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115-490: One prototype was built. Although the Rotodyne was promising in concept and successful in trials, the programme was eventually cancelled. The termination has been attributed to the type failing to attract any commercial orders; this was in part due to concerns over the high levels of rotor tip jet noise generated in flight. Politics had also played a role in the lack of orders (the project was government funded) which ultimately doomed

230-411: A jet engine , and there is no need for a tail rotor . In high-speed flight the airfoil is stopped in a spanwise position, as the main wing of a three-surface aircraft , and the engine exhausts through an ordinary jet nozzle. Two Boeing X-50 Dragonfly prototypes with a two-bladed rotor were flown from 2003 but the program ended after both had crashed, having failed to transition successfully. In 2013

345-519: A letter of intent stating such, on the condition that all requirements, including noise levels, were met. The Royal Air Force (RAF) had also placed an order for 12 military transport versions. New York Airways signed a letter of intent for the purchase of five at $ 2m each, with an option of 15 more albeit with qualifications, after calculating that a larger Rotodyne could operate at half the seat mile cost of helicopters; however, unit costs were deemed too high for very short hauls of 10 to 50 miles, and

460-786: A "five-shilling meal" at the Swan and Royal hotel in Clitheroe , Stanley Hooker and Ernest Hives of Rolls-Royce agreed with Spencer Wilks of the Rover Car Company that Rolls-Royce would take over top secret work on the development of the jet engine. An exchange of assets followed with Rover and 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 times for shorter journeys whilst jet airliners were introduced on longer services. The Dart engine

575-458: A 25-hour approval testing for the Ministry. While construction of the first prototype was underway, prospects for the Rotodyne appeared positive; according to Wood, there was interest in the type from both civil and military quarters. BEA was monitoring the progress of the programme with interest; it was outwardly expected that the airline would place an order shortly after the issuing of an order for

690-437: A conversation. I mean, the noise of those little jets on the tips of the rotor was just indescribable. So what have we got? The noisiest hovering vehicle the world has yet come up with and you're going to stick it in the middle of a city? There had been a noise-reduction programme in process which had managed to reduce the noise level from 113 dB to the desired level of 96 dB from 600 ft (180 m) away, less than

805-444: A helicopter – with anti-torque and propulsion for forward flight provided by one or more propellers mounted on short or stub wings. As power is increased to the propeller, less power is required by the rotor to provide forward thrust resulting in reduced pitch angles and rotor blade flapping. At cruise speeds with most or all of the thrust being provided by the propellers, the rotor receives power only sufficient to overcome

920-414: A helicopter, autogyros and rotor kites do not have an engine powering their rotors, but while an autogyro has an engine providing forward thrust that keeps the rotor turning, a rotor kite has no engine at all, and relies on either being carried aloft and dropped from another aircraft, or by being towed into the air behind a car or boat. A rotary wing is characterised by the number of blades . Typically this

1035-411: A militarised version of the rotorcraft. The American company Kaman Helicopters also showed strong interest in the project, and was known to have studied it closely as the firm considered the potential for licensed production of the Rotodyne for both civil and military customers. Due to army and RAF interest, development of the Rotodyne had been funded out of the defence budget for a time. During 1956,

1150-579: A minimum of 30 passengers in order to be economical; keen to support the initiative, the Ministry of Supply proceeded to sponsor a series of design studies to be conducted in support of the BEA requirement. Both civil and government bodies had predicted the requirement for such rotorcraft, and viewed it as being only a matter of time before they would become commonplace in Britain's transport network. The BEA Bus requirement

1265-451: A new factory in Derby was opened in 1908. The First World War brought the company into manufacturing aero-engines. Joint development of jet engines began in 1940, and they entered production in 1944. Rolls-Royce has since built an enduring reputation for the development and manufacturing of engines for military and commercial aircraft. In the late 1960s, Rolls-Royce was adversely affected by

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1380-476: A powered rotor was used for downwash investigations. While the prototype was being built, funding for the programme reached a crisis. Cuts in defence spending led the Ministry of Defence to withdraw its support, pushing the burden of the costs onto any possible civilian customer. The government agreed to maintain funding for the project only if, among other qualifications, Fairey and Napier (through their parent English Electric ) contributed to development costs of

1495-566: A range of 250 nautical miles. At the time of the award, Fairey had estimated that £710,000 would cover the costs of producing the airframe. With a view to an aircraft that would meet regulatory approval in the shortest time, Fairey's designers worked to meet the Civil Airworthiness Requirements for both helicopters and similar-sized twin-engined aircraft. A one-sixth scale rotorless model was extensively wind tunnel tested for fixed-wing performance. A smaller (1/15th-scale) model with

1610-412: A state of autorotation to develop lift, and an engine-powered propeller , similar to that of a fixed-wing aircraft , to provide thrust. While similar to a helicopter rotor in appearance, the autogyro's rotor must have air flowing up and through the rotor disk in order to generate rotation. Early autogyros resembled the fixed-wing aircraft of the day, with wings and a front-mounted engine and propeller in

1725-423: A steep climbing turn without demonstrating any adverse handling characteristics. Throughout the world, interest was growing in the prospect of direct city-to-city transport. The market for the Rotodyne was that of a medium-haul "flying bus": It would take off vertically from an inner-city heliport , with all lift coming from the tip-jet driven rotor, and then would increase airspeed, eventually with all power from

1840-429: A tractor configuration to pull the aircraft through the air. Late-model autogyros feature a rear-mounted engine and propeller in a pusher configuration. The autogyro was invented in 1920 by Juan de la Cierva . The autogyro with pusher propeller was first tested by Etienne Dormoy with his Buhl A-1 Autogyro . The rotor of a gyrodyne is normally driven by its engine for takeoff and landing – hovering like

