Rolls Royce 100 years old today!

Today (Tuesday) Rolls Royce celebrated its 100th birthday. Just thought you might like to know.

I have a sign in my office with these words:

"Whatever is rightly done, however humble, is noble."

There are some wonderful quotes from Henry Royce, that is one of the best though.

Yes indeed, Happy Birthday Rolls-Royce!

What a wonderful car as well as some of the most significant Aviation Power-plants in the 20th century. Some of the most significant fighters in WWII would have been at best a mediocre without them.

Rolls also had great success with jet engines to. So much so that the Russians (Soviet Union) loved their Rolls Royce Nene engine that was a gift from the British in 1946 as part of the Anglo-Soviet trade agreement. Copies of this engines put the Soviets years ahead of where they should have been at the time.

The MiG-15 sure surprised the heck out the western powers in Korea.

Somebody sure made a big mistake when they thought that one up didn’t they.


[ 05-05-2004: Message edited by: Bret ]</p>

One of the important things about the Rolls jet engine that the Russians copied was the alloy used in its turbines. I saw on the history channel one time about how some Russian ambasadors got a tour of the Rolls Royce plant and when they went they wore very gummy soled shoes that way they could walk on the floor of the machine shop and pick up bits of the alloy so it could be sent back to Russia to be analyzied.

Cheers,
walter

Great point - I saw that show on the History channel too. But even without the exact formula for the metallurgy behind the engines stator blades, they sure got a good leg up on the overall design work. I suspect that they would have figured it out eventually. Trial & error or better yet just dissect and analyze the engine components.

But ya got’a hand it to them Russians, they ain’t stupid. They took the easy way and just walked into the front door of the RR plant. But regardless all & all - somebody (maybe not Rolls Royce) sure screwed that one up - didn’t they?


[ 05-05-2004: Message edited by: Bret ]</p>