Volume Nine Issue Two 1991 Number 27

Volume Nine Issue Two 1991 Number 27
In this issue
I must be the most successful of editors because
no one complains about the content of Archive. I
try to vary the content but invariably, one way
or another, the magazine leans towards the
Company's involvement with the Second World
War. Perhaps this is not surprising as this was
its finest era when, led by one of the country's
greatest industrial leaders it produced men,
machines and methods that were unsurpassed within a single organisation. There never
were such times and there never will be again.
We are fortunate in that a great deal of contemporary records of this period are still in
existence whilst, sadly very little exists prior to
this. I see Archive as a vehicle to promote
aspects of the Company's past that would
otherwise remain obscure and a good example
of this can be seen in this issue. Have you ever
wondered which firms made parts for RollsRoyce during the war? You can cease wondering from now on.
Member Gary Mills gives us another slant on
the Merlin story with a two-part account of the
Ford Motor Company's manufacture of that
engine at Manchester. This article first appeared in Aviation News, 18-31 March 1988, and we
are grateful to its editor for permission to
reproduce it in Archive.
One of the most fascinating aspects of the
Second World War was its organisation. Although it had been expected for a year or so,
when it finally came it brought changes on an
immense scale. The full story may never be told
but a start is made in this issue with a look at
Hives' files for the period. I have chosen a
period covering the first full two months of the
war to give an insight into what he was talking
to the Air Ministry about, and in particular Sir
Wilfrid Freeman, the Air Member for Research
and Development.
Those of you who read this column in the last
issue might have wondered what happened to
the story on snow-shifting on the Great
Western Railway. Sorry about that but at the
last moment the printer had to omit it due to
lack of space. All is now revealed.
Finally, we have more from the pen of Tony
Henniker who recalls his Premium Apprenticeship days in the late twenties/early thirties.
PLEASE NOTE
My internal reference
has changed to
Met/Bir
Editor
CONTENTS
RB 44 Tay
......................................30
Snow Clearance on the GWR ........................... 31
Ford and the Merlin: Part One ......................... 34
Preparing for the Duration ............................... 38
Wartime Sub-contractors .................................. 42
An Apprentice's Story: Part One ..................... 47
.................................... 52
Letters
Cover story
The Rolls-Royce Type BF 40 mm gun modified
for hydraulic operation and mounted on a
Chevrolet truck as a mobile defence weapon. At
the controls is Walter Hampton with Tim
Newbury acting as loader. It is standing on
what is now the main Sinfin car park. The
installation was not a success and was not
proceeded with. The gun is believed to be the
second prototype which, in a modified form, is
on display at the Derby Industrial Museum.
Trust Publications
With the release of Charlie Rolls — Aviation
Pioneer we have now published fifteen books in
our Historical Series. These books are produced
for your benefit and are the result of a great deal
of research and effort by their authors whose
only financial reward is the return of expenses.
In order to keep the prices reasonable as
possible we have to print a number well in
excess of our membership requirements. If
Derby branch members each bought a particular book we would sell only around 850
copies leaving twice as many more to be sold by
other means.
However, you, the members, do not buy all
the books and to put it bluntly I think you
should, even if a particular subject is not
entirely up your street. Only by the sale of these
books do we finance the future publications.
We do not ask for, nor do we get a penny from
the Company. We have recently committed
ourselves to the publication of the last three
books in quick succession because there was a
financial advantage to do so, but it cost us a lot
of money. The amount of stock we now carry of
all titles needs to be significantly reduced to
raise the money for future titles that we have in
preparation. If you think of yourself as a true
Rolls-Royce enthusiast and wish to see the continuation of Historical Series of books, then
your bookshelf should display them all. We will
keep producing them if you keep buying them.
29
RB 44 Tay by Bob Hack
The Tay began life on the drawing boards in 1947 as the Nene IV, but was soon accorded the dignity
of a new type-name. Essentially a scaled-up Derwent 5, it was the last of the line to employ the classic
Whittle layout of double-sided centrifugal impeller coupled to single-stage turbine, and was a
completely new design.
The tangential compressor outlet elbows, complete with cast-in turning vanes, were integral with
the main casing, and by using a baffle to direct air to the impeller rear face, the designers were able to
achieve a reduction of 23/4 in. in overall engine diameter compared to the Nene, despite a 60%
increase in airflow. The oil sump was done away with, oil being contained in a ring-tank around the
front air intake, and oil pumps and filters were tucked into the wheelcase. The design of the nine
combustion chambers resembled those of the early Avon, with cast expansion chambers housing
tripod-mounted duple burners, which in turn carried machined primary air diffuser snouts. The
flame-tubes and air casings were otherwise similar to those of the Nene.