1955-416: A yacht, Silver Ghost . Unofficially the press and public immediately picked up and used Silver Ghost for all the 40/50 cars made until the introduction of the 40/50 Phantom in 1925. The new 40/50 was responsible for Rolls-Royce's early reputation with over 6,000 built. Its chassis was used as a basis for the first British armoured car used in both world wars . Aero-engine manufacturing began in 1914 at

2070-494: A £4 million development contract for the Rotodyne, which was intended to see the type enter service with BEA as a result. As flight testing with the Rotodyne prototype had proceeded, Fairey had become increasingly dissatisfied with Napier and the Eland engine as progress to improve the latter had been less than expected. For the extended 48-seat model of the Rotodyne to be achieved, the uprated 3,500 ehp Eland N.E1.7 would be necessary; of

2185-439: Is a heavier-than-air aircraft with rotary wings that spin around a vertical mast to generate lift . The assembly of several rotor blades mounted on a single mast is referred to as a rotor . The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) defines a rotorcraft as "supported in flight by the reactions of the air on one or more rotors". Rotorcraft generally include aircraft where one or more rotors provide lift throughout

2300-625: Is a powered rotorcraft with rotors driven by the engine(s) throughout the flight, allowing it to take off and land vertically, hover, and fly forward, backward, or laterally. Helicopters have several different configurations of one or more main rotors. Helicopters with a single shaft-driven main lift rotor require some sort of antitorque device such as a tail rotor , fantail , or NOTAR , except some rare examples of helicopters using tip jet propulsion, which generates almost no torque. An autogyro (sometimes called gyrocopter, gyroplane, or rotaplane) uses an unpowered rotor, driven by aerodynamic forces in

2415-412: Is between two and six per driveshaft. A rotorcraft may have one or more rotors. Various rotor configurations have been used: Some rotary wing aircraft are designed to stop the rotor for forward flight so that it then acts as a fixed wing. For vertical flight and hovering it spins to act as a rotary wing or rotor, and for forward flight at speed it stops to act as a fixed wing providing some or all of

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2530-656: The Bentley 3½ Litre . Advertised as "the silent sports car" and very much in the Rolls-Royce mould, it was a private entry by Eddie Hall (but supported by Rolls-Royce) in the 1934, 1935 and 1936 RAC Tourist Trophy sports car races on the Ards Circuit , where it recorded the fastest average speed in each year (ahead of Lagondas and Bugattis). This helped the Sales Department as old Bentley customers had been inclined to doubt that

2645-472: The British government sold it to the public in a share offering . Rolls-Royce plc still owns and operates Rolls-Royce's principal business, although, since 2003, it is technically a subsidiary of Rolls-Royce Holdings plc , a listed holding company . Henry Royce started an electrical and mechanical business in 1884. He made his first car, a two-cylinder Royce 10, in his Manchester factory in 1904. Henry Royce

2760-553: The Civil Aeronautics Board was opposed to rotorcraft competing with fixed-wing on longer routes. Japan Air Lines , which had sent a team to Britain to evaluate the Rotodyne prototype, stated it would experiment with Rotodyne between Tokyo Airport and the city itself, and was interested in using it on the Tokyo - Osaka route as well. According to rumours, the U.S. Army was also interested in buying around 200 Rotodynes. Fairey

2875-591: The Cobra . Due to complaints by Armstrong Siddeley that it too was lacking resources, Fairey also proposed the alternative use of engines such as the de Havilland Goblin and the Rolls-Royce Derwent turbojet to drive the forward propellers. Fairey did not enjoy a positive relationship with de Havilland however, so instead they chose to use D. Napier & Son and its Eland turboshaft engine in April 1953. Following

2990-488: The Hawker Siddeley Trident , BAC One-Eleven , Grumman Gulfstream II and Fokker F28 Fellowship . During the late 1950s and 1960s there was a significant rationalisation of all aspects of British aerospace and this included aero-engine manufacturers. In 1966 Rolls-Royce acquired Bristol Siddeley (which had resulted from the merger of Armstrong Siddeley and Bristol Aero Engines in 1959) and incorporated it as

3105-679: The Meteor , was developed for the Cromwell tank . The Meteor's development completed in 1943 the same team at the Belper foundry restarted work on an eight-cylinder car engine widening its uses and it became the pattern for the British Army's B range of petrol engines for post war combat vehicles in particular in Alvis 's FV600 range, Daimler 's Ferret , Humber 's Hornet and Pig and Austin 's Champ . After

3220-457: The Minister of Supply , on 6 June 1958, stating that "this project must not be allowed to die". Considerable importance was placed upon BEA supporting the Rotodyne by issuing an order; however, the airline refused to procure the aircraft until it was satisfied that guarantees were given over its performance, economy, and noise criteria. Shortly after Fairey's merger with Westland, the latter was issued

3335-635: The Ministry of Defence and used during World War II for the manufacture of Mosquito and Halifax aircraft. For a number of years, Rolls-Royce used the site for the manufacture of helicopter engines until the site closed in June 1993. The former Rolls-Royce factory at Watford is now known as the Leavesden Film Studios and has produced world-famous films, including the James Bond , Star Wars and Harry Potter series. The amalgamations and disappearances of

3450-641: The Rolls-Royce 10 hp , was unveiled at the Paris Salon in December 1904. Rolls-Royce Limited was formed on 15 March 1906, by which time it was apparent that new premises were required for production of cars. After considering sites in Manchester, Coventry , Bradford and Leicester , it was an offer from Derby 's council of cheap electricity that resulted in the decision to acquire a 12.7 acres (51,000 m ) site on

