95-462: List of articles associated with the British automobile and engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: Rolls-Royce Limited , a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles [ edit ] Rolls-Royce Motor Cars , the current car manufacturing company incorporated in 1998,
190-399: A convergent-divergent nozzle is needed on high-speed aircraft. The engine thrust is highest if the static pressure of the gas reaches the ambient value as it leaves the nozzle. This only happens if the nozzle exit area is the correct value for the nozzle pressure ratio (npr). Since the npr changes with engine thrust setting and flight speed this is seldom the case. Also at supersonic speeds
285-680: A rotating air compressor powered by a turbine , with the leftover power providing thrust through the propelling nozzle —this process is known as the Brayton thermodynamic cycle . Jet aircraft use such engines for long-distance travel. Early jet aircraft used turbojet engines that were relatively inefficient for subsonic flight. Most modern subsonic jet aircraft use more complex high-bypass turbofan engines . They give higher speed and greater fuel efficiency than piston and propeller aeroengines over long distances. A few air-breathing engines made for high-speed applications (ramjets and scramjets ) use
380-803: A "five-shilling meal" at the Swan and Royal hotel in Clitheroe , Stanley Hooker and Ernest Hives of Rolls-Royce agreed with Spencer Wilks of the Rover Car Company that Rolls-Royce would take over top secret work on the development of the jet engine. An exchange of assets followed with Rover and in the post- World War II period Rolls-Royce made significant advances in gas turbine engine design and manufacture. The Dart and Tyne turboprop engines were particularly important, enabling airlines to cut times for shorter journeys whilst jet airliners were introduced on longer services. The Dart engine
475-408: A compressor ( axial , centrifugal , or both), mixing fuel with the compressed air, burning the mixture in the combustor , and then passing the hot, high pressure air through a turbine and a nozzle . The compressor is powered by the turbine, which extracts energy from the expanding gas passing through it. The engine converts internal energy in the fuel to increased momentum of the gas flowing through
570-449: A fast-moving jet of heated gas (usually air) that generates thrust by jet propulsion . While this broad definition may include rocket , water jet , and hybrid propulsion, the term jet engine typically refers to an internal combustion air-breathing jet engine such as a turbojet , turbofan , ramjet , pulse jet , or scramjet . In general, jet engines are internal combustion engines . Air-breathing jet engines typically feature
665-427: A higher priority than fuel efficiency, fans tend to be smaller or absent. Because of these distinctions, turbofan engine designs are often categorized as low-bypass or high-bypass , depending upon the amount of air which bypasses the core of the engine. Low-bypass turbofans have a bypass ratio of around 2:1 or less. The term Advanced technology engine refers to the modern generation of jet engines. The principle
760-406: A jet of water. The mechanical arrangement may be a ducted propeller with nozzle, or a centrifugal compressor and nozzle. The pump-jet must be driven by a separate engine such as a Diesel or gas turbine . All jet engines are reaction engines that generate thrust by emitting a jet of fluid rearwards at relatively high speed. The forces on the inside of the engine needed to create this jet give
855-426: A large number of different types of jet engines, all of which achieve forward thrust from the principle of jet propulsion . Commonly aircraft are propelled by airbreathing jet engines. Most airbreathing jet engines that are in use are turbofan jet engines, which give good efficiency at speeds just below the speed of sound. A turbojet engine is a gas turbine engine that works by compressing air with an inlet and
950-435: A particular engine design that if some bumps in a bypass duct are smoothed out the air will flow more smoothly giving a pressure loss reduction of x% and y% less fuel will be needed to get the take-off thrust, for example. This understanding comes under the engineering discipline Jet engine performance . How efficiency is affected by forward speed and by supplying energy to aircraft systems is mentioned later. The efficiency of
1045-759: A powerplant for the world's first jet- fighter aircraft , the Messerschmitt Me 262 (and later the world's first jet- bomber aircraft, the Arado Ar 234 ). A variety of reasons conspired to delay the engine's availability, causing the fighter to arrive too late to improve Germany's position in World War II , however this was the first jet engine to be used in service. Meanwhile, in Britain the Gloster E28/39 had its maiden flight on 15 May 1941 and
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#17327734059151140-467: A reputation for superior engineering by manufacturing the "best car in the world" The business was incorporated as "Rolls-Royce Limited" in 1906, and a new factory in Derby was opened in 1908. The First World War brought the company into manufacturing aero-engines. Joint development of jet engines began in 1940, and they entered production in 1944. Rolls-Royce has since built an enduring reputation for
