Rolls-Royce plc (LSE: RR.) is a British aircraft
engine maker; the second-largest in the world, behind General Electric Aviation. The
company has related businesses in the defence aerospace, marine and energy markets.
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 defence aerospace division, the world's 16th largest defence contractor.[1] Defence aerospace sales accounted for 21% of group
sales in 2005, civil aerospace 53%, marine 17% and energy 8%.[2]
History
Rolls-Royce Limited was founded in 1906 by Henry
Royce and The Honourable 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 S6.B 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 one of the best fighters of its time, its Merlin engine built by
Packard under licence. 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 and its
military variant the Andover, Friendship, Herald
and Viscount aircraft, whilst the more powerful Tyne powered the Atlantic, Transall and the Vanguard. Many of these turboprops are still in service.
Rolls-Royce engines had traditionally borne numeric designations during development and then were assigned the name of a
British river on delivery. The use of river names was introduced with the earliest Rolls jet engines to reflect their nature: a
steady flow of power rather than the pulses of a piston engine. RB stands for "Rolls Barnoldswick", the latter a major ex-Rover facility bought by
Rolls-Royce when it traded production of engines (the Rolls Royce Meteor) for
production of the first Whittle engines.
Amongst the jet engines of this period was the RB163 Spey which powers the
Trident, BAC 1-11, Grumman Gulfstream II and Fokker F28. Military versions of the
Spey powered the Buccaneer S2 for the RAF, the
Phantom F4K and F4M, and the Nimrod. The Spey was licence
built by Allison Engine Company as the TF41 for the A-7 Corsair II. Other types of military engines produced in the second half of the 20th Century include
the Avon and Viper; these engines
powered many of the British Aircraft of this period.
Also of this period was the Conway, a low (by today's standards) bypass ratio
turbofan which was used on some Boeing 707's, Douglas DC-8's and all Vickers VC10s as well as on the MkII variant of the Victor bomber for the RAF.
During the late 1950s and '60s 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, which had
itself resulted from the merger of Armstrong Siddeley and Bristol in 1959, and 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 supplier for the Lockheed L-1011 (TriStar),
Rolls-Royce committed heavily to the RB211 engine, but its development was hampered by
considerable problems and on February 4 1971 Rolls-Royce went
into administrative receivership. To save the company, Edward Heath's government nationalised it. The automotive division
was separated from the aircraft engine division in 1973 as Rolls-Royce Motors. A
side-effect of this affair was a change in accounting regulations to forbid the capitalisation of expenditure on research. This
practise had resulted in Rolls Royce massively overstating its assets, thus disguising its financial difficulties until it was
too late.
Privatisation & expansion
Rolls-Royce plc was privatised in 1987 under the government of Margaret Thatcher.
The 1980s saw the introduction of a policy to offer an engine on every civil aircraft type, with
the company's engines now powering 17 different airliners (and their variants) compared to General Electric's 14 and Pratt & Whitney's 10.
In 1988, Rolls-Royce acquired Northern Engineering Industries (NEI), a group of heavy
engineering companies mainly associated with electrical generation and power management, based in the North East of England. The group included Clarke Chapman (Cranes),
Reyrolle (now part of VA Tech) and Parsons (now part of Siemens Steam turbines). The company was renamed Rolls Royce Industrial
Power Group. It was sold off piecemeal over the next decade as the company re-focused on its core aero-engine operations
following the recession of the early 1990s.
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, the most recent of which is the newly
announced BR725.
Allison acquisition
In November 1994 Rolls-Royce announced its intention to acquire the Allison Engine
Company, an American manufacturer of gas turbines and components for aviation, industrial and marine engines. Rolls-Royce
had previously tried to buy the company when General Motors sold it in 1993, but GM opted
for a management buyout instead. Owing to Allison's involvement in classified and export restricted technology, the 1994
acquisition was subject to investigation to determine the national security implications. On 27 March 1995 the Department of
Defense announced that the "deal between Allison Engine Co. and Rolls-Royce does not endanger national security."[3] Rolls-Royce
was, however, obliged to set up a proxy board to manage Allison and had also to set up a
separate company, Allison Advanced Development Company, Inc., to
manage classified programmes "that involve leading-edge technologies". In 2000 this restriction was replaced by a more
flexible Special Security Arrangement.
The Allison acquisition 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.
In 1996 Rolls-Royce and Airbus signed a
Memorandum of Understanding specifiying the Trent 900 as the engine of choice for the then A3XX, now the Airbus
A380.