3565-473: The Rolls-Royce 30 hp . Initially designated the 40/50 hp, this was Rolls-Royce's first all-new model. In March 1908, Claude Johnson , Commercial Managing Director and sometimes described as the hyphen in Rolls-Royce , succeeded in persuading Royce and the other directors that Rolls-Royce should concentrate exclusively on the new model, and all the earlier models were duly discontinued. Johnson had an early example finished in silver and named, as if it were

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3680-566: The Royal Air Force (RAF) and Royal Navy elected to procure American-developed helicopters in the form of the Sikorsky R-4 and Sikorsky R-6 , known locally as the Hoverfly I and Hoverfly II respectively. Experience from the operation of these rotorcraft, along with the extensive examination that was conducted upon captured German helicopter prototypes, stimulated considerable interest within

3795-548: The Royal Aircraft Factory asked Rolls-Royce to design a new 200 hp (150 kW) engine. Despite initial reluctance, they agreed, and during 1915, developed Rolls-Royce's first aero engine, the twelve-cylinder Eagle . This was quickly followed by the smaller six-cylinder Hawk , the 190 hp (140 kW) Falcon and, just before the end of the war, the larger 675 hp (503 kW) Condor . Throughout World War I, Rolls-Royce struggled to build aero engines in

3910-493: The 1950s and 1960s left a small number of major airframe manufacturers based in only a few countries. The competition for the very large contracts to supply their engines grew intense. Expensive research and development became vital. Real profits came from the maintenance contracts which might peak a whole human generation later. By the 1980s it was said that each generation of aero engines cost around 10 times that of its parent. At this time Rolls-Royce employed 80,000 people and it

4025-404: The 1987 issue of shares to members of the public Rolls-Royce was by then one of only three enterprises outside USSR and China able to design develop and produce large gas turbine engines. At that time its engines were installed in the aircraft of more than 270 civil carriers and were used by 110 armed services and 700 operators of executive and corporate aircraft. In addition, its turbines powered

4140-610: The Avro Manchester with its unreliable Rolls-Royce Vulture engines), Vickers Wellington (twin-engine); it also transformed the American North American P-51 Mustang into a competitor for the best fighter of its time, its engine a Merlin engine built by Packard under licence. Over 160,000 Merlin engines were produced, including over 30,000 by the Ford Motor Company at Trafford Park, Manchester. During

4255-576: The Bristol Siddeley division. Bristol Siddeley, with its principal factory at Filton , near Bristol , had a strong base in military engines, including the Olympus , Viper , Pegasus (vectored thrust) and Orpheus . They were also manufacturing the Olympus 593 Mk610 to be used in Concorde in collaboration with SNECMA. They also had a turbofan project with SNECMA. According to the prospectus published for

4370-523: The British firms could be forced into mergers; Duncan Sandys , Minister of Aviation , expressed this policy to Fairey and made it known that the price of continued government backing for the Rotodyne would be for Fairey to virtually withdraw from all other initiatives in the aviation field. Ultimately, Saunders-Roe and the helicopter division of Bristol were incorporated with Westland ; in May 1960, Fairey Aviation

4485-509: The Defence Research Policy Committee had declared that there was no military interest in the type, which quickly led to the Rotodyne becoming solely reliant upon civil budgets as a research/civil prototype aircraft instead. After a series of political arguments, proposals, and bargaining; in December 1956, HM Treasury authorised work on both the Rotodyne and Eland engine to be continued until the end of September 1957. Amongst

4600-511: The FB-1 proved its potential during test flights when it achieved a world airspeed record, having attaining a recorded speed of 124.3 mph (200.0 km/h). The programme was not trouble-free however, a fatal accident involving one of the prototypes occurring in April 1949 due to poor machining of a rotor blade flapping link retaining nut. The second FB-1 was modified to investigate a tip-jet driven rotor with propulsion provided by propellers mounted at

4715-727: The Minister of Defence), Sir St. John Elstub (managing director of Imperial Metal Industries ), and Sir Charles Elworthy (former Marshal of the Royal Air Force and Chief of the Defence Staff ). The new aircraft with its three RB211 engines left USA for the first time and arrived in Paris on 1 June 1971. At Palmdale California the L-1011 received its US Federal Aviation Administration's certificate of airworthiness on 14 April 1972, nine months late. On

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4830-629: The Rotodyne and the Eland engine respectively. As a result of disagreements with Fairey on matters of policy, Dr Bennett left the firm to join Hiller Helicopters in California; responsibility for the Rotodyne's development was assumed by Dr George S Hislop, who became the firm's chief engineer. The manufacturing of the prototype's fuselage, wings, and rotor assembly was conducted at Fairey's facility in Hayes, Hillingdon , West London , while construction of

4945-424: The Rotodyne during flight testing was the noise issue and the weight of the rotor system, the latter being 2,233 lb above the original projection of 3,270 lb. In 1959, the British government, seeking to cut costs, decreed that the number of aircraft firms should be lowered and set forth its expectations for mergers in airframe and aero-engine companies. By delaying or withholding access to defence contracts,

5060-508: The Rotodyne was the noise the tip jets made; however, the jets were only run at full power for a matter of minutes during departure and landing and, indeed, the test pilot Ron Gellatly made two flights over central London and several landings and departures at Battersea Heliport with no complaints being registered, though John Farley, chief test pilot of the Hawker Siddeley Harrier later commented: From two miles away it would stop