1235-530: A strong thrust on the engine which pushes the craft forwards. Jet engines make their jet from propellant stored in tanks that are attached to the engine (as in a 'rocket') as well as in duct engines (those commonly used on aircraft) by ingesting an external fluid (very typically air) and expelling it at higher speed. A propelling nozzle produces a high velocity exhaust jet . Propelling nozzles turn internal and pressure energy into high velocity kinetic energy. The total pressure and temperature don't change through
1330-796: A subsidiary of BMW Group Rolls-Royce Motors , owner of the former car division incorporated in 1973, bought by Vickers in 1980, a subsidiary of Volkswagen Group from 1998 to 2002 List of Rolls-Royce motor cars Aerospace and nuclear power [ edit ] Rolls-Royce Holdings plc, an aerospace, power systems and defence company and Rolls-Royce's current principal operating company Rolls-Royce Controls and Data Services Rolls-Royce Deutschland Rolls-Royce Power Systems Rolls-Royce North America Rolls-Royce Submarines Rolls-Royce Turbomeca See also [ edit ] Rose Royce , an American soul and R&B group Roll (disambiguation) Royce (disambiguation) [REDACTED] Index of articles associated with
1425-439: A substantial initial forward airspeed before it can function. Ramjets are considered the simplest type of air breathing jet engine because they have no moving parts in the engine proper, only in the accessories. Scramjets differ mainly in the fact that the air does not slow to subsonic speeds. Rather, they use supersonic combustion. They are efficient at even higher speed. Very few have been built or flown. The rocket engine uses
1520-421: A supersonic afterburning engine or 2200 K with afterburner lit. The pressure entering the nozzle may vary from 1.5 times the pressure outside the nozzle, for a single stage fan, to 30 times for the fastest manned aircraft at Mach 3+. Convergent nozzles are only able to accelerate the gas up to local sonic (Mach 1) conditions. To reach high flight speeds, even greater exhaust velocities are required, and so
1615-402: A test stand, sucks in fuel and generates thrust. How well it does this is judged by how much fuel it uses and what force is required to restrain it. This is a measure of its efficiency. If something deteriorates inside the engine (known as performance deterioration ) it will be less efficient and this will show when the fuel produces less thrust. If a change is made to an internal part which allows
1710-461: A two-stage axial compressor feeding a single-sided centrifugal compressor . Practical axial compressors were made possible by ideas from A.A.Griffith in a seminal paper in 1926 ("An Aerodynamic Theory of Turbine Design"). Whittle would later concentrate on the simpler centrifugal compressor only. Whittle was unable to interest the government in his invention, and development continued at a slow pace. In Spain, pilot and engineer Virgilio Leret Ruiz
1805-416: A yacht, Silver Ghost . Unofficially the press and public immediately picked up and used Silver Ghost for all the 40/50 cars made until the introduction of the 40/50 Phantom in 1925. The new 40/50 was responsible for Rolls-Royce's early reputation with over 6,000 built. Its chassis was used as a basis for the first British armoured car used in both world wars . Aero-engine manufacturing began in 1914 at
1900-465: Is different from Wikidata Use dmy dates from April 2022 All set index articles Rolls-Royce Limited Rolls-Royce Limited was a British luxury car and later an aero-engine manufacturing business established in 1904 in Manchester by the partnership of Charles Rolls and Henry Royce . Building on Royce's good reputation established with his cranes , they quickly developed
1995-507: Is documented in the story of Ottoman soldier Lagâri Hasan Çelebi , who reportedly achieved flight using a cone-shaped rocket in 1633. The earliest attempts at airbreathing jet engines were hybrid designs in which an external power source first compressed air, which was then mixed with fuel and burned for jet thrust. The Italian Caproni Campini N.1 , and the Japanese Tsu-11 engine intended to power Ohka kamikaze planes towards
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#17327734059152090-443: Is that a turbine engine will function more efficiently if the various sets of turbines can revolve at their individual optimum speeds, instead of at the same speed. The true advanced technology engine has a triple spool, meaning that instead of having a single drive shaft, there are three, in order that the three sets of blades may revolve at different speeds. An interim state is a twin-spool engine, allowing only two different speeds for
2185-400: Is the propellant flow in kg/s, A e {\displaystyle A_{e}} is the cross-sectional area at the exit of the exhaust nozzle, and p {\displaystyle p} is the atmospheric pressure. Combined-cycle engines simultaneously use two or more different principles of jet propulsion. A water jet, or pump-jet, is a marine propulsion system that uses
2280-570: Is used for launching satellites, space exploration and crewed access, and permitted landing on the Moon in 1969. Rocket engines are used for high altitude flights, or anywhere where very high accelerations are needed since rocket engines themselves have a very high thrust-to-weight ratio . However, the high exhaust speed and the heavier, oxidizer-rich propellant results in far more propellant use than turbofans. Even so, at extremely high speeds they become energy-efficient. An approximate equation for
