Feasibility of making Napier Sabre reliable earlier?

[Lascaris]

Basically what it says on the title. Famously or infamously till its takeover by English Electric Napier was concentrating on improving Sabre performance instead of improving the engines reliability. This was reversed by the new management with the good results we all know.

So how do we make Napier get her priorities straight earlier or ease its problems? Was an earlier takeover likely for example? Could additional resources being available earlier, if frex you avoid an invasion scare, help?

Thoughts?

 

[tomo pauk]

So how do we make Napier get her priorities straight earlier or ease its problems? Was an earlier takeover likely for example? Could additional resources being available earlier, if frex you avoid an invasion scare, help?

Bribe/force/lure the Bristol engine company to ship the sleeves, made for the Taurus, to Napier.
Or - sell the Napier at favorable terms to Bristol, with condition that they use their sleeves on Sabre.

 

[HoHun]

Hi Lascaris,

Basically what it says on the title. Famously or infamously till its takeover by English Electric Napier was concentrating on improving Sabre performance instead of improving the engines reliability.

Just go for a poppet valve design. It will have a greater frontal area, but aerodynamically, that it not really all that bad since proper streamlining can eliminate most of the penalty that might be associated with it.

A more developed engine will also be able to provide more power at the same point in the timeline as the original, less developed one, further tilting the scales in favour of the less ambitious design.

Having a poppet-valve Sabre available significantly earlier would make the contemporary Merlin the benchmark to compare it against, not the sleeve-valve Sabre one might have had one or two years later. Bigger bird in hand versus pigeon on the roof type of situation ...

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)