Why would the Secretary of Defence get involved in forbidding modifications being incorporated in an engine that the manufacturer's of said engine had decided were necessary? Sounds quite daft, unless it was simply a case of forbidding further modifications because so many had already been incorporated at government expense. I am always suspicious of reasons given for seemingly daft decisions made that are usually blamed on some politician or bureaucrat - often there is a long and convoluted story behind these things, so rather than go through all that rigmarole, it is much easier and less likely to reveal more persons with skin in the fight by simply blaming one convenient person. Time and again, this sort of quick blame game has been revealed over the years, and the real truth, no matter who is implicated, is outed. Also the stated cost of obtaining a license to build the American Merlin, seems outrageously expensive in this case, and I could only guess that the Americans were desperate enough to agree to that amount in 1941, then regretted it later (or yielded to pressure from GM Allison, now rather bizarrely owned by Rolls Royce!)
David D
Last edited by dduxbury310; 2nd Feb 2019 at 21:35.
Reason: Minor changes in text