2375-681: The Bentley 3½ Litre . Advertised as "the silent sports car" and very much in the Rolls-Royce mould, it was a private entry by Eddie Hall (but supported by Rolls-Royce) in the 1934, 1935 and 1936 RAC Tourist Trophy sports car races on the Ards Circuit , where it recorded the fastest average speed in each year (ahead of Lagondas and Bugattis). This helped the Sales Department as old Bentley customers had been inclined to doubt that
2470-903: The Gloster Meteor finally entered service with the RAF in July 1944. These were powered by turbojet engines from Power Jets Ltd., set up by Frank Whittle. The first two operational turbojet aircraft, the Messerschmitt Me 262 and then the Gloster Meteor entered service within three months of each other in 1944; the Me 262 in April and the Gloster Meteor in July. The Meteor only saw around 15 aircraft enter World War II action, while up to 1400 Me 262 were produced, with 300 entering combat, delivering
2565-498: The Hawker Siddeley Trident , BAC One-Eleven , Grumman Gulfstream II and Fokker F28 Fellowship . During the late 1950s and 1960s there was a significant rationalisation of all aspects of British aerospace and this included aero-engine manufacturers. In 1966 Rolls-Royce acquired Bristol Siddeley (which had resulted from the merger of Armstrong Siddeley and Bristol Aero Engines in 1959) and incorporated it as
2660-702: The Meteor , was developed for the Cromwell tank . The Meteor's development completed in 1943 the same team at the Belper foundry restarted work on an eight-cylinder car engine widening its uses and it became the pattern for the British Army's B range of petrol engines for post war combat vehicles in particular in Alvis 's FV600 range, Daimler 's Ferret , Humber 's Hornet and Pig and Austin 's Champ . After
2755-710: The Ministry of Defence and used during World War II for the manufacture of Mosquito and Halifax aircraft. For a number of years, Rolls-Royce used the site for the manufacture of helicopter engines until the site closed in June 1993. The former Rolls-Royce factory at Watford is now known as the Leavesden Film Studios and has produced world-famous films, including the James Bond , Star Wars and Harry Potter series. The amalgamations and disappearances of
2850-664: The Rolls-Royce 10 hp , was unveiled at the Paris Salon in December 1904. Rolls-Royce Limited was formed on 15 March 1906, by which time it was apparent that new premises were required for production of cars. After considering sites in Manchester, Coventry , Bradford and Leicester , it was an offer from Derby 's council of cheap electricity that resulted in the decision to acquire a 12.7 acres (51,000 m ) site on
2945-473: The Rolls-Royce 30 hp . Initially designated the 40/50 hp, this was Rolls-Royce's first all-new model. In March 1908, Claude Johnson , Commercial Managing Director and sometimes described as the hyphen in Rolls-Royce , succeeded in persuading Royce and the other directors that Rolls-Royce should concentrate exclusively on the new model, and all the earlier models were duly discontinued. Johnson had an early example finished in silver and named, as if it were
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3040-558: The Royal Aircraft Factory asked Rolls-Royce to design a new 200 hp (150 kW) engine. Despite initial reluctance, they agreed, and during 1915, developed Rolls-Royce's first aero engine, the twelve-cylinder Eagle . This was quickly followed by the smaller six-cylinder Hawk , the 190 hp (140 kW) Falcon and, just before the end of the war, the larger 675 hp (503 kW) Condor . Throughout World War I, Rolls-Royce struggled to build aero engines in
3135-500: The aeolipile , a device described by Hero of Alexandria in 1st-century Egypt . This device directed steam power through two nozzles to cause a sphere to spin rapidly on its axis. It was seen as a curiosity. Meanwhile, practical applications of the turbine can be seen in the water wheel and the windmill . Historians have further traced the theoretical origin of the principles of jet engines to traditional Chinese firework and rocket propulsion systems. Such devices' use for flight
3230-664: The gasoline -fuelled HeS 3 of 5 kN (1,100 lbf), which was fitted to Heinkel's simple and compact He 178 airframe and flown by Erich Warsitz in the early morning of August 27, 1939, from Rostock -Marienehe aerodrome , an impressively short time for development. The He 178 was the world's first jet plane. Heinkel applied for a US patent covering the Aircraft Power Plant by Hans Joachim Pabst von Ohain on May 31, 1939; patent number US2256198, with M Hahn referenced as inventor. Von Ohain's design, an axial-flow engine, as opposed to Whittle's centrifugal flow engine,
3325-402: The ram effect of the vehicle's speed instead of a mechanical compressor. The thrust of a typical jetliner engine went from 5,000 lbf (22 kN) ( de Havilland Ghost turbojet) in the 1950s to 115,000 lbf (510 kN) ( General Electric GE90 turbofan) in the 1990s, and their reliability went from 40 in-flight shutdowns per 100,000 engine flight hours to less than 1 per 100,000 in
3420-493: The 1950s and 1960s left a small number of major airframe manufacturers based in only a few countries. The competition for the very large contracts to supply their engines grew intense. Expensive research and development became vital. Real profits came from the maintenance contracts which might peak a whole human generation later. By the 1980s it was said that each generation of aero engines cost around 10 times that of its parent. At this time Rolls-Royce employed 80,000 people and it