5175-526: The Tyne engines (5,250 shp/3,910 kW), would have a projected cruising speed of 200 kn (370 km/h). It would be able to carry nearly 8 tons (7 tonnes) of freight; cargoes could have included some British Army vehicles and even the intact fuselage of some fighter aircraft that would fit into its fuselage. It would have also been able to carry large cargoes externally as an aerial crane, including vehicles and whole aircraft. According to some of

5290-545: The US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) published a vertical-to-horizontal flight transition method and associated technology, patented December 6, 2011, which they call the Stop-Rotor Rotary Wing Aircraft. The Australian company StopRotor Technology Pty Ltd has developed a prototype Hybrid RotorWing (HRW) craft. The design uses high alpha airflow to provide a symmetrical airflow across all

5405-486: The aircraft, typically varying in the powerplants used and the internal capacity; the firm made its first submission to the Ministry on 26 January 1949. Within two months, Fairey had produced a further three alternative submissions, centring on the use of engines such as the Rolls-Royce Dart and Armstrong Siddeley Mamba . In October 1950, an initial contract for the development of a 16,000 lb, four-bladed rotorcraft

5520-635: The airline refused to order the Rotodyne, which in turn led to the collapse of the project. It is only relatively recently that interest has been reestablished in direct city-to-city helicopter transport, with aircraft such as the AgustaWestland AW609 and the CarterCopter / PAV . The 2010 Eurocopter X3 experimental helicopter shares the general configuration of the Rotodyne, but is much smaller. A number of innovative gyrodyne designs are still being considered for future development. The Fairey Rotodyne

5635-503: The armed services and industry alike in developing Britain's own advanced rotorcraft. Fairey Aviation was one such company that was intrigued by the potential of rotary-wing aircraft, and proceeded to develop the Fairey FB-1 Gyrodyne in accordance with Specification E.16/47 . The Gyrodyne was a unique aircraft in its own right that defined a third type of rotorcraft, including autogyro and helicopter. Having little in common with

5750-466: The bank would withdraw its overdraft facility on which Rolls-Royce depended at that time. Nevertheless, believing that war was likely to be short-lived the directors initially decided not to seek government work making aero engines. However, this position was quickly reversed and Rolls-Royce was persuaded by the War Office to manufacture fifty air-cooled V8 engines under licence from Renault . Meanwhile,

5865-439: The city centre. When the Rotodyne landed and the rotor stopped moving, its blades drooped downward from the hub. To avoid striking the vertical stabilisers on startup, the tips of these fins were angled down to the horizontal. They were raised once the rotor had spun up. By January 1959, British European Airways (BEA) announced that it was interested in the purchase of six aircraft, with a possibility of up to 20, and had issued

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5980-464: The colour of the Rolls-Royce radiator monogram was changed from red to black; because the red sometimes clashed with the coachwork colour selected by clients, and not as a mark of respect for the death of Royce later that year as is commonly stated. The British government built a shadow factory in Crewe in 1938 for Rolls-Royce where they could build their Merlin and Griffon aero engines. Car production

6095-484: The costs of development were shared half-and-half between Westland and the government, the firm determined that it would still need to contribute a further £9 million in order to complete development and achieve production-ready status. Following the issuing of a requested quotation to the British government for 18 production Rotodynes, 12 for the RAF and 6 for BEA, the government responded that no further support would be issued for

6210-451: The day the chairman of Lockeed said "...we know that in airline service it (RB211) will prove itself to be one of the leading power plants in aviation history". The first airliner was delivered to Eastern Air Lines on 5 April 1972 but it had been beaten in the race to production by McDonnell Douglas 's DC-10 . Rolls-Royce Motors Limited was incorporated on 25 April 1971, two and a half months after Rolls-Royce fell into receivership. Under

6325-650: The demands exerted by the Treasury were that the aircraft had to be both a technical success and would need to acquire a firm order from BEA; both Fairey and English Electric (Napier's parent company) also had to take on a portion of the costs for its development as well. On 6 November 1957, the prototype performed its maiden flight , piloted by chief helicopter test pilot Squadron Leader W. Ron Gellatly and assistant chief helicopter test pilot Lieutenant Commander John G.P. Morton as second pilot. The first flight had originally been projected to take place in 1956; however, delay

6440-433: The engines being transferred to the propellers with the rotor autorotating . In this mode, the collective pitch , and hence drag , of the rotor could be reduced, as the wings would be taking as much as half of the craft's weight. The Rotodyne would then cruise at speeds of about 150  kn (280 km/h) to another city, e.g. , London to Paris, where the rotor tip-jet system would be restarted for landing vertically in

6555-432: The entire flight, such as helicopters , autogyros , and gyrodynes . Compound rotorcraft augment the rotor with additional thrust engines, propellers, or static lifting surfaces. Some types, such as helicopters, are capable of vertical takeoff and landing . An aircraft which uses rotor lift for vertical flight but changes to solely fixed-wing lift in horizontal flight is not a rotorcraft but a convertiplane . A helicopter

6670-413: The estimated £7 million needed to produce the larger aircraft, £3 million would be for its engines. BEA was particularly supportive of a larger aircraft, potentially seating as many as 66 passengers, which would have required a still-far greater sum of money to achieve. Fairey was already struggling to achieve the stated performance of the Eland engine and had resorted to adopting a richer fuel mixture to get

6785-496: The first car being completed on January 17, 1921, that being a Silver Ghost with a documented chassis price of US$ 11,750 ($ 200,715 in 2023 dollars ). When the factory closed in 1931, 2,944 total vehicles had been produced. It was located at the former American Wire Wheel factory on Hendee Street, with the administration offices at 54 Waltham Ave. Springfield was the earlier location for the Duryea Motor Wagon Company ,

