions on how the engineers managed to get more power out of the same frame, such as by using superchargers.
Unfortunately the book came with some downsides. The first is that the author isn't the most skilled at effortlessly making his point. He often goes off on irrelevant trivial tangents that seem to cater for the grandpa audience. He also has a strong "kids these days don't know they're born" attitude which grates after the first time. My last complaint is that he starts the history too early, with otto lilienthal and unpowered flight! Then the wright flyers, a detour into early rolls royce cars, and then finally onto the interwar years with the schneider trophy and the actual origin of the spitfire engine. I suppose parts of this history of aero engines is informative but he really doesn't make clear why it is, you just kind of work out the links yourself.
Unfortunately the book came with some downsides. The first is that the author isn't the most skilled at effortlessly making his point. He often goes off on irrelevant trivial tangents that seem to cater for the grandpa audience. He also has a strong "kids these days don't know they're born" attitude which grates after the first time. My last complaint is that he starts the history too early, with otto lilienthal and unpowered flight! Then the wright flyers, a detour into early rolls royce cars, and then finally onto the interwar years with the schneider trophy and the actual origin of the spitfire engine. I suppose parts of this history of aero engines is informative but he really doesn't make clear why it is, you just kind of work out the links yourself.
February 2, 2021
Graham Hoyland has written a tremendously enjoyable narrative around the development of the Rolls Royce Merlin engine (a 27 litre supercharged monster) - the crankshaft starts as a 500lb chrome moly steel forging, machined by hand, heat treated and nitride hardened. Continuous improvement means a large number of models sprung from the original - the supercharging was steadily improved, going to two stages with intercooling to get more and more power.
Graham introduces a lot of interesting side notes (except they do not appear as side notes, they are cleverly woven into the whole story) eg, speaking about the Battle of Britain (June 1940):
The RAF fielded 754 single seat fighters and 149 two seat fighters. Horsepower was crucially important to the British, both to climb up to meet the incoming bombers and to evade the protecting fighters. This where the RR Merlin excelled. By using the newly introduced 100 octane fuel, the supercharger boost could be increased from 6 and 1/4 psi to 12 psi for five minutes, giving a max combat power of 1,310 hp at 9000 feet. The pilot pushed aside an emergency boost override top at the end of the throttle and used everything the Merlin could give for five minutes. Any longer than this would risk overheating of crucial components such as exhaust valves and piston crowns, but plenty of pilots during interceptions just rammed through the boost override and let the engine take its chance, a practice the Merlin engine took remarkably well.
Significantly, the German pilots were not allowed to override their boost controls with impunity. Examination of downed German aircraft revealed that clockwork devices were attached to the throttles of some aircraft which only allowed a three or four minute period of full boost. It then cut out and prevented re-engagement until a further two or three minutes had passed. This may have saved overstressing the engine, but left the pilot vulnerable to British fighters whose access to full boost was left to the discretion of the pilot. Once this information was passed the the RAF squadrons, they could seek opportunities of forcing the enemy to use full power and wait for the cut-out period. They could then pounce.
Starting with early attempts at flight and early attempts at the internal combustion engine. Charles Manly made a jewel of a 9 litre 5 cylinder engine which was put into Professor Langley's "Aerodrome" aircraft - an altogether imperfect plane with no control surfaces as such and very weak structure - tried to fly in Oct 1903, and flopped - Dec 1903 Wilbur and Orville Wright conducted successful flights near Kitty Hawk, NC. Sideline about the politics of the Arab revolt and T E Laurence and "Squadron number 2 of Rolls Royces (boilerplate armoured, with rotating gun turret fitted) sent to Egypt" and how incredibly sturdy the cars were in the desert (the "40/50" engine used here was the basis of the first RR aero engine) - with Rolls's account of a desert race between two RRs when they reach nearly 70mph, not bad for four tons of boilerplate and only 80hp. The engines were paragons of reliability and power.
Much interesting detail about the elliptical winged Spitfire (inner wing set at higher angle of attack than at the outer, meaning stalling started at the wing root rather than the tip, giving the pilot early warning of a stall), the de Havilland Mosquito (largely made of wood, light and hugely maneuverable), the Avro Manchester (a disaster, underpowered with the RR Vulcan which was prone to throwing con rods), the four (Merlin) engined Avro Lancaster (a beauty of a plane, relatively easy to control, fast and maneuverable.
Graham introduces a lot of interesting side notes (except they do not appear as side notes, they are cleverly woven into the whole story) eg, speaking about the Battle of Britain (June 1940):
The RAF fielded 754 single seat fighters and 149 two seat fighters. Horsepower was crucially important to the British, both to climb up to meet the incoming bombers and to evade the protecting fighters. This where the RR Merlin excelled. By using the newly introduced 100 octane fuel, the supercharger boost could be increased from 6 and 1/4 psi to 12 psi for five minutes, giving a max combat power of 1,310 hp at 9000 feet. The pilot pushed aside an emergency boost override top at the end of the throttle and used everything the Merlin could give for five minutes. Any longer than this would risk overheating of crucial components such as exhaust valves and piston crowns, but plenty of pilots during interceptions just rammed through the boost override and let the engine take its chance, a practice the Merlin engine took remarkably well.
