Spitfire engine test bed - DONE!

[PR19_Kit]

Checking on an actual Merlin/prop setup at Tangmere Museum today, I noted that there's only one gear train between the crankshaft and the prop on a Merlin, so that means the engine rotates anti-clockwise viewed from the cockpit and the prop rotates clockwise.

But which has the most torque effect on the airframe?

[Old Wombat]

Checking on an actual Merlin/prop setup at Tangmere Museum today, I noted that there's only one gear train between the crankshaft and the prop on a Merlin, so that means the engine rotates anti-clockwise viewed from the cockpit and the prop rotates clockwise.

But which has the most torque effect on the airframe?

In the case of a piston engine - the prop.

The engine is mostly comprised of heavy bits going up-&-down, rather than round-&-round.

The round-&-round bits consist of the crankshaft, driveshaft & gear cogs, none of which are particularly well aligned for combining their forces into a cumulative torque effect. Of these the crankshaft produces almost no effective torque because its forces are fairly diffuse & unbalanced. The driveshaft produces very little because it's relatively small, light & narrow. This leaves the gear cogs to produce the most effective torque, which is significantly less than that of the prop (but which would reduce the overall torque at least a bit).

By the way, in which direction does the supercharger spin?

[Charlie_c67]

By the way, in which direction does the supercharger spin?

Round and round 

[Facetious Pedant mode off]

[The Rat]

You want torque? YOU WANT TORQUE?!

Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major 28-cylinder four-row radial, reconfigured as a rotary.