The Rolls-Royce Griffon was a 36.75 litre, 60-degree V-Twin aero-engine, developed from the earlier 'R' racing engine used in the Schneider Trophy races.

The Griffon was designed prior to World War Two and was originally intended as a low-rated engine for naval aircraft such as the Fairey Firefly but a formal suggestion to fit a Griffon in a Spitfire was made by Joe Smith (who had taken over as Chief Designer at Supermarine's after Mitchell's death) in October 1939, however work by Rolls-Royce on the engine had been halted temporarily to concentrate on the smaller (27 litre) Merlin, which had already surpassed the early outputs achieved with the Griffon.

Only when development of the Griffon resumed was it then decided to fit the engine to a Spitfire, the first example of which was the single Spitfire Mk. IV, DP845 (a modified, clipped-wing Spitfire III) flown with a single-stage, two-speed Griffon RG 2SM on 27 Nov 1941.

Rolls-Royce applied the advances in supercharging used on the Merlin to the Griffon and later Griffon versions featured two-stage supercharging and finally a two-stage, three-speed supercharger.

A two-stage, three-speed Griffon 101 was fitted to the solitary Supermarine Spiteful XVI, RB518, which achieved 494 mph with full military equipment, the aircraft being a "production" XIV simply re-engined.

The Griffon was also used in the Avro Shackleton maritime patrol aircraft.

References

• Jeffrey Quill OBE, AFC, FRAeS Spitfire - A Test Pilot’s Story - Arrow Books 1983-89 - ISBN 0-09-937020-4

External links

• The Spitfire Engines- Rolls-Royce Merlin and Griffon