The Merlin Engine

[Viper2000]

Brilliant!

However, IMO the most impressive part of the whole business was the fact that Royce and co were able to just draw the thing in the first place. Once you've got drawing to work from, building an engine is a process.

But the creative task of inventing and engine and then converting that idea into a set of drawings which men could build is almost magical. So I would argue that its the absence of CAD rather than the absence of CAM that really sets apart the engineering process of the past from that of the present.

In the case of the Merlin, it's all the more impressive when you consider that Royce was not in the best of health, and made most of his drawings whilst convalescing far from Derby.