3515-482: The 1950s, the jet engine was almost universal in combat aircraft, with the exception of cargo, liaison and other specialty types. By this point, some of the British designs were already cleared for civilian use, and had appeared on early models like the de Havilland Comet and Avro Canada Jetliner . By the 1960s, all large civilian aircraft were also jet powered, leaving the piston engine in low-cost niche roles such as cargo flights. The efficiency of turbojet engines
3610-404: The 1987 issue of shares to members of the public Rolls-Royce was by then one of only three enterprises outside USSR and China able to design develop and produce large gas turbine engines. At that time its engines were installed in the aircraft of more than 270 civil carriers and were used by 110 armed services and 700 operators of executive and corporate aircraft. In addition, its turbines powered
3705-639: The Avro Manchester with its unreliable Rolls-Royce Vulture engines), Vickers Wellington (twin-engine); it also transformed the American North American P-51 Mustang into a competitor for the best fighter of its time, its engine a Merlin engine built by Packard under licence. Over 160,000 Merlin engines were produced, including over 30,000 by the Ford Motor Company at Trafford Park, Manchester. During
3800-594: The Bristol Siddeley division. Bristol Siddeley, with its principal factory at Filton , near Bristol , had a strong base in military engines, including the Olympus , Viper , Pegasus (vectored thrust) and Orpheus . They were also manufacturing the Olympus 593 Mk610 to be used in Concorde in collaboration with SNECMA. They also had a turbofan project with SNECMA. According to the prospectus published for
3895-521: The British embassy in Madrid a few years later by his wife, Carlota O'Neill , upon her release from prison. In 1935, Hans von Ohain started work on a similar design to Whittle's in Germany, both compressor and turbine being radial, on opposite sides of the same disc, initially unaware of Whittle's work. Von Ohain's first device was strictly experimental and could run only under external power, but he
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3990-754: The Minister of Defence), Sir St. John Elstub (managing director of Imperial Metal Industries ), and Sir Charles Elworthy (former Marshal of the Royal Air Force and Chief of the Defence Staff ). The new aircraft with its three RB211 engines left USA for the first time and arrived in Paris on 1 June 1971. At Palmdale California the L-1011 received its US Federal Aviation Administration's certificate of airworthiness on 14 April 1972, nine months late. On
4085-534: The Pratt & Whitney J57 and J75 models. There is also a derivative of the P&W JT8D low-bypass turbofan that creates up to 35,000 horsepower (HP) . Jet engines are also sometimes developed into, or share certain components such as engine cores, with turboshaft and turboprop engines, which are forms of gas turbine engines that are typically used to power helicopters and some propeller-driven aircraft. There are
4180-400: The air/combustion gases to flow more smoothly the engine will be more efficient and use less fuel. A standard definition is used to assess how different things change engine efficiency and also to allow comparisons to be made between different engines. This definition is called specific fuel consumption , or how much fuel is needed to produce one unit of thrust. For example, it will be known for
4275-472: The bank would withdraw its overdraft facility on which Rolls-Royce depended at that time. Nevertheless, believing that war was likely to be short-lived the directors initially decided not to seek government work making aero engines. However, this position was quickly reversed and Rolls-Royce was persuaded by the War Office to manufacture fifty air-cooled V8 engines under licence from Renault . Meanwhile,
4370-468: The colour of the Rolls-Royce radiator monogram was changed from red to black; because the red sometimes clashed with the coachwork colour selected by clients, and not as a mark of respect for the death of Royce later that year as is commonly stated. The British government built a shadow factory in Crewe in 1938 for Rolls-Royce where they could build their Merlin and Griffon aero engines. Car production
4465-511: The company to "Rolls-Royce plc", the British government sold it to the public in a share offering . Rolls-Royce plc still owns and operates Rolls-Royce's principal business, although, since 2003, it is technically a subsidiary of Rolls-Royce Holdings plc , a listed holding company . Henry Royce started an electrical and mechanical business in 1884. He made his first car, a two-cylinder Royce 10, in his Manchester factory in 1904. Henry Royce
4560-595: The core business but sold the holdings in British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) almost immediately and transferred ownership of the profitable but now financially insignificant car division to Rolls-Royce Motors Holdings Limited , which it sold to Vickers in 1980. Rolls-Royce obtained consent to drop the '1971' distinction from its company name in 1977, at which point it became known once again as "Rolls-Royce Limited". The Rolls-Royce business remained nationalised until 1987 when, after having renamed
