A New Malfunction for me: Supercharger failure!

[Baffin]

As I was out buzzing around below 5000' AGL in my Spitfire MK IA (100 Oct) yesterday, I just could not get the old Merlin to cooperate... It just wasn't putting out normal power. Of course, I pushed it through the gate to check if the boost cutout was the cause and noticed that it made no difference. The supercharger had, in fact, quit altogether. The manifold pressure gauge showed negative 0.5 PSI and corresponded to my atltitude. The engine was running at ambient pressure no matter how high the throttle was advanced.

I guessed that I had sustained "Mystery Damage" (Damage from an unkown source neither felt or heard), but after landing, the gray statistics box reported no damage.

Since this is the first time I've ever seen or heard about this, I thought I'd mention it. Like flying an armed Cessna 172! :flying:

[3./JG51_Heiden]

The difference is that the Cessna 172's engine is designed to be naturally aspirated. A Merlin requires the supercharger, it's integral to the engine. When it's INOP, it's just a giant butt-plug in the induction system. Try driving a large Diesel engine with a failed turbo, it's WORTHLESS. 5 mph down the road at best.