Rated at 6250 lb thrust, (later developed to 7000 lb), the engine was intended as a back-up in case of
insuperable problems with the Avon, which in the event did not materialise. Consequently the Tay,
which first ran in September 1948, was never seriously used in the UK, and only flew in this country
as the power units of a twin-engine Vickers Viscount prototype (first flight 15/3/50). At the time
Vickers were still developing the Valiant, and therefore had a direct interest in a possible alternative
for the Avon, but the principal duty of the jet-Viscount was as a flying test-bed for power-operated
flying controls, for the V-bomber programme and large aircraft of the future.
Although Rolls-Royce only built about six of these Tay engines, the worth of the engine was
recognised abroad, and both Pratt and Whitney in the USA, and Hispano-Suiza in France, built the
design in quantity under licence as a natural follow-through of their respective Nene programmes.
As the J48 it saw service in the later stages of the Korean War, powering the F9F-5 Panther and, with
reheat, the F9F-6 Cougar, both Grumman aircraft for the US Navy. Reheated versions also powered
the USAF's Lockheed F-94C Starfire all-weather fighter and the North American YF-93A.
French Tays were used in the Dassault Mystere II and IVA. For the latter, Hispano developed . a
7720 lb thrust version (they named it Verdon after a river in Provence), which had the highest
compression ratio (4.95.1) of any single-stage centrifugal compressor to enter service, a record
which as far as I know still stands.
30
Snow clearance on the
GWR
Extract from the Great Western Railway Magazine for March and April 1947, Vol. 59, No.3.
In conjunction with the National Gas Turbine Establishment, Ministry of Supply
experiments have been concluded with gas turbine aero engines for snow clearance.
On the Great Western Railway, preliminary tests were carried out at Dowlais Top, on
the single-line branch from Bargoed to Brecon, where six weeks' intermittent snowfall
had caused heavy drifts in the cuttings, and daytime thaws followed by night frost had
partly turned the compacted mass of snow into ice. Two Rolls-Royce Derwent Mark
1—type engines were used, mounted on welded steel test frames bolted to the floor of a
GW Conflat, and secured with their axes parallel to the track and 4ft 6in apart. Attached
to the outlet of each engine, which was flush with the headstock of the wagon, was a
discharge tube 8 ft Sin long, supported by wire cables attached to the stanchions of
the test frames. The engines were depressed to about 15 degrees below the horizontal,
so that the centre of the jet would strike the rail 13ft ahead of the end of the tube.
t
The snow clearance train at Dowlais Top in 7947 with the two jets prominent at the front of the train. Other
than the extract reproducedabove, little is written of the experiment in the official reports and it is therefore not
possible to ascertain if similar trials were carried out elsewhere on the Great Western system. Certainly the
severe winter encountered that year was one of those fortunately only seen at long intervals in this country and
hence the need to develop alternative methods of snow clearance did not have the urgency witnessed in other
countries. Not mentioned in the report is that the opposite reaction from the forcr expelled at the nozzles
attempted to propel the train backwards.
31
At the rear of the Conflat a 325-gallon aircraft fuel tank with filters was mounted.
Between this and the engines stood a control and instrument panel, with 24-volt coach
lighting batteries underneath for starting purposes. Behind the Conflat was a Loriat
'B' carrying an 850-gallon road motor fuel tank equipped with mechanically operated pump, to serve as a fuel storage tank in which the lubricating oil for the engine
pumps could be mixed with the fuel oil.
In the tests, soft snow in sidings was almost completely removed for the whole of the
length of the sleepers, with the engines at less than full throttle. Where night frost had
formed ice around the rails the blast was used twice at full throttle to clear it. At times
the blast worked underneath the ice and flung off lumps up to 4 ft > 2ft bin.
Sometimes snow was blown on to the rollers of the switch rodding, which required
careful cleaning and signal wires were shaken violently, but not broken.
In general, the tests distinctly indicated the possibility of developing the gas turbine
method of snow clearance. Moveable mountings would increase mobility, enabling the
jet to be traversed horizontally and vertically, with the engines themselves carried at the
lowest possible level. A 'fish-tail' or other specially shaped blast tube might prove
an improvement on the present circular pattern. Alternatively smaller engines might
be used, and three of these mounted side-by-side, to give a more even distribution of
blast across the breadth of track.
