By Rolls-Royce was the world's second largest civil aero engine company, the world's second largest defence aero engine company, a global leader in marine propulsion and a leading supplier of energy solutions, all based on gas turbine technology. Employ approx 50, worldwide. The text of this web site is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. Success with the cars led to the formation of the Rolls-Royce company in March and to the launch of the six-cylinder Silver Ghost which, within a year, was hailed as 'the best car in the world'.
At the start of the First World War, in response to the nation's needs, Royce designed his first aero engine — the Eagle, providing some half of the total horsepower used in the air war by the allies. The Eagle powered the first direct transatlantic flight as well as the first flight from England to Australia — both in the Vickers Vimy aircraft. The late s saw us develop the 'R' engine to power Britain's entry in the International Schneider Trophy seaplane contest.
It established a new world air speed record of over mph in Subsequently it established new world records on both land and water. More importantly, as subsequent events were to prove, it gave us the technological base to develop the Merlin, which Royce has begun to work on before his death in Demand for the Merlin during the Second World War transformed us from a relatively small company into a major contender in aero propulsion.
The Welland engine entered service in the Gloster Meteor fighter in and we had the confidence immediately after the war to commit ourselves to the gas turbine, in which it had a technological lead. We entered the civil aviation market with the Dart in the Vickers Viscount. It was to become the cornerstone of universal acceptance of gas turbines by the airline industry. The Avon-powered Comet became the first turbojet to enter transatlantic service and in , the Conway engine in the Boeing became the first turbofan to enter airline service.
The leader among these was Bristol which, in , merged with the motor car and aero-engine maker Armstrong Siddeley. Overseas sales drive Wal-Mart. Congo's finance minister resigns. Blair keeps euro options open.
Links to more Business stories are at the foot of the page. You are in: Business. News Front Page. Middle East. South Asia. Market Data. In total, 5, Rolls-Royce aero engines were made during World War I, accounting for nearly half the air horsepower used by Allied forces.
By the late s, the company derived more profit from the manufacture of aero engines than it did from making cars. Producing aero engines also had applications for developing motorcar engines. In , for example, Rolls-Royce introduced front wheel brakes to its cars, as well as power assistance through a gearbox driven servo.
The interwar years also signaled a departure from the company's practice of producing only one car model. In , the 3. In , the "New Phantom" succeeded the Silver Ghost. Although its larger seven-liter engine had overhead valves rather than side valves, the chassis and the running gear were the same as those used on the Silver Ghost.
Over the next ten years, Rolls-Royce continued to manufacture automobiles for an increasingly exclusive and wealthy clientele. In , the company purchased Bentley Motor Ltd. Royce, who was conferred a baronetcy in , died in The new model was driven by a V12 engine, the most powerful yet.
This led in to the company's consideration of rationalizing its design and production facilities to contain expanding operating costs. Before his death in , Royce had set about designing a new generation of aero engines that surpassed 1, horsepower in size. The result was the PV12, a liter engine eventually named the Merlin. The Merlin was first used by the Royal Air Force in Two years later, the aero engine could maintain 1, horsepower to 16, feet. Impressed with its design and output, the Royal Air Force agreed to help fund the development of three fighter planes designed around the Merlin--the Fairey Battle Bomber, the Hurricane, and the Spitfire.
Innovations to the engine during this time ensured it could attain 1, horsepower at more than twice the original altitude, 47, by the war's end. Factories at Crewe and Glasgow, Scotland, had been opened. By , the company employed significantly more than 50, people. Ernest Hives, who served as CEO of Rolls-Royce from to , decided in that the future of the company lay in continuing to produce aero engines. He guided the company's conversion from piston turbine engines to the new gas turbine engine designed by Stanley Hooker and Frank Whittle in Car production was moved from Derby to Crewe so that the Derby facilities could work almost exclusively on developing the gas turbine aero engine for the civil aviation industry.
The introduction of a military engine in a civil aircraft took some tinkering before it was done successfully. Rolls-Royce used its experience to judge just how different commercial engine expectations were from military ones.
This new engine had a centrifugal design and had taken over from the Merlin 60 series of engines. The last Dart engine was built in , ending nearly 40 years of production. Rolls-Royce also introduced the turbojet engine in the form of the AJ65 model, or the Avon, which powered the world's first commercial jetliner, de Havilland's Comet, as well as the Canberra, Hunter, and Lightning.
The company's second wholly civil aero engine was the RB, or Medway, launched in Hives was succeeded by Sir Denning Pearson in the late s. In Rolls-Royce effectively consolidated the British aircraft engine industry with the acquisition of its top domestic rival, Bristol-Siddley Engines.
Two years later, the company won a key order from Lockheed to build an engine for the TriStar plane. Although the contract seemed a major coup at the time, development of this powerful new engine, dubbed the RB, consumed far more time and money than Rolls-Royce had anticipated--so much so that in February the company faced bankruptcy and was subsequently nationalized by the British government.
To reduce costs, the company spun off its carmaking division into a separate company, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd. Both companies continued to use the Rolls-Royce name and the distinctive RR symbol.
At the same time, development of the RB engine under the engineering leadership of Sir Stanley Hooker continued apace. By , the RB went into production for use in the TriStar aircraft. Although it had been costly to develop, it was very adaptable and modified for uses large and relatively small.
In , Rolls-Royce announced that 75 percent of customers for the new Boeing airliner had chosen the RB engines for propulsion.
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