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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 0744.PDF
FLIGHT International, 16 May 1963 111 Impression of external-combustion (surface-burning) aircraft for operation at Mach 5 to Mach IS (3,300 to 9,900 m.p.h.) at heights be tween 100,000 and 200,000ft ROLLS-ROYCE ACHIEVEMENTS AND FUTURE POSSIBILITIES By the Technical Editor Aircraft Propulsion, 1953-73 I N 1945 Rolls-Royce Ltd had only one staple product: piston aero engines, the Merlin and Griffon. But the famous company were committed to a broad programme of gas-turbine develop ment for aircraft propulsion. Today this field is the largest of a range of activities embracing the provision of power for aircraft, rail traction, civil and military land vehicles, surface vessels, nuclear submarines, air-cushion vehicles and electric power generation. The Aero Engine Division employs 8,500 people on research, design and development, occupying 2,300,000 sq ft of floor space at Derby, Hucknall, Barnoldswick and Spadeadam, and 24,500 on production and overhaul occupying 4,750,000 sq ft at Derby, Ilkeston and Mountsorrel, and at the Scottish factories at Blantyre, Cardonald, East Kilbride, Hamilton, Hillington and Larkhall. There are overseas subsidiaries in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France and Spain, and an associated company is Napier Aero Engines Ltd. In conjunction with BEA and BOAC, Rolls-Royce invited the Press to Derby last month on the tenth anniversary of the entry into airline service of the Viscount. It was therefore natural that the firm should have taken a long look back at the first ten years of turbine power in the world's airlines. Today it is a relatively rare event to ride in a piston-engined airliner, or even to hear one pass overhead; and this is largely because of Rolls-Royce. Today this company powers more turbine-engined civil transport aircraft than do all other Western manufacturers put together. Rolls-Royce turbine transports built or on order at the time of writing number 1,335, and the way in which this total has grown is shown in Table 1. Table 2 indicates the number of aircraft ordered with the five current Rolls-Royce civil engines, the number of such engines delivered, the hours flown and the maximum current time between overhauls. An account of the background of experience gained by the com pany with civil turbine engines appeared in this journal last January 17. Total flight-time of all Rolls-Royce turbines was then approxi- Table 1953 Airlines 8 Other operators ' 1 Aircraft delivered 22 Aircraft on order 1 65 1: Rolls-Ro 1954 16 2 44 133 1955 23 7 88 207 yce T 1956 37 II 163 288 urbine Transports 1957 42 16 243 299 1958 [1959 60 34 349 293 70 58 550 281 I960 75 87 702 276 1961 96 102 875 250 1962 104 124 1.028 228 1963 113 130 1.093 242 Note: figures are for December 31 except for 1963. Table 2: Rolls-Royce Civil Engines Type First airline service Customers Countries Aircraft Engines delivered Hours in service * MaxTBO (hr) Avon turbojet Oct 58 29 24 227 900 + 3,090,000 3,8O0hr Conway turbofan April 60 II 8 113 400 * 1,644,000 5,300+ Dart turboprop April 53 204 45 860 3,500- 22,728,000 4.300 Spey turbofan end 63 8 6 71 40 r — — Tyne turboprop Dec 60 5 3 64 400 I 867,000 3,600i Note: this table excludes all military engines of the same type; * at May 1; t with half-life check. 0-2 OH .V •V F «F .C .Ct w .C JZt .Ct c c • <-lc P.a D -Ct.B £ £— STAGE (hr) Figs 1, 2, 3 and 4; reliability of civil engines is shown by actual records of fight shut-downs per 1,000hr (above) for F-27s, Viscounts, Caravelles. Comets, 707s, and DC-8s, and by the curves of basis shut-downs and unscheduled removals per l,000hr (upper right); below are plotted engine parts cost per scheduled overhaul hour and max 780 for all Rolls-Royce civil turbine engines 5 a O -4 -> 3 ° o A AVON C CONWAY D DART T TYNE •o •» c o 4 5 6 7 YEARS FROM START I960 1962 1963 DART RDa.3&6 1953 54 57 58 TYNE 59 ' 60 63 1964
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