100 years of Rolls-Royce
WORKERS with Hucknall's biggest employer, Rolls-Royce, have been basking in the company's centenary this month.
For it was on May 4, exactly 100 years ago, when the first meeting took place of Henry Royce and the Hon. Charles Rolls.
This was a partnership whose name was to become a symbol of quality and engineering excellence.
After their meeting at the Midland Hotel, Manchester, Royce – a humble man but a consummate engineer – agreed with Rolls, a pioneer motorist and supplier to the aristocracy, to market his motor cars under the name Rolls-Royce.
By 1905, the company was formed and, a year later, the motoring Press hailed the latest model, the Silver Ghost, "the best car in the world".
The Manchester factory could not cope with the demand, so the company moved to Derby. It was from here that the first aero engine, the Eagle, was developed and built.
This engine became a major contributor to the First World War and later powered the Vickers Vimy that propelled Alcock and Brown across the Atlantic.
Royce's final design before his death in 1933 was the Merlin aero engine, which powered the Hurricane in 1935 and the Spitfire a year later.
These aircraft were to come to the nation's defence during the Battle Of Britain and for the rest of the war.
By the end of the war, Frank Whittle had invented the jet engine. But it was Rolls-Royce which converted the designs into production engines.
A boom both in military and civil aircraft followed over the next decade, with the company's 'River' series of engines (such as the Dart, Spey and Avon) predominating.
The merger of Rolls-Royce with Bristol Siddeley in 1966 brought two world-beating projects to fruition – the Olympus engine for supersonic Concorde and the unique Pegasus engine for the Harrier jump jet.
But dark days were ahead and the development costs of Rolls-Royce's latest programme, the innovative RB211 engine, brought the company to its knees in 1971.
The government of the day and the receiver kept their nerve, however, and the company was taken into State ownership.
The company's car division, now at Crewe, was sold off and, within months, the financial and technical problems were solved.
The RB211 flew successfully, first in Lockheed's TriStar and then in Boeing's jumbo jet, the 747.
In 1987, the company returned to the private sector and a range of RB211 engines followed which formed the basis of today's highly-successful products, the Trent family of engines.
These engines, which are tested at the Hucknall plant on Watnall Road, can now power virtually all available modern civil aircraft and will power tomorrow's latest designs, the giant Airbus A380 and Boeing's 7E7 'Dreamliner'.
Rols-Royce's director of engineering and technology, Dr Mike Howse, said: "I am sure Rolls-Royce engineers of the future will rise to ever-changing challenges posed by the next century, built on the firm foundation of the company's first century of innovation. Will Rolls-Royce be around for the next 100 years? You bet it will."
Hucknall site started with staff of 15
THE link of Rolls-Royce with Hucknall goes back 70 years.
One employee, Cyril Lovesey, a private pilot and a member of Nottingham Flying Club, saw spare capacity at the town's aerodrome and suggested that the company set up an operation there.
Capt R.Shepherd, of the same flying club, was appointed chief test pilot and there was inititally a staff of 15, writes Robin J.Brooks in his book, 'Nottingham And Derbyshire Airfields In The Second World War'.
Another author, Eric Horriben, claims in his book, 'Of Lowly Birth And Iron Fortune', that Rolls-Royce's arrival came at a grim time of severe unemployment.
"But it did little to alleviate matters," he writes. "In fact Rolls-Royce brought problems and the council was both disappointed that nothing could be done about the noise nuisance and also with the rateable value of the company's premises."
He adds that an appeal to the County Valuer brought the reply that "the combination of Rolls-Royce Ltd, plus HM Government, does not mean unlimited resources of rateable value."
The first aircraft to be used by Rolls-Royce at Hucknall were a Hawker Hart, a Hawker Fury and a Gloster Gnatsnapper.
Engine development duly began there and the PV12 flew for the first time, installed in a Hart biplane, on April 12 1935.
In the run-up to the start of the war, Mr Brooks's book continues, the Hucknall plant was very busy indeed with development and testing of a variant of the engine that was to power many aircraft – the Merlin..
During the war, the company formed a Royal Air Force liaison team at Hucknall to give instruction about the operation of Rolls-Royce engines and report back on any problems.
Many Hurricanes brought to Hucknall as wrecks came out of the workshops ready to fly another day..
It was from the airfield's Rolls-Royce site that German pilot Franz von Werra made his famous escape bid in 1940.
Rolls-Royce's Hucknall plant has gone on to play a key part in the advance of aviation.
It hit the national headlines in the 1950s with testing of the ground-breaking Flying Bedstead vertical take-off aircraft, a prototype of the Harrier 'Jump Jet'.
A sculpture to commemorate the 'Bedstead' was unveiled in the grounds of Hucknall's Holgate Comprehensive School only two months ago.
The Hucknall plant is now set to share in the major boost for Rolls-Royce in winning an order for its Trent 1000 engine, which could amount to 50 billion over the next 20 years.
And although there is uncertainty about the future of the plant as an engine-testing site, there are major plans in the pipeline to protect the jobs of 800 people currently employed there and create up to 600 new ones.
These would involve turning Hucknall into the national centre for Rolls's combustion industry and converting its airfield into an industrial hub, attracting fresh businesses, unconnected with the firm.
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Sunday 05 February 2012
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