RMweb Premium PaternosterRow Posted February 21, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 21, 2012 Just seen 'the making of a Jumbo Jet engine' on BBC4 - WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW. The engine featured was one of the new generation of Trent Jets made by Rolls Royce at Derby - thank God Ted Heath had the foresight to save the company in the seventies. I know it has little to do with modeling, well apart from the fact that each engine is lovingly put together by hand! What a reassuring thought that is. It was amazing to see how the engineers use computers to create models of new parts, especially the internal combustion blades - these in turn are created out of wax by skilled modelers before going on to be cast. Who said that British engineering and skill is dead? We may not be making innovative designs regarding trains anymore, but have moved much higher up the scale of efficient travel technology - not even General Electric (the only other large jet engine manufacturer in the world) can compete with the Derby boffins. It was a brilliant program and it's refreshing, and relieving, to note that RR are keen to encourage apprenticeships and are thereby keeping some of the best brains in the world at home. In my life time I've seen some of the best British engineering sold off and let go to other countries so lets hope the government sees sense and jealously guards this technology from the rest of the world for a change. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
highpeak Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 - not even General Electric (the only other large jet engine manufacturer in the world) I'm not sure Pratt and Whitney would be very pleased by that statement! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allegheny1600 Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 I think the OP was referring to commerical civil jet engine manufacturers, otherwise P&W, Snecma(?),other European & various Russian & Chinese makers would all feel left out? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brossard Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 P&W is still a player in commercial engines (PW4000 and, more recently, PW1000) but they did let their market share lapse, preferring to focus on military engines. P&W Canada (where I worked for 30 years) is the market leader in turboprops, turboshafts and turbofans (for business jets mostly) under 20,000 lbs. John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
highpeak Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Pratt still has a pretty big share of the commercial market, though of course how you measure it would give you different shares. They are also partners with both GE and R-R on some projects. In some respects they are to Connecticut what R-R is to Derby as far as manufacturing employment goes, even more so if you look at their parent company, United Technologies. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave777 Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Wheeltappers thread...? (yes I am a 'correct forum' Nazi) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PLD Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Saw it at the first showing a few months ago. The whole series was interesting. It rather emphasises that what Britain does best is the low-volume, high-precision/high-tech stuff, and leave the low-tech mass-produced stuff (like toy trains! ) to the Far-East… Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium PaternosterRow Posted February 25, 2012 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted February 25, 2012 Hi all, Forgive my ignorance of the jet engine industry. It's just that the program did mention the fact that the RR Trent series are the best commercial jet engines available and that even General Electrics haven't managed to copy, or even come close to, RR's technique in the development of lightweight turboprop blades. The fact is that RR's engines are purportedly to be the most green jet engines on the planet because of their fuel efficient design; saving £3 million a year in fuel costs for a modern airliner! In my opinion, if there's anyway out of the current financial crisis in the West then it's going to found in the development of high end green technology and that there is no finer country than GB for know how and ingenuity when it comes to invention. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Ron Ron Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 The Trent is indeed a success story and RR are a company Britain can be proud of, but lets not get carried away with the jingoism. The Trent has 40% of the market for very large engines and powers half of all A380's delivered or ordered so far, but I think it' fair to say its competitor is just as advanced technologically. Although a RR engine, many vital parts and subsystems for this engine are designed and manufactured by "foreign" companies, including the vital control systems which I believe are American. . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