4655-451: The day the chairman of Lockeed said "...we know that in airline service it (RB211) will prove itself to be one of the leading power plants in aviation history". The first airliner was delivered to Eastern Air Lines on 5 April 1972 but it had been beaten in the race to production by McDonnell Douglas 's DC-10 . Rolls-Royce Motors Limited was incorporated on 25 April 1971, two and a half months after Rolls-Royce fell into receivership. Under
4750-461: The development and manufacturing of engines for military and commercial aircraft. In the late 1960s, Rolls-Royce was adversely affected by the mismanaged development of its advanced RB211 jet engine and consequent cost over-runs, though it ultimately proved a great success. In 1971, the owners were obliged to liquidate their business. The useful portions were bought by a new government-owned company named "Rolls-Royce (1971) Limited", which continued
4845-599: The divergent area is less than required to give complete internal expansion to ambient pressure as a trade-off with external body drag. Whitford gives the F-16 as an example. Other underexpanded examples were the XB-70 and SR-71. The nozzle size, together with the area of the turbine nozzles, determines the operating pressure of the compressor. This overview highlights where energy losses occur in complete jet aircraft powerplants or engine installations. A jet engine at rest, as on
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#17327734059154940-405: The end of World War II were unsuccessful. Even before the start of World War II, engineers were beginning to realize that engines driving propellers were approaching limits due to issues related to propeller efficiency, which declined as blade tips approached the speed of sound . If aircraft performance were to increase beyond such a barrier, a different propulsion mechanism was necessary. This
5035-425: The engine is controlled primarily by the operating conditions inside the engine which are the pressure produced by the compressor and the temperature of the combustion gases at the first set of rotating turbine blades. The pressure is the highest air pressure in the engine. The turbine rotor temperature is not the highest in the engine but is the highest at which energy transfer takes place ( higher temperatures occur in
5130-650: The engine, producing thrust. All the air entering the compressor is passed through the combustor, and turbine, unlike the turbofan engine described below. Turbofans differ from turbojets in that they have an additional fan at the front of the engine, which accelerates air in a duct bypassing the core gas turbine engine. Turbofans are the dominant engine type for medium and long-range airliners . Turbofans are usually more efficient than turbojets at subsonic speeds, but at high speeds their large frontal area generates more drag . Therefore, in supersonic flight, and in military and other aircraft where other considerations have
5225-507: The first car being completed on January 17, 1921, that being a Silver Ghost with a documented chassis price of US$ 11,750 ($ 200,715 in 2023 dollars ). When the factory closed in 1931, 2,944 total vehicles had been produced. It was located at the former American Wire Wheel factory on Hendee Street, with the administration offices at 54 Waltham Ave. Springfield was the earlier location for the Duryea Motor Wagon Company ,
5320-467: The first ground attacks and air combat victories of jet planes. Following the end of the war the German jet aircraft and jet engines were extensively studied by the victorious allies and contributed to work on early Soviet and US jet fighters. The legacy of the axial-flow engine is seen in the fact that practically all jet engines on fixed-wing aircraft have had some inspiration from this design. By
5415-712: The form of rocket engines they power model rocketry , spaceflight , and military missiles . Jet engines have propelled high speed cars, particularly drag racers , with the all-time record held by a rocket car . A turbofan powered car, ThrustSSC , currently holds the land speed record . Jet engine designs are frequently modified for non-aircraft applications, as industrial gas turbines or marine powerplants . These are used in electrical power generation, for powering water, natural gas, or oil pumps, and providing propulsion for ships and locomotives. Industrial gas turbines can create up to 50,000 shaft horsepower. Many of these engines are derived from older military turbojets such as
5510-719: The government's request. The first model, the Rolls-Royce Eagle, entered production in 1915. Two Eagles powered Alcock and Brown 's first non-stop trans-Atlantic crossing by aeroplane mounted on their converted Vickers Vimy bomber. In 1921, Rolls-Royce opened a new factory in Springfield, Massachusetts in the United States to help meet a three-year backlog demand where a further 1,703 "Springfield Ghosts" and 1,241 Phantoms were built. This factory, called Rolls-Royce of America, Inc., operated for 10 years, with
5605-458: The late 1990s. This, combined with greatly decreased fuel consumption, permitted routine transatlantic flight by twin-engined airliners by the turn of the century, where previously a similar journey would have required multiple fuel stops. The principle of the jet engine is not new; however, the technical advances necessary to make the idea work did not come to fruition until the 20th century. A rudimentary demonstration of jet power dates back to
