Luftwaffe copy the Merlin

[Graham Boak]

But the Griffon was not something that the Germans could have copied, because of a lack of access to examples. Not were they without their equivalents: the DB603/Jumo 213 had the power and potential of the Griffon. The Jumo 222 and DB610 had even more potential - as indeed did the Eagle and Clyde, if rather further behind in development.

The Germans and the British had rather different development approaches (as indeed did the US) but it can't be justified that one was significantly superior to the other: certainly not to an extent to justify a direct copy.

The closest that actually occurred would be the way that the Centaurus was redesigned to an aft-exhaust system, in the light of Fw 190/BMW 801 experience, but this was a matter or airframe integration rather than internal engine design. It might be interestingly argued that this redesign, if producing a superior engine in the long run, meant that (arguably) Britain's finest aero engine missed the war. But that would be another thread altogether.