A Review of the Construction of All Current Types : Recent Improvements : Some Noteworthy New Units

URING a period of rapid expansion and rearmament, with competition between home manufacturers and with other countries at its keenest, it is to be expected that twelve months would show great advances in British aero engine design, production and efficiency. Outstanding in the year's engine news were the introduction and type-testing of the Bristol -Hercules sleeve-valve two-row radial and the arrival in full production of the glycol-cooled vee-twelve Rolls-Royce Merlin II. Two-speed superchargers made their first appearance on production engines on the Armstrong Siddeley Tiger VIII and the Bristol Pegasus XVIII. Another unit which is to incorporate two-speed supercharging is the twenty-four cylinder Napier Dagger E108. In the smaller field an important announcement which is well worthy of mention was the raising of the period between overhauls to 1,000 hours in the case of the de Havilland Gipsy Major I. A v.p. version of the engine known as the Major II has been introduced. New versions ot several existing engines have appeared with provision for v.p. airscrew operation. The many additional auxiliary drives needed on the nigher-powered engines has resulted in rearrangement of accessories in many cases. A four-figure power output has been attained in several cases and even surpassed, and all indications P|nt toward the use of more than one engine and to still higher powers, 1,500 or 2,000 h.p. being the present
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be complete without a mention of the five shadow factories in the Midlands which are now producing in units large numbers of Bristol Mercury VIII engines. A1V/S
HTHE first Alvis engine to be completed, the 1,000 h.p. * Pelides, appeared in April of this year, and by the addition, at about the same time, of the fully supercharged Maeonides, rated at 680 h.p., it became the middle-powered unit of the Alvis range. The Maeonides Major (" Major "

brief review of the year's developments would not

l h e nl * eighteen-cylinder radial listed in this country, we Alms Alcides has a capacity of 54J litres. {Flight photograph.)