1999 acquisitions
Rolls-Royce spent £1.063 billion on acquisitions in 1999. These were interests of Cooper Energy
Services (with the effect of making the Cooper Rolls joint venture a wholly owned
subsidiary of Rolls-Royce), Vickers, National Airmotive
Corporation and BMW's share of BMW Rolls-Royce.
Rolls-Royce acquired Vickers plc for its marine businesses. Vickers had expanded this
part 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 then became Alvis Vickers, then the largest
armoured vehicle company in the UK.
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 became a 100% owned subsidiary of Rolls-Royce plc.
Data Systems & Solutions was founded in 1999 as a joint venture
between Rolls-Royce plc and Science Applications International
Corporation (SAIC). In early 2006, SAIC exited the joint venture agreement, making Rolls-Royce plc the sole owner.
Recent events
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.
On June 13 Rolls Royce were awarded a £110m deal with the Ministry of Defence to supply engines for its C-130 Hercules transport aircraft for the next 5 years.[1]
In July 2006, Rolls-Royce reached an agreement to supply a new version of the Trent for the revised Airbus A350 (XWB) jetliner. Although details have yet to be released, it is likely that the so-called
Trent XWB will be significantly larger than the Trent 1700, basically a
throttle-push of the Trent 1000 intended for the original A350 proposal.
In October 2006 Rolls-Royce announced that it would suspend
production of its Trent 900 engine because of delays by Airbus on the delivery of the A380 superjumbo. Rolls-Royce has not confirmed
any arrangements for staff working on the project, who could be suspended for 12 months. Rolls-Royce has said it will consult
with Airbus and then with the union. The plant in Derby, UK employs 11,000 workers and will continue to produce engines for Bombardier, Boeing, including those for the new 787 series and other Airbus
aircraft such as the A330 and A340.
On the military side, Rolls-Royce has been (in cooperation with other European manufacturers) a major contractor for the
RB199 which in several variants powers the Panavia
Tornado, and also for the EJ200 engine for the Eurofighter Typhoon. Two modified RB199 engines also powered the EAP demonstrator which evolved into the Typhoon.
At the 2005 Paris Air Show Rolls Royce secured in excess of $1 billion worth of
orders. The firm received $800m worth of orders from Air China to supply its 20
Airbus A330 jets[2]. It then received $5.6bn worth of orders at the 2007 Paris Air Show for the new
Trent XWB to power the Airbus A350 from Qatar Airways[3].
At the 2007 Paris Air Show Rolls-Royce won a record $15.1bn of orders from clients,
including the largest single order in the company's history for $5.6bn for the new Trent XWB.
Current operations
Rolls-Royce's aerospace business makes commercial and military gas turbine engines for
military, civil, 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. 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. Rolls-Royce Marine Power
Operations Ltd (a subsidiary company)manufactures and tests nuclear
reactors for Royal Naval submarines.
Rolls-Royce Trent 900 on A380 prototype on the
Airbus A380. This aircraft carries
four.
Rolls-Royce Pegasus schematic
Civil Aerospace
Airliners
Regional aircraft
Helicopters
Defence Aerospace
Combat aircraft
Helicopters
Transport market
Trainer market
Tactical market
Unmanned aerial vehicle market
Marine
Gas turbines
Diesel engines
Propulsion
Submarine
Hydrodynamic Bearings
Energy - oil & gas
Gas turbines
Compressors
Energy - power generation
Gas turbines
Reciprocating engines
Distributed generation systems
- Field Electrical Power Source (FEPS)
- APU 2000 vehicle power unit
- Marine generator sets
Competitors
- General Electric (GE)
- Engine Alliance (a joint venture between GE and fellow US firm Pratt & Whitney)
- Pratt & Whitney
References
- Peter Pugh, (2000), Icon Books, The Magic of a Name: The Rolls-Royce Story The First 40 Years. ISBN 1 84046 151 9
- Peter Pugh, (2001), Icon Books, The Magic of a Name: The Rolls-Royce Story Part 2 The Power Behind the Jets. ISBN 1
84046 284 1
- Peter Pugh, (2002), Icon Books, The Magic of a Name: The Rolls-Royce Story Part 3 A Family of Engines. ISBN 1 84046
405 4
- ^
www.defensenews.com:Top 100
Defense Contractors 2007
- ^ Rolls-Royce (2005)
Rolls-Royce Annual Report 2005
External links
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