Rolls-Royce plc

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Template:Infobox Company) |

company_slogan = Trusted to deliver excellence|
foundation = 1987|
location = London, United Kingdom|
key_people = Simon Robertson (Chairman)
Sir John Rose (CEO)|
num_employees = 35,372 (2004)|
industry = Aerospace & Defence|
products = Civil & military aero engines
Marine propulsion systems
Power generation equipment|
revenue = Image:Green up.png £6.603 billion (2005)|
homepage = http://www.rolls-royce.com

}} Rolls-Royce plc is the second-largest aircraft engine maker in the world, behind General Electric Aviation.

Rolls-Royce was nationalised in 1971 by which time aircraft engines had long been the most significant part of the business. The automobile company was separated in 1973 and the present Rolls-Royce plc was re-privatised in 1987. Rolls-Royce is, through its military engine division, the world's 18th largest defence contractor.Template:Ref Defence sales accounted for 23% of group sales in 2004, civil aerospace 51%, marine 16% and energy 8%. Template:Ref

Contents 1 History 1.1 Nationalisation & separation 1.2 Privatisation & expansion 2 Current operations 2.1 Civil Aerospace 2.1.1 Airlines 2.1.2 Regional aircraft 2.1.3 Helicopters 2.2 Defence Aerospace 2.2.1 Combat aircraft 2.2.2 Helicopters 2.2.3 Transport market 2.2.4 Trainer market 2.2.5 Tactical market 2.2.6 Unmanned aerial vehicle market 2.3 Marine 2.3.1 Gas turbines 2.3.2 Diesel engines 2.3.3 Waterjets 2.3.4 Submarine 3 References 4 External links

History

The Rolls-Royce company was founded in 1906 by Henry Royce and C.S. Rolls and produced its first aircraft engine in 1914.

Around half the aircraft engines used by the Allies in World War I were made by Rolls-Royce. By the late 1920s, aero engines made up most of Rolls-Royce's business. Henry Royce's last design was the Merlin aero engine, which came out in 1935 although he had died in 1933. This was a development subsequent to the R engine, which had powered a record-breaking Supermarine S6B seaplane to almost 400mph in the 1931 Schneider Trophy.) The Merlin powered many World War II aircraft: the British Hawker Hurricane, Supermarine Spitfire, De Havilland Mosquito (twin-engined), Avro Lancaster (4-engine), Vickers Wellington (2-engine); it also transformed the American P-51 Mustang into possibly the best fighter of its time, its Merlin engine built by Packard under license. Over 160,000 Merlin engines were produced.

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 journey times within several continents whilst jet airliners were introduced on longer services. The Dart engine was used in Argosy, Avro 748, Friendship, Herald and Viscount aircraft, whilst the more powerful Tyne powered the Atlantic, Transall, Vanguard and the SRN-4 hovercraft. Many of these turboprops are still in service.

Amongst the jet engines of this period was the RB163 Spey which powers the Trident, BAC 1-11, Grumman Gulfstream II and Fokker F28.

During the late 50's and 60's there was a significant rationalisation of the British aero-engine manufacturers, culminating in the merger of Rolls-Royce and Bristol Siddeley in 1966 (Bristol Siddeley had itself resulted from the merger of Armstrong-Siddeley and Bristol in 1959). Bristol, with its principal factory at Filton, near Bristol, had a strong base in military engines, including the Olympus, which was chosen for Concorde.

Nationalisation & separation

Having been selected as the sole engine for the Lockheed L-1011 (Tristar) Rolls-Royce committed heavily to the RB211 engine. Development of the RB211 was hampered by considerable problems and on February 4, 1971 Rolls-Royce was declared bankrupt. To save the company Edward Heath's government nationalized it. The automotive division was separated from the aircraft engine division in 1973 as Rolls-Royce Motors.

Privatisation & expansion

Rolls-Royce plc was privatized in 1987 under Margaret Thatcher. Following this return to the private sector Rolls Royce has gone from strength to strength. The 1980s saw the introduction of a policy to offer an engine on every civil aircraft type with the company now powering 17 different airliners (and their variants) compared to General Electric's 14 and Pratt & Whitney's 10.

In 1988, Rolls Royce acquired NEI (North Eastern Industries), a group of companies associated with electrical generation and power management, based in the North East of England. The company included Clarke Chapman (Cranes), Reyrolle - now part of VA Tech - (Transformers) and Parsons - now part of Siemens - (Steam turbines). The compamny was renamed Rolls Royce Industrial Power Group.