5700-540: The location where the first American gasoline-powered vehicle was built. Bodies for American assembly were supplied by Brewster & Co. in Long Island City, New York . After the First World War, Rolls-Royce successfully avoided attempts to encourage British car manufacturers to merge. Faced with falling sales of the 40/50 Silver Ghost in short-lived but deep postwar slumps Rolls-Royce introduced
5795-466: The naval vessels of 25 different nations. Over 175 industrial customers operated Rolls-Royce gas turbines for power generation, gas and oil pumping and other industrial purposes. Its single most important customer was the United Kingdom's government. In the preceding five years about 70 per cent of production went outside the United Kingdom. Leavesden Aerodrome , Watford was originally owned by
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#17327734059155890-394: The net thrust of a rocket engine is: Where F N {\displaystyle F_{N}} is the net thrust, I sp,vac {\displaystyle I_{\text{sp,vac}}} is the specific impulse , g 0 {\displaystyle g_{0}} is a standard gravity , m ˙ {\displaystyle {\dot {m}}}
5985-419: The new Crewe Bentley could out-perform its famous predecessors. Immediately after World War II (when fully-tooled pressed-steel cars were produced in the factory, rather than chassis sent to a coachbuilder for a custom-built body ) until 2002, standard Bentley and Rolls-Royce cars were usually nearly identical – Bentleys were badge engineered ; only the radiator grille and minor details differed. In 1933,
6080-404: The nozzle but their static values drop as the gas speeds up. The velocity of the air entering the nozzle is low, about Mach 0.4, a prerequisite for minimizing pressure losses in the duct leading to the nozzle. The temperature entering the nozzle may be as low as sea level ambient for a fan nozzle in the cold air at cruise altitudes. It may be as high as the 1000 Kelvin exhaust gas temperature for
6175-476: The ownership of the receiver, it began to trade in April 1971 – manufacturing motor cars, diesel and petrol engines, coachwork and other items previously made by Rolls-Royce's motor car and diesel divisions and Mulliner Park Ward. It continued to take on precision engineering work on sub-contracts. In June 1971, it acquired all the business and assets used by the motor car and diesel divisions of Rolls-Royce and Mulliner Park Ward. Rolls-Royce Motors' permitted uses of
6270-634: The plant to be shut down. The continuing support of the trade creditors was also achieved by the receiver in spite of threats to demand immediate payments in full and to withdraw supplies. The first asset sold was British Aircraft Corporation bought equally by Vickers and GEC. The receiver floated Rolls-Royce Motors in 1973. The new owner, Rolls-Royce (1971) Limited, had among its board members Lord Cole (a former chairman of Unilever), Sir Arnold Weinstock (managing director of GEC), Hugh Conway (managing director Rolls-Royce Gas Turbines), Dr Stanley Hooker (Rolls-Royce Bristol), Sir William Cook (an adviser to
6365-580: The quantities required by the War Office . However, with the exception of Brazil Straker in Bristol, Rolls-Royce resisted pressure to license production to other manufacturers, fearing that the engines' much admired quality and reliability would risk being compromised. Instead the Derby factory was extended to enable Rolls-Royce to increase its own production rates. By the late 1920s, aero engines made up most of Rolls-Royce's business. Henry Royce's last design
6460-456: The range of diesel engines included: In 1907, Charles Rolls, whose interests had turned increasingly to flying, tried unsuccessfully to persuade Royce and the other directors to design an aero engine. When World War I broke out in August 1914, Rolls-Royce (and many others) were taken by surprise. As a manufacturer of luxury cars, Rolls-Royce was immediately vulnerable, and Claude Johnson thought
6555-434: The recognition Rolls-Royce had no resources left and it voluntarily entered receivership 4 February 1971. There were said to have been acrimonious telephone conversations between US president Richard Nixon and the British prime minister Edward Heath but these were subsequently denied. Responding to questions as to how the situation could have arisen the chief executive advised that in their calculations they were guided by
6650-664: The remaining capital of Park Ward Limited which, since 1936, in conjunction with Rolls-Royce had been building short production runs of all-metal saloon bodies on Bentley chassis. In 1959, Rolls-Royce bought coachbuilder H J Mulliner and the two businesses were put together as H J Mulliner Park Ward. Luxury cars did not fit with the new mood of post-war austerity. After starting design and development of what became their C series diesel engine range in 1948, Rolls-Royce began to produce diesel engines in 1951. By 1955, it provided diesel engines for automotive, railway, industrial, earth-moving and marine use. Sentinel (Shrewsbury) Limited
6745-500: The sale. However the government would not fix a purchase price for the assets until the situation became clearer because without a continuing business many of them might be worthless. In the meantime the government would use the assets to continue the activities of the aero-engine, marine and industrial gas turbine and small engine divisions that were important to national defence, the collective programmes with other countries and to many air forces and civil airlines. A new company (1971)
