Hello all:  

Quick question:
Does anyone know if the Merlin engine in the Spitfires, Hurricanes, Lancasters, Halifaxes etc....were ever fuel injected.
I believe that in 1939 they all had carburetors and were prone to cutting out doing certain manoeuvers.
If the Spitfire did receive a fuel injection engine was it the Merlin and what year and model of aircraft.

Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug

This resulted from a decision by a committee of The Society of British Aircraft Constructors to aim for a "universal powerplant". The rationale was that any aircraft with a powerplant of around 2000HP should be able to have virtually any available comparable engine replaced should the original fail. Consequently direction of rotation of the Griffon had to change to match the engines of Bristol, Napier and Armstrong-Siddley (the Merlin, which was in widespread use at that time, especially by the USA- whose aero engines all turned the same way as the Merlin- stayed as it was).

Doug trust me NO FUEL INJECTION ON MERLINS!!!! Dr. Oz knows about these things being slightly Merlin-Mad 8) 8) 8)

Both Felix as the 266 (Packard Merlin) was just a variation of the RR 66

Induction:

A Bendix Stromberg PD18 injection carburetor is used on the V-1650-9 engine.  This double-barrel twin-boost venturi carburetor has an air metering unit consisting of the two throat throttle body with boosted venturies, a fuel metering unit consisting of a regulator which provides a fuel head proportional to air flow and metering jets which provide fuel flow proportional to fuel head (and thus airflow), and an injection nozzle which directs the discharge of fuel into the eye of the supercharger and provides a reference metering pressure for the fuel metering unit.  The system includes and accelerator pump to provide fuel during momentary interruptions as power settings are changed, an automatic mixture control which adjusts the airflow metering signal to compensate for temperature and altitude, a manual mixture control which changes jet selections and bypasses the automatic mixture control, an automatic fuel enrichment valve to increase fuel flow under high demand, and an ADI derichment valve which leans the mixture when a pressure signal is applied to the valve.

Fuel pressure is from an engine driven eccentric-vane type pump with an integral pressure regulator.  An electric boost pump of the same type provides initial priming and for racing applications runs while the engine is on.

V-1650-23 XP-82/P-82/B 1520/3000/SL
1600/3000/24,000 Similar to -11 except fitted with PD (Bendix Injection) carburetor in place of SD (speed density) carburetor
V-1650-25 P-82B/XP-82 1490/3000/SL
1470/3000/23,000 Similar to -21 except fitted with PD carburetor instead of SD unit

Merlin 60 series

First Merlins with two-speed, two-stage supercharger and intercooling. Packard produced engines for US aircraft designated V-1650-3 (similar to Merlin 63) and V-1650-7 (..Merlin 66). Packard engines for Commonwealth use designated Merlin 69 and Merlin 266. Major variants include Merlin 61, Merlin 63, Merlin 64, and Merlin 66.