My dad has met a man whom has two very old, worn, leather-bound books about the design and development of the Crecy engine. These 16" x 10" volumes are the original daily entries regarding that engine. They are all hand-written, and the penmanship is beautiful. The man wants to sell them. Any idea how we can get him in touch with someone (such as a historical society or Spitfire club) whom might want such an historical item? Price is screamin' cheap for what these are. The Crecy was dropped close to the end of the war and its money went toward developing the jet engine. Look up the engine on Wiki-whatever. It is referenced...

I do not have them. A kindly gentleman named Nigel has them. My dad is trying to get in touch with Nigel once again. My dad wanted to buy them outright, at the time of presentation, but passed. Just got an email from him saying he should have bought them, the price was that good. I think, given what they are, they'd be salable at auction for $10,000. Or even more to someone who collects stuff about Spits. I imagine these two books are the ONLY ones there are. Why would Rolls need copies of the books back in 1941-45? Every entry is hand-written. That takes mega time and copying would also be very time-intensive. I expect my dad will buy them if he can find Nigel again. I hope he does...

Only 2,000 horsepower? Seems low, to me. Maybe only because it was an experimental design.  I'd think to scramble and get up there to met Jerry head-on, you'd need 3,500 to 4,000. What was the HP rating of the big radial used in the Jug? How many ponies under the hood had the P-51 at the end of the war? Inquiring minds are too lazy to use google...

expat wrote on Oct 17^th, 2012 at 10:44pm:

That would be the later marks. The Merlin III & Merlin XII fitted to Mark I & II Spitfires during the BoB were 1,030 hp & 1,175 hp respectively.

The P-51D Mustang was powered by the 1,490 hp V-1650-7 Packard Merlin which was basically a licence-built Merlin 66.