Sheffield during WW2 had the only machinery capable of producing which component for the Spitfire and Hurricane fighter planes?

I really should know the answer ..but I seem to have a mental block !!
Tried googling to no avail

Thanks
Jan2002

Don’t know about the component but the aircraft was probably the Hurricane. Hawker Engineering had a factory in Sheffield at that time.

I reckon it was the crankshaft. It had to be produced in one piece and sheffield was the only place that could do it. i think.

Like "fourfive" says, it was the crankshaft for the Rolls-Royce merlin engine.

The drop hammer at Vickers was the only one in the country capable of producing the crankshaft during the first 18 months of the war.

Thats right the only place with hammers big enough to forge crankshafts in one piece,and if i'm not mistaken it was Laycocks that made them at Little London rd

Thanks everyone !!!
Sheffield Forummers to the rescue:thumbsup:

Jan

They were made at the ESC river Don works in the East machine shop.
I used to polish the pins and journals on them.

Hi,

Others contributors are right. The crankshaft for the Rolls Royce Merlin engines were produced at English Steel Corporation (ESC) River Don Works. At the start of the war, ESC had the only forging machine in the country capable of the job. This I believe was made in Germany and it absolutely critical that it could keep working despite the blitz, etc. Because it was such a critial piece of equipment, I think a second machine was made (a copy of the first) and this was installed at another location, but I could be wrong.

Incidentally, if you are looking for this kind of information again, try a book called "Sheffield: Armourers to the British Empire" by a Sheffielder called Stewart Dalton. This has a lot of good information.

Regards

Hi,

Others contributors are right. The crankshaft for the Rolls Royce Merlin engines were produced at English Steel Corporation (ESC) River Don Works. At the start of the war, ESC had the only forging machine in the country capable of the job. This I believe was made in Germany and it absolutely critical that it could keep working despite the blitz, etc. Because it was such a critial piece of equipment, I think a second machine was made (a copy of the first) and this was installed at another location, but I could be wrong.

Incidentally, if you are looking for this kind of information again, try a book called "Sheffield: Armourers to the British Empire" by a Sheffielder called Stewart Dalton. This has a lot of good information.

Regards

If you look on the internet you’ll find that Rolls Royce Merlin engines were hand-built, but were later put on a production line by Packard in America and proved to be better than expected. The engine that went into a tank was unsupercharged and was the Rolls Royce Meteor. The blueprints for the Merlin were also kept in America for safe keeping, so how did the English Steel Corporation get hold of them to make the crankshaft?

I would think ESC received the drawings and associated technical data for the Merlin cranks from either the Ministry of Supply or the Ministry of Aircraft Production. Which ever Ministry awarded the contract.

Don't forget that the Ford Motor Co. in India did Merlin engine overhauls in the latter part of the war, for the aircraft operating in the Far East. They also must have had sets of drawings for all the engines components.

Regards

my grandad made pins for churchill tank tracks in the early years of the war from a tiny little workshop near to West Bar.

Another comment.

In addition to being sent to UK, the Merlins built by Packard may also have gone into the North American P51 Mustangs built in the States for both the RAF and USAF. I also believe Packard-built Merlins went into the Lancasters built by the Victory Aircaft Works at Malton (now the site of Toronto International Airport).

You will remember that Packard's Merlin engines were famous (some aircrews might say infamous) for the cartridge starters.