6900-551: The fixed wings. The rotor blades were a symmetrical aerofoil around a load-bearing spar. The aerofoil was made of steel and light alloy because of centre of gravity concerns. Equally, the spar was formed from a thick machined steel block to the fore and a lighter thinner section formed from folded and riveted steel to the rear. The compressed air was channelled through three steel tubes within the blade. The tip-jet combustion chambers were composed of Nimonic 80 , complete with liners that were made from Nimonic 75. For takeoff and landing,

7015-430: The government had been secured again on the proviso that firm orders would be gained from BEA. The civilian orders were dependent on the noise issues being satisfactorily met; the importance of this factor had led to Fairey developing 40 different noise suppressors by 1955. In December 1955, Dr Hislop said he was certain that the noise issue could be 'eliminated'. According to Wood, the two most serious problems revealed with

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7130-698: The government's request. The first model, the Rolls-Royce Eagle, entered production in 1915. Two Eagles powered Alcock and Brown 's first non-stop trans-Atlantic crossing by aeroplane mounted on their converted Vickers Vimy bomber. In 1921, Rolls-Royce opened a new factory in Springfield, Massachusetts in the United States to help meet a three-year backlog demand where a further 1,703 "Springfield Ghosts" and 1,241 Phantoms were built. This factory, called Rolls-Royce of America, Inc., operated for 10 years, with

7245-449: The initially-selected Dart engine was switched to the Mamba engine of rival firm Armstrong Siddeley . By July 1951, Fairey had re-submitted proposals using the Mamba engine in two and three-engine layouts, supporting all-up weights of 20,000 lb (9.1 t) and 30,000 lb (14 t) respectively; the adopted configuration of pairing the Mamba engine to auxiliary compressors was known as

7360-539: The investment required. Thus ended all work on the world's first vertical take-off military/civil transport rotorcraft. After the programme was terminated, the prototype Rotodyne itself, which was government property, was dismantled and largely destroyed in a fashion reminiscent of the Bristol Brabazon . A single fuselage bay, as pictured, plus rotors and rotorhead mast survived, and are on display at The Helicopter Museum , Weston-super-Mare. The one great criticism of

7475-506: The later Rotodyne, it was characterised by its inventor, Dr JAJ Bennett, formerly chief technical officer of the pre-Second World War Cierva Autogiro Company as an intermediate aircraft designed to combine the safety and simplicity of the autogyro with hovering performance. Its rotor was driven in all phases of flight with collective pitch being an automatic function of shaft torque, with a side-mounted propeller providing both thrust for forward flight and rotor torque correction. On 28 June 1948,

7590-434: The later proposals, the Rotodyne Z would have had a gross weight of 58,500 lb, an extended rotor diameter of 109 ft, and a tapered wing with a span of 75 ft. However, the Tyne engines were also starting to appear under-powered for the larger design. The Ministry of Supply had pledged to finance 50 per cent of the development costs for both the Rotodyne Z and for the model of the Tyne engine to power it. Despite

7705-581: The lift required. Additional fixed wings may also be provided to help with stability and control and to provide auxiliary lift. An early American proposal was the conversion of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter with a triangular rotor wing. The idea was later revisited by Hughes. The Sikorsky S-72 research aircraft underwent extensive flight testing. In 1986 the Sikorsky S-72 Rotor Systems Research Aircraft (RSRA)

7820-525: The location where the first American gasoline-powered vehicle was built. Bodies for American assembly were supplied by Brewster & Co. in Long Island City, New York . After the First World War, Rolls-Royce successfully avoided attempts to encourage British car manufacturers to merge. Faced with falling sales of the 40/50 Silver Ghost in short-lived but deep postwar slumps Rolls-Royce introduced

7935-517: The mismanaged development of its advanced RB211 jet engine and consequent cost over-runs, though it ultimately proved a great success. In 1971, the owners were obliged to liquidate their business. The useful portions were bought by a new government-owned company named "Rolls-Royce (1971) Limited", which continued the core business but sold the holdings in British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) almost immediately and transferred ownership of

8050-459: The naval vessels of 25 different nations. Over 175 industrial customers operated Rolls-Royce gas turbines for power generation, gas and oil pumping and other industrial purposes. Its single most important customer was the United Kingdom's government. In the preceding five years about 70 per cent of production went outside the United Kingdom. Leavesden Aerodrome , Watford was originally owned by

8165-410: The necessary power, a side effect of which was to further aggravate the noticeable noise issue as well as reducing fuel efficiency. As a result of being unable to resolve the issues with the Eland, Fairey opted to adopt the rival Rolls-Royce Tyne turboprop engine to power the larger Rotodyne Z instead. The larger Rotodyne Z design could be developed to take 57 to 75 passengers and, when equipped with

8280-419: The new Crewe Bentley could out-perform its famous predecessors. Immediately after World War II (when fully-tooled pressed-steel cars were produced in the factory, rather than chassis sent to a coachbuilder for a custom-built body ) until 2002, standard Bentley and Rolls-Royce cars were usually nearly identical – Bentleys were badge engineered ; only the radiator grille and minor details differed. In 1933,

8395-447: The noise made by a London Underground train, and at the time of cancellation, silencers were under development, which would have reduced the noise even further — with 95 dB at 200 ft "foreseen", the limitation being the noise created by the rotor itself. This effort, however, was insufficient for BEA which, as expressed by Chairman Sholto Douglas , "would not purchase an aircraft that could not be operated due to noise", and

