Thread: Griffon?

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Paper Airplanes

If a little is good then more must be better right? This was the philosophy behind a scheme to install the Griffon into the P-51. Unlike the Griffon conversion of the Spitfire, the Griffon P-51 entailed a totally new design incorporating only the flying surfaces. An all-new fuselage featuring a mid engined layout with the pilot sitting in front of the engine driving a six bladed Rotol contra rotating prop would have made it new aircraft. Drive to the propeller was via transfer gears mounted at the front of the engine. The drive shaft ran under the cockpit terminating at the propeller reduction gears mounted in the nose. A torque tube mounted on the propeller reduction gear case at the front and on the engine at the rear enclosed the drive shaft thus alleviating the nose structure of the aircraft from the considerable torque reaction loads, which were instead transmitted back to the engine. Splines on both ends of the torque tube allowed for longitudinal float. Three early Allison powered Mustang I's, equivalent to Mustang A's were obtained to supply parts for the project. Substantial work had been completed when the project was cancelled for the usual reasons during this time frame, gas turbine development

NAA never really tried to shoe-horn the Griffon into the P-51 airframe, but some Reno Unlimited racers did, the most famous being the Red Baron "RB-51". There were several variations of the Griffon, but the most sought-after version were the "bulletproof" Griffon 58's made for the Avro Shackleton maritime patrol aircraft. The P-51 airframe required a total re-design from the firewall forward, with the firewall even being moved back 9" relative to the rest of the airframe. The Red Baron, with the well-known Steve Hinton at the controls, assaulted the world air speed record for a piston-driven aircraft, and managed 499.018 mph, breaking it.

The latest iteration of a Griffon-powered P-51 (Red Baron was destroyed that year at Reno) is Precious Metal, which raced this year at Reno, but wasn't able to compete since the races were cancelled after the tragic crash of The Galloping Ghost.