Quote:
Originally Posted by Crumpp
Those are the facts based on the documents you posted. Nowhere does the fantasy notion that the Merlin could run in an overloaded condition for as long as necessary exist. It was limited and it was tough on the engine when it was used. The use of Emergency Power had to be logged, the engine inspected, and upon passing that inspection returned to service.
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At least you've given up on this fantasy notion of a strip inspection after every use.
In the BofB the average fighter never survived past 100 hours. This is not civil aviation and trying to look at the battle, where the average pilot had a high certainty of death (probably 25 - 40% in RAFFC) as the same as a flying a light aircraft under VFR conditions is ludicrous. No pilot gave a damn about the engine on an aircraft - that aircraft existed solely to destroy the enemy and bring the pilot back safely. RAFFC had lots of spare aircraft and spare engines and pilots had no qualms about expending them at a furious pace: RAFFC lost about 2.5 SE aircraft per pilot fatality.
Pilots could and did run engines at 12lb/3000rpm for a long as they needed to, and in the final analysis, no one really cared, as long as it gave them the edge in combat, which was why the RAF changed over to 100 octane fuel.
A Merlin III will run at 12lb/3000rpm until the fuel runs out. Given a sufficiently large sample size, this will result in a modest increase in in-flight engine failures, but fuel consumption considerations will always be uppermost in the pilot's mind given the low endurance of these aircraft, and this will be the primary limiting factor.