[Andy Saunders]

It turned up (briefly!) at a Kent Museum a few days ago whilst en-route to the (unknown) buyers establishment whence it was evidently due to be broken up for the pistons.

That information reliably came to me this morning from the museum in question, where the purchasers of said engine called-by for a visit en route home with newly purchased engine and were happy to show museum staff their new acquisition in the back of a van. At that time the museum staff knew nothing of the shenanigans that have since gone on over that engine. Evidently, apart from extracting the pistons, the buyer intended to incorporate parts into a Merlin they are building as a (presumably "static") runner. So that may give some clue as to who has it. However, they are clearly innocent if there is anything "dodgy" about this engine. What we have is an engine that, on the face of it, has a history that does not seem to match knowledge established from contempoarary RAF MU records. Further, we have information from a third party that the engine offered on e-bay was believed to have been one that was stolen some years ago. Of course, the question of the stated engine identity may yet be proven to be correct and it remains possible the engine sold was not the one reported as stolen. Either way, there do seem to be questions that have been raised but not answered and some respected sources have also raised questions in relation to the seller. They are not questions that are being raised here, although it might be helpful to all concerned if he came forward. I feel certain that he inhabits this site and he might well be able to satisfactorily put to rest the concerns that many of those involved in the UK historic aircraft have expressed - both privately and publicly.

What all this boils down to is that we have an engine that has a question mark hanging over it and a sale that has caused a furore in other places. That furore, and the associated shenanigans, has evidently resulted in some unknown parties, for their own reasons, not wanting the matter discussed - to the extent that they have succesfully closed down quite reasonable discussion on the matter that has gone on elsewhere. One wonders why?

This forum is probably not the right place to air all of those issues in the manner they have been discussed in other places, but hopefully Ruy will view the issue as one that is of legitimate concern to forum users - many of whom are e-bay buyers. Meanwhile, one can only say that it is a case of caveat-emptor.