The erection and working of the jet engines was in the hands of representatives of
the Royal Air Force, the National Gas Turbine Establishment, and the Rolls-Royce Servicing Department. Their co-operation with the local officers of the Great Western Railway
was of the greatest help, and the expert advice given to the Company added largely to
the success of the experiments at Dowlais Top.
Rumour suggests there were also some difficulties in anchoring down the equipment for fear it might take off. After all, the GWR was flying from Cardiff to the
Channel Islands in 1937 and could have gone from Dowlais Top to eternity in 1947!
The above story comes from the book The Great Western Railway Gas Turbines; a Myth Exposed by
Kevin Robertson, published by Alan Sutton Publishing. We are grateful to the author and
publisher for allowing us to reproduce the extract in Archive.
We are also grateful to member Les Thompson for spotting it and negotiating with both parties
on our behalf. Les makes the following observations:
On a technical note, the reference to coach-lighting batteries being used for starting
the snow-blowing jet engines surprises me. I would not have thought that batteries
designed for lighting supplies could have supplied the heavy currents, peaking at
some hundreds of amps, needed for cranking over a jet engine. Especially after
standing overnight in the bitterly cold weather of that winter. The only saving grace was
that the engine lubricants in those days was a hydraulic fluid DTD 44D, which was as thin
as water, even at sub-zero temperatures. (Today's synthetic lubricants were only just
beginning to emerge from the laboratory).
The same paragraph refers to mixing lubricating oil with the fuel, which was
kerosine, for the engine (fuel) pumps. This was the practice because the engines'
own high-pressure swash-plate type fuel pump needed 1% of lube oil to survive
pumping kerosine. If run on petrol (and if a jet aircraft had to put down at an
ordinary airfield, petrol would be the only fuel available), then 3% of oil had to be
mixed with the fuel to allow for the even lower lubricity of petrol. This oil incidentally,
was a conventional lubricating oil. 1% of oil showed up quite clearly in the kerosine.
1
'r
k
1
111141116
After the passage of the jet engines, with areas clearly marked where blocks of impacted snow and ice have been
dislodged. It was also found that where covering of snow was not so compacted the force of the blast would send
ballast flying in all directions. Apart from this, had the experiments continued special care arrangements would
have been necessary in the vicinity of stations and wooden structures to protect both from the heat and flying
debris. In the photograph, however, the absolute bleakness of the surrounding terrain is apparent. Worth
mentioning is that the LMS attempted a similar method of snow clearance around the same time on the High
Peak line between Ashbourne and Buxton which was blocked by drifts for several miles. The results though, were
identical. Evidently the original intention had been to try the first G VVR experiments on the Abergwynfi Branch
but this was not proceededwith. The LNER also conducted similar tests around this time.
I heard two comments made at the time from people who had been concerned with
the snow-clearing trials. One was that some of the displaced snow sometimes blew
back over the jet engines and settled on the air intake screens of wire gauze, blocking
them up. One of the accompanying pictures shows well the total lack of protection
for the jet engines, their auxiliary equipment — or operator! The text refers to lumps
of ice 4' x 2'6" being flung around; and there's not a hard hat to be seen in the
photo!
The second story may apocryphal: I was told that when the snow-clearing train was
in operation, the steam-locomotive driver, who was two or three vehicles back from
the leading end of the train, could often only see ahead of him an enormous cloud of
displaced snow into which his train was disappearing. The story goes that if the snow
suddenly deepened, as in a drift (and drifts many feet deep were common that year), a
previously-safe train speed could suddenly become much too high for the new
situation and the jet engine's propelling nozzles were stuffed into the snow.
Needless to say, even a tolerant centrifugal-compressor jet engine could not tolerate
this 'treatment! I wonder how long it took for the message to reach the steamlocomotive driver!
33
Yc;Ted and the Merlin
PART ONE
by Gary Mills
Most people who take an interest in these
things are aware that the Battle of Britain saved
England from invasion and was perhaps one of
the most decisive battles in English history.
