SPEYS FOR THE U.S. HEAVY PRESSURE ON THE U.K. AERO ENGINE MAKERS

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31153, 1 September 1966, Page 14

SPEYS FOR THE U.S. HEAVY PRESSURE ON THE U.K. AERO ENGINE MAKERS

'By

MICHAEL DONNE,

air correspondent of the "Financial Times”. London!

(Reprinted by arrangement I

AUGUST 26.

The prospective United States contract for Rolls-Royce Spey jet engines for the United States Air Force version of the A-7 Corsair fighterbomber will represent a major break-through for the company in one of the most difficult markets in the world. In addition to having a good product, it has taken Rolls-Royce several years of hard work to get the Spey accepted by American military planners. What has helped the Spey is not only its good record in such airliners as the British Aircraft Corporation 1-11 in United States airline service, but also its increasing acceptance elsewhere.

This engine not only powers the Trident airliner and the Buccaneer S-2 military aircraft, but is also designated for the maritime reconnaissance Comet, the Grumman Gulfstream II and Lear Liner Model 40 transports, the Dutch F-28 Fellowship airliner, and the Phantom jets for the navy and Royal Air Force. It is now the most widely adopted turbo-fan jet engine in the world, and even more markets may arise—it is possible, for example, that other, later, versions of the Phantom for American use may also take the Spey. Even before the U.S. deal became known, it was clear that the British aero-engine industry was facing a workload of unprecedented proportions jn peace-time. Out of a total Rolls Royce labour force of nearly 50,000 over 38.000 are employed on aero-engines (aviation activities in the company account for 80 per cent of its total sales and 88 per cent of its profits). The company’s backing already amounts to £169 million, mostly on engines, and even this figure does not include the bulk of the Speys for the Phantoms. Rolls-Royce’s aviation exports of £45 million represented over 75 per cent of all British aero-engine exports in 1965. Vertical Take-off Apart from actual and potential work on Speys, there is a continuing high volume of work on Darts (more of which are being built this year than in any previous year), Tynes, Avons and Conways, while activity on a wide variety of vertical take-off engines is expanding rapidly on an international collaborated basis. Other major programmes include the RB-172 engine for • the Jaguar jet strike-trainer aircraft (jointly with Turbomeca of France), and the big new “advanced technology.” engine contender for the air-bus.

Bristol Siddeley, the other big British aero-engine builder, is just as busy. Apart from current activities on such best-selling engines as the Orpheus (in military types) and the Viper (in the HS-125 jets), Gnomes for helicopters, and Pegasus jets for the P-1127 V.T.O.L. fighter, British Siddeley has a major work programme for the future in the M-45 series of civil and military engines together with the French Snecma company, and on the Olympus 593 engines for the Anglo-French Concord supersonic airliner (for which perhaps as many as 1000 engines may be needed). Bristol Sid-

deiey is also interested in the "big-engine” market for the 1970’5, with its recent agreement with Pratt and Whitney of the U.S. and Snecma to collaborate on the JT9D. This engine will be the Bristol Siddeley/Snecma entry in the important air-bus engine contest. Because of its past work on high-pressure compressors, Bristol Siddeley is expected to undertake developments in this field for Pratt and Whitney. The JT9D has already been selected as the powerunit for the big Boeing 747 “jumbo” jet, and it is understood that talks are in progress for Bristol Siddeley to

undertake possible manufacture in Britain of parts for the JT9D for all 747 s sold throughout the world. If this is achieved, on top of the Olympus for Concord, Bristol Siddeley will have a massive stake in the engine markets of the future. High-cost Engines All these activities are already pressing Rolls-Royce and Bristol Siddeley hard. Aero-engine manufacture is a highly skilled and specialist trade. Each engine is virtually a precision instrument, and the unit cost of one engine can be high—up to £250,000, possibly more, for the big engine types of the future, while the research and development cost of a major new engine is now in the £5O million plus bracket. The heavy burden of current work has created major problems for RollsRoyce and Bristol Siddeley in the shortage of skilled labour and lack of manufacturing capacity. Rolls-Royce is already sub-contracting to Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Japan, while in Britain Bristol Siddeley is doing 30 per cent of the work on the Speys for the R. A. F. and Navy Phantoms.

Rolls-Royce is now preparing a new plant in Ulster, where engineering labour is available, to employ over 2000 on aero-engine components. British Siddeley recently moved into another 90,000 square feet of factoryspace at Birchgrove, Cardiff. Lord Kindersley, chairman of Rolls-Royce, said in the last report that th.e problems of expanding production in a period of acute shortage of skilled labour were “formidable.”

But while both companies will be exceptionally busy into the early 19705, the longer-term future depends to a large extent on decisions that will have to be taken within the next few months. One of these is which engine shall be used in the projected European air-bus, a project that is badly lagging and one which nearly everyone in the aero-space industries of Britain and France wants to see settled soon, for fear the

Americans will move in and capture the market. Another is a decision on the projected Anglo-French variable-geometry supersonic fighter. The engine for this will come from Bristol Siddeley and Snecma, but there is now a delay while British and French Governments try to settle the specification of the aircraft.

Mergers Projected

Much must also depend on whether or not Rolls-Royce manages to achieve a merger with Bristol Aeroplane Company which would give it control of 50 per cent of Bristol

Siddeley as well as airframe interests in such companies as Short Brothers and Harland Westland Aircraft and British Aircraft Corporation. It is possible that these airframe interests might be used as bargaining counters with Hawker Siddeley Aviation for the other 50 per cent of Bristol Siddeley. Any Rolls-Royce control of Bristol Siddeley, however, would not necessarily mean the end of British Siddeley work on the JT9D. This may become highly profitable in the years ahead, and even if Rolls-Royce was to get its own big engine into the air-bus, it would still probably like to have a British stake in the Boeing 747 “jumbo” jet and any other big aircraft of the future using this American JT9D engine. Rolls-Royce has also made a move in recent months which could have a farreaching impact on the entire European aero-engine industry—offering extensive collaboration on civil gas-turbine aero-engines, particularly to companies in France. Sir Denning Pearson, chief executive and deputy chairman of Rolls-Royce, has already said that the company would be “most generous” in giving European companies the benefit of its entire accumulated experience in this field, as well as a major share in its future engine research and development technology—including its big new engine project for the air-bus. If these approaches are successful—and Rolls-Royce is very serious about them—they could result, together with a merger with Bristol Siddeley in the formation of a giant European aero-engine industry, sharing work and projects across the entire spectrum of engine activities, and rivalling anything on the other side of the Atlantic. Rolls-Royce’s view, at least, is that the formation of such a European enterprise, working closely together with a European air-frame industry, is essential if the technological onslaught from the U.S. is not to dominate all world aerospace affairs—and thus also, the potentially lucrative markets—over the next ten to fifteen years.

This article provides an interesting background to remarks by the General Manager of the National Airways Corporation (Mr D, A. Patterson) at a press conference at Wellington last Friday. While amplifying reasons given by N.A.C.’s chairman (Sir Andrew McKee) for preferring the Boeing 737-200 over the British Aircraft Corporation’s 1-11 as replacement for the corporation’s Viscounts, Mr Patterson said the JTBD engines of the 737 were backed by 3.5 million hours of flying, compared with 250,000 hours of flying with the Spey engines of the 1-11.