6840-424: The same basic physical principles of thrust as a form of reaction engine , but is distinct from the jet engine in that it does not require atmospheric air to provide oxygen; the rocket carries all components of the reaction mass. However some definitions treat it as a form of jet propulsion . Because rockets do not breathe air, this allows them to operate at arbitrary altitudes and in space. This type of engine
6935-507: The same name This set index article includes a list of related items that share the same name (or similar names). If an internal link incorrectly led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rolls-Royce&oldid=1245971429 " Categories : Set index articles Rolls-Royce British brands Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description
7030-578: The small sports/racing car maker and potential rival, after the latter's finances failed to weather the onset of the Great Depression . Rolls-Royce stopped production of the new Bentley 8 Litre , which was threatening sales of their current Phantom, disposed of remaining Bentley assets and using just the Bentley name and its repute. After two years of development Rolls-Royce introduced a new and quite different ultra-civilised medium-size Bentley,
7125-561: The smaller, affordable Twenty in 1922, effectively ending the one-model policy followed since 1908. The new 40/50 hp Phantom replaced the Silver Ghost in 1925. The Phantom III, introduced in 1936, was the last large pre-war model. A strictly limited production of Phantoms for heads of state recommenced in 1950 and continued until the Phantom VI ended production in the late 1980s. In 1931, Rolls-Royce acquired Bentley ,
7220-549: The southern edge of that city. The new factory was largely designed by Royce, and production began in early 1908, with a formal opening on 9 July 1908 by Sir John Montagu . The investment in the new company required further capital to be raised, and on 6 December 1906, £100,000 of new shares were offered to the public . In 1907, Rolls-Royce bought out C.S. Rolls & Co. The non-motor car interests of Royce Ltd. continued to operate separately. During 1906 Royce had been developing an improved six-cylinder model with more power than
7315-539: The state of the art in compressors. Alan Arnold Griffith published An Aerodynamic Theory of Turbine Design in 1926 leading to experimental work at the RAE . In 1928, RAF College Cranwell cadet Frank Whittle formally submitted his ideas for a turbojet to his superiors. In October 1929, he developed his ideas further. On 16 January 1930, in England, Whittle submitted his first patent (granted in 1932). The patent showed
7410-407: The success of their estimates in the launching of their Spey engine. Had the government simply nationalised Rolls-Royce it would have been unable to avoid the obligations to Lockheed. The situation was handled in the usual manner with the assets being sold for cash, in this case to the government, leaving the massive liabilities to be dealt with by Rolls-Royce Limited using the funds realised by
7505-432: The turbines. Ram compression jet engines are airbreathing engines similar to gas turbine engines in so far as they both use the Brayton cycle . Gas turbine and ram compression engines differ, however, in how they compress the incoming airflow. Whereas gas turbine engines use axial or centrifugal compressors to compress incoming air, ram engines rely only on air compressed in the inlet or diffuser. A ram engine thus requires
7600-436: The various Rolls-Royce trade marks were very precisely defined. At the end of 1972, Rolls-Royce Motors employees in the United Kingdom numbered 5,855 in the car division and 2,311 in the diesel division, for a total of 8,166 people. In May 1973, the business was sold to Rolls-Royce Motors Holdings Limited in preparation for its public flotation . Jet engine A jet engine is a type of reaction engine , discharging
7695-468: The war most Rolls-Royce flight testing of engines was carried out from Hucknall Aerodrome . The Merlin crossed over into military land-vehicle use as the Meteor powering the Centurion tank among others. Many Meteor engines used engine blocks and parts that failed requirements for high performance engines, but were suitable for use in the derated 480 kW (640 hp) Meteor. In December 1942, over
7790-479: The war, in 1946, Rolls-Royce and Bentley car production moved to Crewe where they began to assemble complete Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars with body pressings made by the Pressed Steel Company (see W. A. Robotham ). Previously they had built only the chassis, leaving the bodies to specialist coach-builders. In 1939, Rolls-Royce brought one of the specialist coachbuilders completely in-house by buying
7885-603: Was Britain's 14th largest company in terms of manpower. It was generally known that problems had recently arisen requiring government support of the RB211 programme as one outcome of intense financial competition with Pratt & Whitney and General Electric for the original RB211 contract. In the new year of 1971 financial problems caused largely by development of this new RB211 turbofan engine designed and developed for Lockheed Aircraft Corporation 's new L-1011 TriStar led, after several government-provided cash subsidies, to