martin1 Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 it just go to show we can still be the best.......pity the goverment wont support the railand auto industry the same... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jukebox Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 The Trent is indeed a success story and RR are a company Britain can be proud of, but lets not get carried away with the jingoism. *snip*. Indeed... As a counterpoint, it would not be unreasonable to suggest that the 459 souls onboard QF32 would be something less than complimentary towards RR, and that the engine maker has been given around 100 million reasons to be less than satisified with the Trent program than when that documentary was filmed. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Ron Ron Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 It just go to show we can still be the best...... The point is we are not necessarily the best, but are up there with the best in this particular market sector for very large high-bypass turbofans. These days, most of the various engine products they produce, are the result of collaborative or joint ventures with other engine manufacturers. It's worth noting that RR have recently had to reduce its involvement in the much larger market for medium sized jet engines, having sold its one third share in International Aero Engines. AFAIK RR will remain a subcontractor and will continue to supply the same parts as it did before. In addition, RR are transferring much of their production capacity from Derby, to a new production plant in Singapore. .....pity the goverment wont support the rail and auto industry the same... The government don't support RR. When privatised, RR had under 10% of the market for very large turbofanfan engines. As a private company, unsupported by government, they have grown that share of what is now a much bigger market, to almost 50%. The rail industry is privatised and apart from a few very small specialist car makers, all the car manufacturing companies are all foreign owned. The government will be supporting train manufacturing if the new factory at Newton Aycliffe gets the go ahead. . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
beeman Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 Looks like the Aussie comment is full of envy, not best for once, and with nothing comparable how sad.!. With this level of technology something CAN go wrong when components are run to their limits, don't forget the US Apollo disaster, even with the money thrown into that program. I joined a supplier of parts to RR in 1970, only to find a few months later RR had gone bust. the Trent engine development bankrupting them, Fortunately RR was saved and I kept my position. This demonstrated Companies need to be successful to invest for theirs and this countries future, the general thought train of Governments here is to 'Milk' those that are.Will they never learn.!. Fantastic insite into RR. One of the few icons we have left. Thanks to our capable masters of whatever Party. Beeman. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Ron Ron Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 .....a few months later RR had gone bust. the Trent engine development bankrupting them, ..... Sorry, I can't resist plonking the pedant hat on 'me bonce. RR went bust in 1971 due to the cost of the RB211 development programme. Although it can trace its parentage back to the RB211, the Trent engine came almost two decades later. Pedant hat off and put back in the cupboard. . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted February 27, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 27, 2012 RB211? ISTR a conversation with a chap who'd worked on that when 20,000 lbs of thrust was on offer. By the time we were talking, he noted it was now about 60,000, which is progress in anyone's terms. In the meantime he'd been a senior on the Central Line refurbishment and was now Investment Advisor at BRB. He then went on to be a bit famous as a Fat Cat, buying and then selling a ROSCO. Some people have more interesting careers than others! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium PaternosterRow Posted February 29, 2012 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted February 29, 2012 The Trent is indeed a success story and RR are a company Britain can be proud of, but lets not get carried away with the jingoism. The Trent has 40% of the market for very large engines and powers half of all A380's delivered or ordered so far, but I think it' fair to say its competitor is just as advanced technologically. Although a RR engine, many vital parts and subsystems for this engine are designed and manufactured by "foreign" companies, including the vital control systems which I believe are American. . Hi Ron I was merely referring to the very long list of industrial and technological achievements that have come out of GB in the last 200 years. It seems a great shame that a nation that kick started the industrial revolution seems destined to be drowned by petty consumerism because of a lack of investment. I am from an Irish background so am hardly being over zealous - just merely stating the facts as I see them. That technological list is very long indeed - just start off with the steam engine and work upward from there. I worked in Digbeth, Birmingham for about ten years and got sick of the site of low loaders taking away heavy machinery every weekend - these pieces of industrial kit were destined for far flung countries, but more importantly the chance for apprenticeships went with them! GB has become a nation of buyers in recent decades and it's important that current government understands that it is time to create jobs in industry (work of substance) instead of perpetuating the whole raft of public service positions drummed up in the last twenty years. It makes no sense training an army of paper pushers when you could have welders instead. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
beeman Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 Further to PaternosterRow's comments to which I completely agree, and strangely my forebears coming from Ireland.for employment in the mining industry to escape the famine. This country succeeded previously in having the technological goods others wanted/needed. The difficulty today is being able to produce at a price others will pay, this is where China and India are winning, and the price of having an affluent society. Reflect back to the cotton mills, British industry in the Victorian days, and living standard comparisons. The future will be more competitive, wait for Sth America to get into the act. Not bothered myself, age will remove me from the frame. Beeman. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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