J

FLIGHT.

DECEMBER

2, 1937.

From front and rear aspects the Merlin II resembles the Kestrel XVI. Details which are clearly seen are the large double-entry up-draught carburettor and the automatic boost control. external oil pipes, the pumps and Auto-Klean filter forming a detachable unit. The Series II Gipsy Six was introduced in order t h a t a higher continuous output and better take-off power should be possible. The compression ratio is 6 : 1 compared with 5 J : 1 for the Series I Six. Unfortunately, the Gipsy Twelve, which was announced last year, is still in experimental form, and, beyond the fact t h a t it is a geared, supercharged, inverted vee engine of about 18 litres capacity, and that it has, in effect, two Gipsy Six blocks, no. information is available. An interesting air-cooling system, evolved for the Gipsy Twelve, is used in the installations of the engine in the De Havilland Don and Albatross. A note on the system is included in the article, "Aero-enginesTo-day and Tomorrow," in this issue. (The De Havilland Aircraft Co., Ltd., Hatfield, Herts.) for the Rapier, but the Daggers have two overhead and two underhead camshafts which are driven from a wheelcase behind the crankcase. A clever device incorporating a plunger with oil under pressure maintains a correct tappet clearance on the Daggers. An" extension of the airscrew shaft drives the supercharger fan through layshafts. and special spur gears. The drive is balanced by a differential gear and the impeller

NAPIER
this country we have accustomed to the INadvanced design of thenow grownDagger and Rapier, Napier although they still have no counterpart in production in other countries. The " H " formation permits a very small frontal area, and the large number of small cylinders produces almost turbine smoothness. I n arrangement the Napier engines may be regarded as two eight- or twelve-cylinder horizontally opposed units with crankshafts directly geared together in front. This gearing of the twin crankshafts takes the place of a reduction gear (a drawing appears in this review). Recently the smaller sixteen-cylinder engine, the fully supercharged Rapier V, has been installed in Mercury, the upper component of the Short Mayo aircraft, and a moderately supercharged version of the same engine, the Rapier VI, in the Fairey Sea Fox. The twenty-four cylinder Dagger I I I powers the two-seater Hawker Hector for army co-operation. Two of the newly developed Dagger E.io8s are t o be installed in a new version of the Handley-Page Hampden. Forked connecting-rods carry the opposed pistons on the engines, and the crankshafts have hollow journals with lead-bronze bearings. Push-rod-operated valves are used

A unit-construction in-line twin, this two-stroke Scott is the smallest aero engine at present on the British market.