Significantly, the German pilots were not allowed to override their boost controls with impunity. Examination of downed German aircraft revealed that clockwork devices were attached to the throttles of some aircraft which only allowed a three or four minute period of full boost. It then cut out and prevented re-engagement until a further two or three minutes had passed. This may have saved overstressing the engine, but left the pilot vulnerable to British fighters whose access to full boost was left to the discretion of the pilot. Once this information was passed the the RAF squadrons, they could seek opportunities of forcing the enemy to use full power and wait for the cut-out period. They could then pounce.
Starting with early attempts at flight and early attempts at the internal combustion engine. Charles Manly made a jewel of a 9 litre 5 cylinder engine which was put into Professor Langley's "Aerodrome" aircraft - an altogether imperfect plane with no control surfaces as such and very weak structure - tried to fly in Oct 1903, and flopped - Dec 1903 Wilbur and Orville Wright conducted successful flights near Kitty Hawk, NC. Sideline about the politics of the Arab revolt and T E Laurence and "Squadron number 2 of Rolls Royces (boilerplate armoured, with rotating gun turret fitted) sent to Egypt" and how incredibly sturdy the cars were in the desert (the "40/50" engine used here was the basis of the first RR aero engine) - with Rolls's account of a desert race between two RRs when they reach nearly 70mph, not bad for four tons of boilerplate and only 80hp. The engines were paragons of reliability and power.
Much interesting detail about the elliptical winged Spitfire (inner wing set at higher angle of attack than at the outer, meaning stalling started at the wing root rather than the tip, giving the pilot early warning of a stall), the de Havilland Mosquito (largely made of wood, light and hugely maneuverable), the Avro Manchester (a disaster, underpowered with the RR Vulcan which was prone to throwing con rods), the four (Merlin) engined Avro Lancaster (a beauty of a plane, relatively easy to control, fast and maneuverable.
March 6, 2022
I received this book as a gift and knew nothing about it. I expected it to focus on the technical aspects of the Merlin engine’s history, development and use in service. I was delighted to find it also explored the early history of aviation and aircraft engine development, the personal histories of the many people associated with the Merlin, and the economic and social changes of the early 20th century in the UK. You can’t tell a good technical history without telling the stories of those behind it, and Graham Hoyland does a brilliant job throughout. Relatively little of the book is spent on the Merlin’s wartime service, and it’s not missed given it’s been well documented over the past 80 years. Hoyland does make a few factual errors, such as propagating the Battle of Britain myth of the Hurricanes taking on German bombers while Spitfires dealt with the fighters, but none are egregious. He also recounts Beatrice Shilling’s famous carburretor modification and denounces the popular “vulgar epithet” it’s known by. Overall, this is a splendid read, highly recommended for fans of aviation history and gearheads.
July 21, 2021
Mercurial, often hilariously funny, a pot boiler of all the interesting things he could find about the history of the engine. Not a technical book but techie enough to satisfy the need to understand why it did what it did.
June 1, 2024
A thorough and well-written account of the people and story developing and deploying the Merlin, and the planes it went into. It doesn't go into too much technical depth or too much detail about all the different versions of the engine, it's more about the story of getting it done, for better or worse. It meanders a bit, especially in the beginning; I didn't feel I needed so much information about Rolls-Royce early car engine efforts.
September 3, 2024
Very enjoyable read. While those who get this book either as a gift or themselves will have an interest in either ww2 aviation or engineering or social history nobody should be put off. It’s a really accessible easy to follow read and has broad appeal. Definitely would recommend
August 7, 2025
A really good read for any enthusiast. Personally a little too techy for me but I’m sure others will love it. Loved the tongue in cheek style of writing and fun facts such as where the Peugeot 0 series model numbering came from.
September 30, 2024
Detailed book on the Merlin engine, it's beginnings and evolution. Some good examples of English humor. Quite a technical book though.
December 25, 2024
A superb read. Fitting for an icon of British Industry.
August 16, 2025
This is a book that often goes into a lot of techie engineering detail about the workings of engines - detail that I often couldn't follow. However, that's not the author's fault, it's mine for possibly biting off more than I could chew. The real target audience would no doubt love these bits.
It's a lot more than descriptions of engines, though, it's a human story about ingenuity and know how. And I got enough of the gist of the techie bits to get an appreciation of what a fabulous piece of engineering the Merlin engine was and what humans can achieve when they put their minds to it.
It's a lot more than descriptions of engines, though, it's a human story about ingenuity and know how. And I got enough of the gist of the techie bits to get an appreciation of what a fabulous piece of engineering the Merlin engine was and what humans can achieve when they put their minds to it.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews