>>Strange how the sound of a RR Merlin can get so many
>people of all different interests to stop talking and just listen.<
Last year at The Gathering (British car show) at Reynolda House in
Winston-Salem, NC, a guy didn't come with a car but a RR Merlin mounted on a
trailer. It had a chromed 4-blade prop cut down so that it could clear the
ground from the trailer. With all the chrome doo-dads he had on the thing,
it was obvious he had spent all his LBC money and then some on that engine
display. It was set up with a fuel tank and engine controls so that he
could start and run it. But he never fired it up at the show. I think the
people in Reynolda House didn't want the "noise". Too bad. There was a
bigger crowd around that Merlin than around any of the cars. He didn't show
up this year.
I used to be the U.S Navy project engineer for the C-131 Convair transport
(although there weren't any based where I worked, so I didn't often get to
see them with engines running). It used two R2800 Twin Wasp radials. Once
at NAS New Orleans when I knew their plane was due in, I drove out to the
field to wait for it just to hear that marvelous sound.
Steve Byers
'73 Midget GAN5UD126009 G
Havelock, NC USA
"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool
than to speak, and remove all doubt" -- Mark Twain
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