Rolls-Royce Vulture
Rolls-Royce
- Configuration
- 24-cylinder liquid-cooled X-block
- Power
- ~1,450–1,550 hp (derated from a designed 1,750 hp)
About
The Vulture was an ambitious failure. Rolls-Royce formed it by joining four cylinder blocks derived from the small Peregrine onto a single crankshaft to make a 24-cylinder “X” engine of around 1,750 hp — but wartime priority on the Merlin starved it of development, and it suffered chronic connecting-rod and bearing failures. Derated and unreliable, it doomed the twin-Vulture Avro Manchester. The cure became one of the war’s happiest accidents: re-engined with four Merlins, the Manchester became the Avro Lancaster. Only 538 Vultures were built before cancellation in 1941.
Sources: This page was compiled from publicly available historical sources, including Lumsden, Alec — British Piston Aero-Engines and their Aircraft (Airlife, 2003) and Rolls-Royce Vulture — Wikipedia. The text is original and has been written from factual source material.