8510-476: The ownership of the receiver, it began to trade in April 1971 – manufacturing motor cars, diesel and petrol engines, coachwork and other items previously made by Rolls-Royce's motor car and diesel divisions and Mulliner Park Ward. It continued to take on precision engineering work on sub-contracts. In June 1971, it acquired all the business and assets used by the motor car and diesel divisions of Rolls-Royce and Mulliner Park Ward. Rolls-Royce Motors' permitted uses of

8625-634: The plant to be shut down. The continuing support of the trade creditors was also achieved by the receiver in spite of threats to demand immediate payments in full and to withdraw supplies. The first asset sold was British Aircraft Corporation bought equally by Vickers and GEC. The receiver floated Rolls-Royce Motors in 1973. The new owner, Rolls-Royce (1971) Limited, had among its board members Lord Cole (a former chairman of Unilever), Sir Arnold Weinstock (managing director of GEC), Hugh Conway (managing director Rolls-Royce Gas Turbines), Dr Stanley Hooker (Rolls-Royce Bristol), Sir William Cook (an adviser to

8740-431: The profile drag and maintain lift. The effect is a rotorcraft operating in a more efficient manner than the freewheeling rotor of an autogyro in autorotation, minimizing the adverse effects of retreating blade stall of helicopters at higher airspeeds. A rotor kite or gyroglider is an unpowered rotary-wing aircraft. Like an autogyro or helicopter, it relies on lift created by one or more sets of rotors in order to fly. Unlike

8855-419: The profitable but now financially insignificant car division to Rolls-Royce Motors Holdings Limited , which it sold to Vickers in 1980. Rolls-Royce obtained consent to drop the '1971' distinction from its company name in 1977, at which point it became known once again as "Rolls-Royce Limited". The Rolls-Royce business remained nationalised until 1987 when, after having renamed the company to "Rolls-Royce plc",

8970-445: The project, for economic reasons. Accordingly, on 26 February 1962, official funding for the Rotodyne was terminated in early 1962. The project's final end came when BEA chose to decline placing its own order for the Rotodyne, principally because of its concerns regarding the high-profile tip-jet noise issue. The corporate management at Westland determined that further development of the Rotodyne towards production status would not be worth

9085-488: The project. From the late 1930s onwards, considerable progress was made on an entirely new field of aeronautics in the form of rotary-wing aircraft . While some progress in Britain had been made prior to the outbreak of the Second World War , wartime priorities placed upon the aviation industry meant that British programmes to develop rotorcraft and helicopters were marginalised at best. In the immediate post-war climate,

9200-571: The quantities required by the War Office . However, with the exception of Brazil Straker in Bristol, Rolls-Royce resisted pressure to license production to other manufacturers, fearing that the engines' much admired quality and reliability would risk being compromised. Instead the Derby factory was extended to enable Rolls-Royce to increase its own production rates. By the late 1920s, aero engines made up most of Rolls-Royce's business. Henry Royce's last design

9315-452: The range of diesel engines included: In 1907, Charles Rolls, whose interests had turned increasingly to flying, tried unsuccessfully to persuade Royce and the other directors to design an aero engine. When World War I broke out in August 1914, Rolls-Royce (and many others) were taken by surprise. As a manufacturer of luxury cars, Rolls-Royce was immediately vulnerable, and Claude Johnson thought

9430-434: The recognition Rolls-Royce had no resources left and it voluntarily entered receivership 4 February 1971. There were said to have been acrimonious telephone conversations between US president Richard Nixon and the British prime minister Edward Heath but these were subsequently denied. Responding to questions as to how the situation could have arisen the chief executive advised that in their calculations they were guided by

9545-664: The remaining capital of Park Ward Limited which, since 1936, in conjunction with Rolls-Royce had been building short production runs of all-metal saloon bodies on Bentley chassis. In 1959, Rolls-Royce bought coachbuilder H J Mulliner and the two businesses were put together as H J Mulliner Park Ward. Luxury cars did not fit with the new mood of post-war austerity. After starting design and development of what became their C series diesel engine range in 1948, Rolls-Royce began to produce diesel engines in 1951. By 1955, it provided diesel engines for automotive, railway, industrial, earth-moving and marine use. Sentinel (Shrewsbury) Limited

9660-420: The rotor blades, requiring it to drop almost vertically during transition. Inflight transition from fixed to rotary mode was demonstrated in August 2013. Another approach proposes a tailsitter configuration in which the lifting surfaces act as a rotors during takeoff, the craft tilts over for horizontal flight and the rotor stops to act as a fixed wing. Rolls-Royce Limited Rolls-Royce Limited

9775-410: The rotor was driven by tip-jets. The air was produced by compressors driven through a clutch off the main engines. This was fed through ducting in the leading edge of the wings and up to the rotor head. Each engine supplied air for a pair of opposite rotors; the compressed air was mixed with fuel and burned. As a torqueless rotor system, no anti-torque correction system was required, though propeller pitch

9890-629: The rotorcraft had a safety feature: it could hover with one engine shut down with its propeller feathered , and the prototype demonstrated several landings as an autogyro. The prototype was demonstrated several times at the Farnborough and Paris air shows, regularly amazing onlookers. In one instance, it even lifted a 100 ft girder bridge. The Rotodyne's tip drive and unloaded rotor made its performance far better when compared to pure helicopters and other forms of "convertiplanes." The aircraft could be flown at 175 kn (324 km/h) and pulled into

10005-500: The sale. However the government would not fix a purchase price for the assets until the situation became clearer because without a continuing business many of them might be worthless. In the meantime the government would use the assets to continue the activities of the aero-engine, marine and industrial gas turbine and small engine divisions that were important to national defence, the collective programmes with other countries and to many air forces and civil airlines. A new company (1971)

