When the Spitfire pilots in the Battle of Britain wanted to dive, they had to roll inverted first and then dive! I understand that the later Merlins were not so bad in this regard.
Yes the upsde down DB mtoor allowed for a completly different gun arrangement. The radiator setup was very different to a merlin as well. The FI allowed it to be inverted and from what I rememebr a lot of complexity in terms of mixture contols etc. Plus yes the 109 could dive down without having the motor stumble as in a spit. The 109 also had a reclined pilots seat so it could in theory pull more Gs before the pilot blacked out, assuming the tail did not fail or the wings come off. I guess each plane had its advantages and disadvanteages, and different MKs had superiority to the state of the opposing forces. Still one wonders what a Buchon is worth. Its not ahsitoric 109 being built after the war. Is a Buchhon with a DB conversion worth more than a new build 109. I guess there are no new build 109's. So if you wnat a 109 this si the way to go. Whats the price of anew build Yak or 190, thta is probably an idea of whata retored Buchon is worth. In any event these alddins cave of planes are really interesting. Any idea how many Allsions and Merlins are around. I know a lot got blown up by hydroplane racers.
If my memory serves me well (I'm quoting from memory without going to check this in the archives) there were 160.000 Merlins of all marks and models produced. Before exhausting the stock left, which is certainly not 160.000 but must be quite consequent still, you would need a lot of hydroplane races... Rgds
I had a client tell me years back that he started to "build his empire" back in the 50's and 60's by selling Merlins for scrap...said if he could get $300-$500 he was on cloud nine...said he scrapped thousands of them....I almost strangled him on the spot..
Both the Spit and the 109 had the disadvantage of that narrow undercarriage. Not a problem if you were an expert, but troublesome for low time pilots. Especially launching and recovering on grass fields after heavy precip. Crosswinds made it even worse.
When I was fortunate enough to visit the late Colin Pay's warbird setup in Scone in the early 90's the back half of one of his hangers was full of NOS Allisons and Merlins still in their crates. Quite a sight! John
