Mention the name Rolls-Royce and
probably the first thing you think about
is the quintessential British luxury
cars the brand that says look at me I've
made it beloved by rappers, pop stars on
entrepreneurs and royalty but the cars are
only a small part of a much bigger
business that helped change the world as
we know it.
So what else do Rolls-Royce do other
than making rather posh cars. The
Rolls-Royce that we see today is quite a
different business to how it started out.
In 1906 with a collaboration of Henry
Royce, a car builder and engineer and
Charles Rolls the owner of one of the
first quality car dealerships. Whilst
Rolls-Royce started out making luxury
cars it soon enter the aero engine
market during the First World War
because of the quality of air
engineering. Starting with a contract to
make engines under license from Renault
ironically Charles Rolls who was an
early aviator was killed in an air
accident in 1914, just
years after the company's formation and
he gained the unenvied title of being the
first briton to be killed in a powered
airplane accident. During the First World
War Henry Royce designed the company's
first aero engine called the Eagle based
in part on an enlarged version of a
Rolls-Royce silver ghost car engine.
After the war
Rolls-Royce Eagle engines powered the
first nonstop transatlantic flight by
Alcock & Brown in 1919 and then the first
flight from England to Australia which
is a testament to vary liability even in
those early days. In the 1930's
the aero engine side of the
business produced one of the most
memorable engines ever to be made. The 27
litre Merlin V12. This was the last
engine to be designed by the remaining
founder Henry Royce before his death in
1933.
The Merlin V12 went on to power some of
the most iconic and effective fighters
and bombers used by the Allies in World
War Two, including the Supermarine
Spitfire, the Hawker Hurricane, the Avro
Lancaster and the North American P-51
Mustang, the engine of which was built in
the U.S. under license by Packard. In all
over 200,000 Merlin's were produced and
because of the engine's performance and
durability they are credited with being
one of our factors in providing victory
for the Allies. Before the end of the war
Rolls-Royce took the first jet engine
developed by Frank Whittle to produce
for Rolls-Royce RB.23 Welland,
Britain's first production jet engine
which was fitted to the Gloucester Meteor
in 1943. Although the RB.23 was only a
short lived engine, just 167
were built, it set the sites
of Rolls-Royce firmly on jet engine
development and production. In the
following decades through a series of
company takeovers Rolls-Royce ended up
with the Olympus, the jet engine for the
nuclear V-force. The most famous of which
was the Vulcan bomber, this in due course
led to the Rolls Royce SNECMA Olympus 593
which powered the world's first and
only supersonic plane a Concorde. In the
late 1960s Rolls-Royce developed the
RB211 the world's first three spool
engine for the new generation of
wide-body Jets like the Lockheed Tristar. This
would turn rolls-royce into a global
leader in the aero engine business and
provide the basis of a current
generation of Trent engines.
However problems in the development of
the new engine forced the original
Rolls-Royce company into administration
leading to it being nationalized by the
British government.
In 1973 it was split into two separate
companies Rolls-Royce Motors which made
the cars and was ultimately sold to BWW
in 1998 and Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC
which continued to make aero engines.
Rolls-Royce's aero engines were not only
used for planes but also for power
generation has backup for nuclear power
stations and fulfilling for peak demand
for the UK's national grid as well as
offshore power units for situations like
oil rigs. Their engines are also found in
ships and submarines. the Rolls-Royce
MT30 gas turbine generators are used
power some of the most modern ships and
navies around the world including the US
Navy's newest and largest destroyer ever
built the USS Zumwalt. This $3.5 billion
ship has an all electric drive
system power by two 35.4 megawatts
rolls-royce MT30's along with 2 3.8
megawatt Rolls-Royce RR4500 turbine
generators. This total of 78
megawatts of power is almost equal to
that of a nuclear-powered aircraft
carrier and can run the ship and the
equivalent of a small town at the same
time. The Rolls-Royce MT30 uses a Trent
800 Aerojet engine like those fitted to
the Boeing 777. The Royal Navy's latest
super aircraft carriers for HMS Queen
Elizabeth and the HMS Prince of Wales due
in 2017 and 2020 respectively also use
dual Rolls-Royce MT30's to
power their 20 megawatt electric drives.
The planes that will be used on the new
Royal Navy aircraft carriers include the
Lockheed Martin f-35 Lightning II. The
Rolls-Royce lift system allows the f-35
vertical takeoff and thrust vectoring
whilst being able to travel at
supersonic speeds. Rolls-Royce also make
nuclear pressurized water reactors for
the Royal Navy's Trident nuclear missile
submarines. In keeping with the biggest
US Navy destroyer, Rolls-Royce makes the
Trent 900 engines for the largest
commercial aircraft in the world the
Airbus A380. These huge Rolls-Royce Trent
XWB97 engines produce 97,000 pounds of
thrust each at takeoff and have a fan
diameter of just under 10 feet across.
These along with other world-leading
engines like the Trent 1000 for the
Boeing 787 Dreamliner, show just how far
Rolls-Royce have come from their
original vision of Charles Rolls and
Henry Royce to make quality cars back in
1906. Thank you for watching I hope you
enjoyed the video and if you did then
please thumbs up subscribe share and
comment and don't forget we have other
videos available which you may also find
interesting on the link which is showing
now so until the next time it's goodbye
from me.