In 1990 BMW and Rolls-Royce established the BMW Rolls-Royce joint venture to produce the BR700 range of engines for regional and corporate jets. Rolls-Royce acquired the Allison Engine Company in 1995 from General Motors. This brought four new engine types into the Rolls-Royce civil engine portfolio on seven platforms and several light aircraft applications. Allison is now known as Rolls-Royce Corporation, part of Rolls-Royce North America, which also includes the former Cooper Rolls joint venture which became wholly owned after Rolls-Royce bought out the share owned by Cooper Cameron Corporation, which had inherited it on being split off from Cooper Industries. This acquisition included virtually all of Cooper's remaining presence in its Mount Vernon, Ohio birthplace.

In 1996 Rolls-Royce and Airbus signed a Memorandum of Understanding specifiying the Trent 900 as the engine of choice for the then A3XX.

Rolls-Royce has established a leading position in the corporate and regional airline sector through the development of the Tay engine, the Allison acquisition and the consolidation of the BMW Rolls-Royce joint venture. In 1999 BMW Rolls-Royce was renamed Rolls-Royce Deutschland and in 2000 this group became a 100% owned subsidiary of Rolls-Royce plc.

Also in 1999 Rolls-Royce acquired Vickers plc for its marine businesses. Vickers had expanded this section of its business in the period leading up to the purchase; acquiring Kamewa, a manufacturer of waterjets, in 1996 and Ulstein, a major marine propulsion and engineering company, in 1998. Rolls-Royce sold Vickers Defence Systems (the other major Vickers area of business) to Alvis plc in 2002 which formed Alvis Vickers, then the largest armoured vehicle company in the UK.

On April 6, 2004 Boeing announced that it had selected both Rolls-Royce and General Electric to power its new 787. Rolls-Royce submitted the Trent 1000, a further development of that series. GE's offering is the GENX, a development of the GE90.

Current operations

See List of Rolls-Royce engines for details of applications and past engines

Rolls-Royce's aerospace business makes commercial and military gas turbine engines for military, airline, and corporate aircraft customers worldwide. In the U.S., the company makes engines for regional and corporate jets, helicopters, and turboprop aircraft. Rolls-Royce also constructs and installs power generation systems and is one of the world's largest makers of marine propulsion systems. Its core gas turbine technology has created one of the broadest product ranges of aero-engines in the world, with 50,000 engines in service with 500 airlines, 2,400 corporate and utility operators and more than 100 armed forces, powering both fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft.

Image:RB211 BLX.jpg Image:RR Trent A380.JPG Image:RR-408 Pegasus.jpg

Civil Aerospace

Airlines

• RB211
• Trent series
• V2500 (as part of International Aero Engines)

Regional aircraft

• AE 2100
• AE 3007
• BR700)
• FJ44
• Model 250
• Tay

Helicopters

• Model 250

Defence Aerospace

Combat aircraft

• Adour (with Turbomeca)
• EJ200 (as part of Eurojet)
• F136 (with General Electric)
• Pegasus
• RB199 (as part of Turbo-Union)
• Spey

Helicopters

• AE 1107C-Liberty
• Gem
• Model 250 turboshaft
• MTR390 (with MTU and Turbomeca)
• RTM322 (with Turbomeca)
• T800 (with Honeywell)

Transport market

• AE 1107C-Liberty
• AE 2100
• Model 250 turboprop
• T56
• Tay
• TP400-D6 (as part of Europrop International)

Trainer market

• Adour (with Turbomeca)
• FJ44 (with Williams International)
• Model 250 turboprop
• Viper

Tactical market

• AE 1107C-Liberty
• AE 2100
• AE 3007
• BR710
• Model 250 turboprop
• Spey
• T56
• T800 (with Honeywell)
• Tay

Unmanned aerial vehicle market

• AE 3007
• Model 250 turboshaft
• Viper

Marine

Gas turbines

• Allison 501
• MT30
• MT50
• Spey
• WR-21 (with Northrop Grumman)

Diesel engines

• Bergen series
• Crossley Pielstick

Waterjets

• Kamewa Waterjets

Submarine

• PWR1 Reactor
• PWR2 Reactor

References

1. Template:Note www.defensenews.com:Top 100 Defense Contractors
2. Template:Note Rolls-Royce (2004) Rolls-Royce Annual Report 2004

External links

• Rolls-Royce
• Rolls-Royce Civil Aerospace
• Rolls-Royce Defence Aerospace
• Rolls-Royce Marine Solutions
• Rolls-Royce Energy Generation
• Rolls-Royce History
• Rolls-Royce Education
• Rolls-Royce Careers
• The Jet Engine - A book by Rolls-Royce

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