10120-503: The selection of the Eland, the basic design of the rotorcraft, known as the Rotodyne Y , soon emerged; it was powered by a pair of Eland N.El.3 engines furnished with auxiliary compressors and a large-section four-blade main rotor, with a projected all-up weight of 33,000 lb. At the same time, a projected enlarged version, designated as the Rotodyne Z , outfitted with more powerful Eland N.El.7 engines and an all-up weight of 39,000 lb,

10235-565: The small sports/racing car maker and potential rival, after the latter's finances failed to weather the onset of the Great Depression . Rolls-Royce stopped production of the new Bentley 8 Litre , which was threatening sales of their current Phantom, disposed of remaining Bentley assets and using just the Bentley name and its repute. After two years of development Rolls-Royce introduced a new and quite different ultra-civilised medium-size Bentley,

10350-549: The smaller, affordable Twenty in 1922, effectively ending the one-model policy followed since 1908. The new 40/50 hp Phantom replaced the Silver Ghost in 1925. The Phantom III, introduced in 1936, was the last large pre-war model. A strictly limited production of Phantoms for heads of state recommenced in 1950 and continued until the Phantom VI ended production in the late 1980s. In 1931, Rolls-Royce acquired Bentley ,

10465-549: The southern edge of that city. The new factory was largely designed by Royce, and production began in early 1908, with a formal opening on 9 July 1908 by Sir John Montagu . The investment in the new company required further capital to be raised, and on 6 December 1906, £100,000 of new shares were offered to the public . In 1907, Rolls-Royce bought out C.S. Rolls & Co. The non-motor car interests of Royce Ltd. continued to operate separately. During 1906 Royce had been developing an improved six-cylinder model with more power than

10580-518: The strenuous efforts of Fairey to achieve its support, the expected order from the RAF did not materialise — at the time, the service had no particular interest in the design, being more focused on effectively addressing the issue of nuclear deterrence . As the trials continued, both the associated costs and the weight of the Rotodyne continued to climb; the noise issue continued to persist, although, according to Wood: "there were signs that silencers would later reduce it to an acceptable level". While

10695-407: The success of their estimates in the launching of their Spey engine. Had the government simply nationalised Rolls-Royce it would have been unable to avoid the obligations to Lockheed. The situation was handled in the usual manner with the assets being sold for cash, in this case to the government, leaving the massive liabilities to be dealt with by Rolls-Royce Limited using the funds realised by

10810-454: The tail assembly was performed at the firm's factory in Stockport , Greater Manchester and final assembly was performed at White Waltham Airfield , Maidenhead . In addition, a full-scale static test rig was produced at RAF Boscombe Down to support the programme; the static rig featured a fully operational rotor and powerplant arrangement which was demonstrated on multiple occasions, including

10925-526: The tip of each stub wing, being renamed the Jet Gyrodyne . During 1951 and 1952, British European Airways (BEA) internally formulated its own requirement for a passenger-carrying rotorcraft, commonly referred to the Bealine-Bus or BEA Bus . This was to be a multi-engined rotorcraft capable of serving as a short-haul airliner, BEA envisioned the type as being typically flown between major cities and carrying

11040-623: The transition would have been accomplished by extinguishing the tip-jets. During autogyro flight, up to half of the rotocraft's aerodynamic lift was provided by the wings, which also enabled it to attain higher speed. Data from Fairey Aircraft since 1915, Goebel 2015, Gibbings 2011 , Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1958-59. General characteristics Performance Related development Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era Related lists ` Rotorcraft A rotary-wing aircraft , rotorwing aircraft or rotorcraft

11155-463: The war most Rolls-Royce flight testing of engines was carried out from Hucknall Aerodrome . The Merlin crossed over into military land-vehicle use as the Meteor powering the Centurion tank among others. Many Meteor engines used engine blocks and parts that failed requirements for high performance engines, but were suitable for use in the derated 480 kW (640 hp) Meteor. In December 1942, over

11270-470: The war, in 1946, Rolls-Royce and Bentley car production moved to Crewe where they began to assemble complete Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars with body pressings made by the Pressed Steel Company (see W. A. Robotham ). Previously they had built only the chassis, leaving the bodies to specialist coach-builders. In 1939, Rolls-Royce brought one of the specialist coachbuilders completely in-house by buying

11385-599: Was Britain's 14th largest company in terms of manpower. It was generally known that problems had recently arisen requiring government support of the RB211 programme as one outcome of intense financial competition with Pratt & Whitney and General Electric for the original RB211 contract. In the new year of 1971 financial problems caused largely by development of this new RB211 turbofan engine designed and developed for Lockheed Aircraft Corporation 's new L-1011 TriStar led, after several government-provided cash subsidies, to

11500-465: Was a British luxury car and later an aero-engine manufacturing business established in 1904 in Manchester by the partnership of Charles Rolls and Henry Royce . Building on Royce's good reputation established with his cranes , they quickly developed a reputation for superior engineering by manufacturing the "best car in the world" The business was incorporated as "Rolls-Royce Limited" in 1906, and

11615-488: Was a large hybrid rotorcraft termed compound gyroplane . According to Wood, it was "the largest transport helicopter of its day". It featured an unobstructed rectangular fuselage, capable of seating between 40 and 50 passengers; a pair of double- clamshell doors were placed to the rear of the main cabin so that freight and even vehicles could be loaded and unloaded. The Rotodyne had a large, four-bladed rotor and two Napier Eland N.E.L.3 turboprops, one mounted under each of

