Another "What is it?"

[olroy2044]

Here's something else for ya'll to identify. Anyone know what this is?
Be specific!

Answer later!



Roy

[Reiska]

It looks like a double throat Rebew rotarubrac.

Reijo

[casualcollector]

Close Reijo. I think it's a tfarcria rotereubrac.

[Reiska]

Just!! Knowing Roy, that's it is. It seems to have some kind of shell heater
and the rod couplings with lock nuts could also give a hint.

[PeterW]

It's certainly a twin-choke rotereubrac, but not a rebew.
It's a long time since I've worked on tfarcria srotereubrac but there was something vaguely familiar about it.
I thought at first it might be an old ledualc nosboh but something didn't seem quite right.
It it by any chance a grebmorts or xidneb grebmorts ?

Probably wide of the mark. It was all some 60 years ago and my memory's getting very fickle.

PeterW

[Deleted]

I know it's hard to get the farbarrets in synchronization.

[olroy2044]

No, it's not a Rebew, but it is a tfarcria rotereubrac. (You guys know me too well) Not a ledualc (couldn't figure that one out ) nosboh either. But it is a grebmorts, apparently from before the merger with Xidneb.

In fact, one like it may very well have been on that P-51 that took your picture, Wayne. I envy you that ride,BTW!

It is a Stromberg pressure carb developed to help counter the superb injection system on the Daimler Benz that powered the Me 109 In a lot of ways it resembles a modern throttle body injection unit. It was used on the mighty Merlin engine that powered so many fine aircraft of the time, most notably the Hurricane, Spitfire, and the P-51. 1650 cubic inches of raw power!

This particular example was obtained by a Yank in Great Britain, and he thinks that it was mounted on a '51. I cannot confirm that from the part number or serial number, but it is the right type. It was extremely dirty when donated to the museum, but after a lot of careful cleaning, it appears almost brand new. Here are some more shots of it, all taken with my SRT 202 f1.4 50mm Rokkor X on Fuji 800.



The Bic pen is for reference only, to give a sense of the size of the throats of this thing! They're bigger than the cylinders of my car! Brings a whole new meaning to the term 2bbl carb!




Extreme crop of the nomenclature plate from the full scan photo above. Don't know enough about P/S to get rid of the grain in the big enlargement


Not surprised that the RAF fitter nailed it! Nothin' rusty about your mind, Peter!

I hope you all enjoy the pix of our growing museum as much as I enjoy working there! Roy

[PeterW]

Thanks for the confirmation, Roy.

Here's a pic of Stromberg, or at least the top part of it, hanging on the back of a Merlin restored by the fitters at the RAF museum at Hendon, north London.

Pic was taken with a Canon A1 on a tripod with the lens stopped right down to get dof.



The Merlin was quite an engine, but it could sometimes be a swine to work on particularly in the confines of an airframe. Everything was sewn together with small nuts and bolts as I've no doubt your museum fitters have discovered.

Your fingers could get quite numb in winter when standing high up on a portable scaffold working on the outboard engine of a Lancaster in a cold north-east wind! For anything more than minor work the engine had to come out.

I never worked on a P51 but I don't recall hearing about any difference between a Stromberg fitted to a Packard-built Merlin and one fitted to a Rolls-Royce-built Merlin.

Good luck with the museum.

PeterW

[casualcollector]

Ahh! Hendon! I kept thinking Swindon. My son and I went to the Hendon R.A.F. Museum in '03. I was most impressed by the Sunderland.

[olroy2044]

Thanks for looking everybody! Peter, thanks for posting the shot of the Merlin! Roy