They may further be aware of the deciding
factors in our favour, and that the Rolls-Royce
Merlin engine, of the Spitfires and Hurricanes
that fought this battle, was one of the most
important of these factors. The Merlin engine is
by now legend. The Merlins that fought the
Battle of Britain were Mk Ills, with their singlestage, single-speed superchargers. All of these
Battle of Britain engines were produced at the
Rolls-Royce factory in Derby or, from 1939
onwards, at their factory in Crewe. Altogether
over 160,000 Merlins were produced in three
Rolls-Royce factories, at Derby, Crewe and
Glasgow, and under licence by Packard in the
USA and Ford in England. This article is concerned with the Fordproject to manufacture the
Merlin, which as the story unfolds, will be seen
as a great feat. Unfortunately it has not received
the recognition or credit it deserved over the
years.
The Merlin was developed in two ways during the Second World War. The first and obvious development was of the engine itself to give
roughly double the power at the end of the war
that the Merlin Ills of the Battle of Britain were
giving. The Sprint Merlin used in the development of a high speed Spitfire for an attempt on
the world's landplane speed record during the
period 1938 to 1940 amply proved what could
be safely taken out of theMerlin, when a Mk. HI
was modified to give over 2,000 bhp. It did not
take the record but gave the Rolls-Royce designers absolute confidence to develop this
34
engine. This technical development, throughout the war, took three lines. Firstly, higher
octane fuels were developed and exploited.
Secondly, the Merlin's supercharger was
developed to give greater boost pressures.
These higher boost pressures allowed the
engine to retain more and more of its power at
increasingly greater altitudes as the war went
on. Without the high octane fuels these boost
pressures could not have been used. Lastly, the
engine itself was developed in mechanical
detail to increase its strength so as to contain
these boost pressures and powers. The basic
layout and dimensions of the engine, however,
did not change. For instance its cylinder bore
and stroke remained unchanged throughout
but a continuous process of modification
improved its components. It remained a 27.5
litre V-12 from start to finish.
The second line of development of the Merlin
was the improvements in quantity production.
In the inter-war years a ero-engines, like aircraft
themselves, were produced in limited numbers
by the batch system and virtually hand-built by
a highly-trained workforce. All this had to
change with war. In 1939 only Derby and
Crewe were producing Merlins for a limited
number of types of aircraft, notably Spitfire,
Hurricane, Defiant and Battle. It was basically a
fighter engine, where one engine powered one
aircraft. Over the next six years it was to be
mass-produced in five factories for over twenty
different types of aircraft, including heavy
bombers where four engines were needed to
power one aircraft. Each type of development
was as important as the other, as the engine's
quality improved hand-in-hand with its
quantity. The Germans recognised the Merlin
as the great engine it was but never thought we
could mass-produce such an intricate piece of
machinery in the numbers we did. Ford,
although not involved with the Merlin's
technical development and only manufacturing
one basic mark of Merlin (the Mk. XX with
single-stage, two-speed supercharger, the
'bomber engine') greatly assisted in the
Merlin's production development by mass
producing, from scratch, over 30,000 during the
war. The Rolls-Royce Derby factory itself only
produced slightly more than Ford, but to be fair
they did bear the brunt of the technical development and produced many different marks
of Merlin, plus Peregrines, Vultures, and later
the Griffon, and countless repairs of all types,
whilst Ford confined themselves to the 'bomber
engine'.
It was realised, by the authorities, quite
early-on that production of aero engines on an
unprecedented scale would be needed to fulfill
the projected bomber and fighter programmes.
So it was that Ford was approached late in 1939
by the Air Ministry to build, equip and manage
a shadow factory for the licence massproduction of Rolls-Royce Merlin XX aeroengines. On 22nd October Sir Percival Perry,
the Chairman of Ford of Britain, received a
letter from Air Vice Marshal (later Air Chief
Marshal) Sir Wilfrid Freeman, then an Assistant Chief of the Air Staff, asking him to
consider undertaking this project. Perry was
the Father of Ford in England. He had started
importing Ford cars to England in 1907. In 1909
he was appointed to take full charge of the new
branch of the Ford Co. in England, and by 1911
was assembling the Model T at a factory in the
southern outskirts of Manchester, on the Trafford Park Industrial Estate. Later they were
manufacturing cars in this factory rather than
assembling imported parts from the USA.
Perry and General Manager A. R. Smith
(later Sir Rowland Smith and a Managing
Director of Ford) visited London to meet Sir
Wilfrid. Following this meeting Smith took
over negotiations. He was responsible for the
production of the first car at the mighty
Dagenham factory, in February 1932, and had
the reputation of one of the leading production
engineers in the country. Before the war, Sir
Wilfrid, then Commandant at the R.A.F. Staff
College, had been shown round the Dagenham
factory with a number of colleagues under
Smith's guidance. It is thought that this visit
had given him the later confidence to approach
and entrust Ford with the task.