11730-423: Was also taken over by Westland. By this time, the Rotodyne had flown almost 1,000 people for 120 hours in 350 flights and conducted a total of 230 transitions between helicopter and autogiro — with no accidents. By 1958, the Treasury was already expressing its opposition to further financing for the programme. The matter was escalated to Harold Macmillan , the then Prime Minister , who wrote to Aubrey Jones ,

11845-426: Was awarded. The Fairey design, which was considerably revised over the years, received government funding to support its development. Early on in development, Fairey found that securing access to engines to power its design proved to be difficult. In November 1950, Rolls-Royce chairman Lord Hives protested that the design resources of his company were being stretched too thinly across multiple projects; accordingly,

11960-435: Was bought in 1956. Sentinel made machine tools and industrial locomotives. Rolls-Royce took over Sentinel's Shrewsbury factory for diesel engine production and all its diesel work was transferred there. West Riding manufacturer of diesel shunting locomotives, Thomas Hill (Rotherham) Limited , was added to the group in 1963. In 1973, when Shrewsbury activities were put under the umbrella of new owner, Rolls-Royce Motors,

12075-427: Was controlled by the rudder pedals for low-speed yaw control. The propellers provided thrust for translational flight while the rotor autorotated. The cockpit controls included a cyclic and collective pitch lever, as in a conventional helicopter. The transition between helicopter and autogyro modes of flight would have taken place around 60 mph, (other sources state that this would have occurred around 110 knots);

12190-476: Was fitted with a four-bladed stopped rotor, known as the X-wing. The programme was cancelled two years later, before the rotor had flown. The later canard rotor/wing (CRW) concept added a "canard" foreplane as well as a conventional tailplane, offloading the rotor wing and providing control during forward flight. For vertical and low-speed flight, the main airfoil is tip-driven as a helicopter's rotor by exhaust from

12305-555: Was incorporated that May to purchase substantially the whole of the undertakings and assets of the four divisions of Rolls-Royce connected with gas turbine engines. The original company, Rolls-Royce Limited, was placed in liquidation on 4 October 1971. Asking their own government for support Lockheed warned that a switch to either Pratt & Whitney or General Electric engines would delay production by an extra six months and might force Lockheed into bankruptcy. The receiver negotiated with Lockheed which consented to waive damages allowing

12420-658: Was introduced to Charles Rolls at the Midland Hotel, Manchester on 4 May of that year. Rolls was proprietor of an early motor car dealership, C.S. Rolls & Co. in Fulham . In spite of his preference for three- or four-cylinder cars, Rolls was impressed with the Royce 10, and in a subsequent agreement on 23 December 1904 agreed to take all the cars Royce could make. There would be four models: All would be badged as Rolls-Royces and be sold exclusively by Rolls. The first Rolls-Royce car,

12535-588: Was keen to secure funding from the American Mutual Aid programme, but could not persuade the RAF to order the minimum necessary 25 rotorcraft needed; at one point, the firm even considered providing a single Rotodyne to Eastern Airlines via Kaman Helicopters , Fairey's U.S. licensee, so that it could be hired out to the U.S. Army for trials. All Rotodynes destined for US customers were to have been manufactured by Kaman in Bloomfield, Connecticut . Financing from

12650-495: Was met with a variety of futuristic proposals; both practical and seemingly impractical submissions were made by a number of manufacturers. Amongst these, Fairey had also chosen to submit its designs and to participate to meet the requirement; according to aviation author Derek Wood: "one design, particularly, seemed to show promise and this was the Fairey Rotordyne". Fairey had produced multiple arrangements and configurations for

12765-635: Was moved there in 1946 for space to construct bodies and to leave space for aero engines at Derby. The site was bought from the government in 1973. It is now Bentley Crewe . In 1940, a contract was signed with the Packard Motor Car Company in Detroit, Michigan, for the production of Merlin aero-engines for World War II in the USA. Production focused on aero engines but a variant of the Merlin engine, known as

12880-418: Was proposed as well. In April 1953, the Ministry of Supply contracted for the building of a single prototype of the Rotodyne Y, powered by the Eland engine, later designated with the serial number XE521 , for research purposes. As contracted, the Rotodyne would have been the largest transport helicopter of its day, seating a maximum of 40 to 50 passengers, while possessing a cruise speed of 150 mph and

12995-644: Was the Merlin aero engine, which was first flown in prototype form in 1935, although he had died in 1933. This was developed from the R engine, which had powered a record-breaking Supermarine S.6B seaplane to almost 400 mph (640 km/h) in the 1931 Schneider Trophy . The Merlin was a powerful supercharged V12 engine and was fitted into many World War II aircraft: the British Hawker Hurricane , Supermarine Spitfire , de Havilland Mosquito (twin-engine), Avro Lancaster (four-engine) (a development of

13110-638: Was used in Armstrong Whitworth AW.660 Argosy , Avro 748 , Fokker F27 Friendship , Handley Page Herald and Vickers Viscount aircraft, whilst the more powerful Tyne powered the Breguet Atlantique , Transall C-160 , Short Belfast , and Vickers Vanguard , and the SR.N4 hovercraft . Many of these turboprops are still in service. Amongst the jet engines of this period was the RB163 Spey , which powers

13225-414: Was viewed as inevitable with an entirely new concept such as used by the Rotodyne. On 10 April 1958, the Rotodyne achieved its first successful transition from vertical to horizontal and then back into vertical flight. On 5 January 1959, the Rotodyne set a world speed record in the convertiplane category, at 190.9 mph (307.2 km/h), over a 60-mile (100 km) closed circuit. As well as being fast,

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