7980-604: Was able to demonstrate the basic concept. Ohain was then introduced to Ernst Heinkel , one of the larger aircraft industrialists of the day, who immediately saw the promise of the design. Heinkel had recently purchased the Hirth engine company, and Ohain and his master machinist Max Hahn were set up there as a new division of the Hirth company. They had their first HeS 1 centrifugal engine running by September 1937. Unlike Whittle's design, Ohain used hydrogen as fuel, supplied under external pressure. Their subsequent designs culminated in
8075-435: Was bought in 1956. Sentinel made machine tools and industrial locomotives. Rolls-Royce took over Sentinel's Shrewsbury factory for diesel engine production and all its diesel work was transferred there. West Riding manufacturer of diesel shunting locomotives, Thomas Hill (Rotherham) Limited , was added to the group in 1963. In 1973, when Shrewsbury activities were put under the umbrella of new owner, Rolls-Royce Motors,
8170-406: Was built in 1903 by Norwegian engineer Ægidius Elling . Such engines did not reach manufacture due to issues of safety, reliability, weight and, especially, sustained operation. The first patent for using a gas turbine to power an aircraft was filed in 1921 by Maxime Guillaume . His engine was an axial-flow turbojet, but was never constructed, as it would have required considerable advances over
8265-578: Was eventually adopted by most manufacturers by the 1950s. Austrian Anselm Franz of Junkers ' engine division ( Junkers Motoren or "Jumo") introduced the axial-flow compressor in their jet engine. Jumo was assigned the next engine number in the RLM 109-0xx numbering sequence for gas turbine aircraft powerplants, "004", and the result was the Jumo 004 engine. After many lesser technical difficulties were solved, mass production of this engine started in 1944 as
8360-593: Was granted a patent for a jet engine design in March 1935. Republican president Manuel Azaña arranged for initial construction at the Hispano-Suiza aircraft factory in Madrid in 1936, but Leret was executed months later by Francoist Moroccan troops after unsuccessfully defending his seaplane base on the first days of the Spanish Civil War . His plans, hidden from Francoists, were secretly given to
8455-555: Was incorporated that May to purchase substantially the whole of the undertakings and assets of the four divisions of Rolls-Royce connected with gas turbine engines. The original company, Rolls-Royce Limited, was placed in liquidation on 4 October 1971. Asking their own government for support Lockheed warned that a switch to either Pratt & Whitney or General Electric engines would delay production by an extra six months and might force Lockheed into bankruptcy. The receiver negotiated with Lockheed which consented to waive damages allowing
8550-673: Was introduced to Charles Rolls at the Midland Hotel, Manchester on 4 May of that year. Rolls was proprietor of an early motor car dealership, C.S. Rolls & Co. in Fulham . In spite of his preference for three- or four-cylinder cars, Rolls was impressed with the Royce 10, and in a subsequent agreement on 23 December 1904 agreed to take all the cars Royce could make. There would be four models: All would be badged as Rolls-Royces and be sold exclusively by Rolls. The first Rolls-Royce car,
8645-658: Was moved there in 1946 for space to construct bodies and to leave space for aero engines at Derby. The site was bought from the government in 1973. It is now Bentley Crewe . In 1940, a contract was signed with the Packard Motor Car Company in Detroit, Michigan, for the production of Merlin aero-engines for World War II in the USA. Production focused on aero engines but a variant of the Merlin engine, known as
8740-427: Was still rather worse than piston engines, but by the 1970s, with the advent of high-bypass turbofan jet engines (an innovation not foreseen by the early commentators such as Edgar Buckingham , at high speeds and high altitudes that seemed absurd to them), fuel efficiency was about the same as the best piston and propeller engines. Jet engines power jet aircraft , cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles . In
8835-658: Was the Merlin aero engine, which was first flown in prototype form in 1935, although he had died in 1933. This was developed from the R engine, which had powered a record-breaking Supermarine S.6B seaplane to almost 400 mph (640 km/h) in the 1931 Schneider Trophy . The Merlin was a powerful supercharged V12 engine and was fitted into many World War II aircraft: the British Hawker Hurricane , Supermarine Spitfire , de Havilland Mosquito (twin-engine), Avro Lancaster (four-engine) (a development of
8930-409: Was the motivation behind the development of the gas turbine engine, the most common form of jet engine. The key to a practical jet engine was the gas turbine , extracting power from the engine itself to drive the compressor . The gas turbine was not a new idea: the patent for a stationary turbine was granted to John Barber in England in 1791. The first gas turbine to successfully run self-sustaining
9025-665: Was used in Armstrong Whitworth AW.660 Argosy , Avro 748 , Fokker F27 Friendship , Handley Page Herald and Vickers Viscount aircraft, whilst the more powerful Tyne powered the Breguet Atlantique , Transall C-160 , Short Belfast , and Vickers Vanguard , and the SR.N4 hovercraft . Many of these turboprops are still in service. Amongst the jet engines of this period was the RB163 Spey , which powers
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