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 . Defence sales accounted for 23% of group sales in 2004, civil aerospace 51%, marine 16% and energy 8%.
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 ,
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
Airline s to cut journey times within several continents whilst
Jet Airliner s 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 .
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 .
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 .
''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,
Helicopter s, 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 .
