London Aerospace Students Visit the Rolls-Royce Headquarters
By Margaret Foltz, Aerospace Engineering

The day started early, and I was already a little unsure about this trip. "Why would I want to get up early to go to the Rolls-Royce plant? Unless I get to see some old cars, it can’t be worth it. Oh well," I thought. "It’ll all be over by 3:00 p.m. anyway." Shortly after that Mary Clark, Chiara Kruse, and I met Dr. Dunn at the train station. We took the express train to Derby; the British pronounce it Darby. When we arrived, we climbed into a Rolls-Royce van and were chauffeured to one of the many plants in the area. We had to sign in at the front desk and get temporary IDs from the security guard. Everything about the place impressed me, from the uniform on the guard to the wood furniture to the atmosphere. I felt I was in the presence of greatness, and I’d only just walked in the front door.

Soon Paul Bogers came down to meet us. He’s technical assistant to Phil C. Ruffles, director of engineering and technology. He gave us a brief corporate overview of Rolls-Royce.

Rolls-Royce (RR) has been around since 1907, but the company hasn’t made cars for years. As an aerospace engineering student, I knew they made airplane engines, but I didn’t realize that engines are nearly 50 percent of their business. The other half is made up of power plants and submarine engines. On a chart displaying what airplane engines RR makes, there were only three airplanes in 1980. Now there are 32. What’s the secret of their success?

Bogers explained that from the very beginning RR has compartmentalized their engines. In an air-breathing engine, the turbine blades at the back of the engine, after the combustor, drive the compressor blades in the front of the engine. RR separated the turbine blades into three sections with three axles so that the rotation of the compressor blades could be more easily controlled and move at different speeds. This allowed RR to make a more efficient engine, by moving each section of the engine at the speed of optimal efficiency. Another benefit of this system is that sections from different engines RR had already developed could be mixed and matched to meet whatever requirements the buyer had. The same is true today. There are basically five engines they currently produce, but other engines can easily be created because of all the experience they have. RR is currently working on an engine with companies from the U.S. and three other countries, but their top-of-the-line engine is the Trent800, which can generate up to 108,000 lbs. of thrust.

After the corporate overview, Bogers took us through the Technology Exhibition. Rolls-Royce has plants and buyers all over the world. The display included parts of the engines they build. To make the fan blades lighter – since having less weight is always important in airplanes – RR builds them as two sheets with struts in between. This actually gives more stability, reduces weight, and eliminates the need for the turbulence-creating outer support fins that decrease efficiency. Other metal parts are inflated to the right shape using compressed gas while the metal is still hot. They also join pieces using electron-beam bonding instead of simply welding the pieces together. This makes for a seamless junction and cuts down on how many pieces need to be assembled on the plant floor, which reduces the chance of something being installed incorrectly.

To me the most interesting parts of all the pieces in the RR engine were the turbine blades. For added strength, they are literally grown as a single crystal. A wax model is carefully formed around the cooling system, and then a ceramic mold is formed around that. The wax melts when the ceramic is hardened, leaving the mold and the cooling system ready for the metal. Instead of pouring hot metal into the mold, the metal grows inside the mold. A little pigtail-like knob is placed at the end of the mold to ensure the metal grows in the right direction.

For the other students on the trip, the highlight was the New Engine Assembly and Test Area. The plant in Derby, where the headquarters have always been, is able to build an entire engine in 15 days. They ship out one or two engines every day, carefully testing each one to make sure it works properly before trucking the engine to the buyer. In spite of this large output, the actual plant is fairly small.

The reason the facility is able to build each engine so quickly is that instead of moving the engine down an assembly line, each engine is built by a small team of workers. These workers have been carefully trained in how to build one particular engine and they put the entire engine together, from the tub-like inner casing to the electronics to the fuel lines. When we walked through, some of the men were sitting inside the engine they were working on. At another station, the fan blades had been installed, and our tour guide demonstrated that it only took a small amount of force to move the blades because there was so little friction on the axle. The precision with which the fans were made was equally impressive; there is only one sixteenth of an inch between the fan blades and the casing.

The Test Area was composed of several bays with a control room for every two bays. Engines hung from a dynamometer support with a large cage placed in front of the intake to block any debris. This isn’t to say that the engine couldn’t handle the debris; in fact, each type of engine undergoes rigorous tests to ensure it can swallow four 1.5-lb. birds and still operate for an hour. After the testing, the engines are delivered to the buyers.

And RR certainly delivers; they are now second only to General Electric. You can check the engines on the next flight you take to see if they are RR or American. What’s the difference? In RR engines the fan blades rotate clockwise, while all U.S. engine fan blades rotate counterclockwise.

We weren’t able to spend too much time in the assembly or testing areas because we had scheduled lunch with Director Ruffles. Upon leaving the plant, we were chauffeured to the dining building and escorted upstairs to the executive eating area. There was a private room waiting for the six of us, along with two servers. The food was delicious. While we were eating, Director Ruffles told us more about RR, and we told him about the journeys we’ve been taking while we are studying in London. Lunch was cut short when he needed to return for a meeting. We thanked him for allowing us to visit the site, and plans were made for continuing the interaction in future years. It’s unfortunate that RR doesn’t recruit in the U.S., because Derby is definitely a place I would be willing to work.

We didn’t get home by 3:00 p.m., and I didn’t see any old cars, but I didn’t mind one bit.

Margaret Foltz participated in the Fall 1999 London Program.