Men Bet Their Lives on It is a 20 minute Packard-produced documentary from the post-WWII era about their version of the Merlin engine – almost certainly the most famous engine of the Second World War and the only aircraft power unit that even non-aircaft fanatics can reference by name.
We’ve been having a bit of a Merlin month here on Silodrome, with a feature last week on the The Rolls-Royce Merlin Owner’s Workshop Manual (which is an excellent read). This film is a brilliant look back at the Packard version of the engine, with a detailed look into its varied uses throughout the US military during the war.
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Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.