On 2nd November Smith and other Dagenham experts travelled to Derby to meet Ernest
Hives (later Lord Hives) head of Rolls-Royce
and H. J. Swift (production manager) to obtain
the necessary information and advice on which
to base their preliminary plan. This was freely
given in an atmosphere of amity by the RollsRoyce people, but it was understood that apart
from this Rolls-Royce could not help materially
in the manufacturing sense. Within two weeks
of this visit to Derby, Smith was able to meet
Freeman again in London and give him the
35
rough figure of £7 million as the cost of building
and equipping the shadow factory. It was
wisely realised that a new factory would be
needed so as not to interfere with Dagenham's
war work. The first agreed target for this new
factory was to be 400 Merlins per month.
Freeman accepted Smith's figure of £7 million
immediately and despite working with incomplete data Smith was very close with his
estimate to the actual cost of completing the
factory, which was £6.6 million.
Such was the reputation and influence of
Rolls-Royce that the Crewe and Glasgow shadow factories were, at Hive's insistence to the Air
Ministry, totally managed by Rolls-Royce from
the Head Office at Derby, and they remained in
Rolls-Royce's possession after the war, as
indeed they have to this day, although only
Rolls-Royce cars are made at Crewe these days.
The Ford shadow factory was to be different.
Here the factory would be owned by the Government but managed by Ford. As dictated by
the agreement between them, Ford undertook
to design, build, equip and run a factory for the
Ministry of Aircraft Production.
Perry had always liked Manchester as a production centre so, after eight other sites had
been inspected and rejected, it was decided to
build the new factory there on an 84 acre site at
Radcliffe Road, Eccles. Treasury permission for
the expenditure was secured and buildings to
cover 25 acres were begun in March 1940. A.R.
Smith was made Controller with H. A. Denne
as his Deputy Controller and resident Ministry
production and accountant liaison officers were
installed. To begin with, part of the old Ford
factory at Trafford Park was used to house a tool
room, and draughtsmen, technicians and machine tools were sent north from Dagenham to make
a start.
Rolls-Royce had turned over copies of all the
necessary blueprints to Smith and his team,
and specially-chosn Dagenham employees
were sent to Derby to plan the engineering
methods, plant and equipment necessary and
study the specification of machine tools,
determine jig fixtures, tool and gauge design
and procurement of machine tools. The following is from Not much of an Engineer - the
autobiography of Sir Stanley Hooker published
by Airlife Publishing Limited:
'In my enthusiasm, I considered that RollsRoyce designs were the ne plus ultra, until
the Ford Motor Company in Britain was invited
to manufacture the Merlin in the early days of
the war. A number of Ford engineers arrived at
Derby, and spent some months examining and
familiarizing themeslves with the drawings and
manufacturing methods; One day their Chief
Engineer appeared in Lovesey's office which I
36
was then sharing, and said, 'you know, we
can't make the Merlin to these drawings'.
I replied loftily, 'I suppose that is because the
drawing tolerances are too difficult for you, and
you can't achieve the accuracy'.
On the contrary', he replied, ' the tolerances
are far too wide for us. We make motor cars far
more accurately than this. Every part on our car
engines has to be interchangeable with the
same part on any other engine, and hence all
'parts have to be made with extreme accuracy,
far closer than you use. That is the only way we
can achieve mass production'.
Lovesey joined in. Well, what do you
propose now?'
The reply was that Ford would have to redraw all of the Merlin drawings to their own
standards, and this they did. It took a year or
so, but was an enormous success, because,
once the great Ford factory at Manchester
started production, Merlins came out like
shelling peas at a rate of 400 per week. And very
good engines they were too, yet never have I
seen mention of. this massive contribution
which the British Ford Company made to the
building-up of our air forces'.
Each Merlin consisted of about 10,000
separate parts, and the task of organising the
procurement or production of the machine
tools necessary to make these parts was left to
the Ford management as they intended to
adapt the Merlin's production to their own kind
of mass production and therfore only they were
in a position to know what was required. About
80% of the jigs, gauges and fixtures for the
tooling-up had to be bought by the Purchase
Dept. in strong competition with every other
engineering factory in the country. The Ford
toolroom undertook to design and make the
balance of the machine tools necessary and by
the end of 1940 had manufactured over 2,000
items. Some of the tools were purchased from
overseas. Two crankshaft machines were
bought from the USA. One of them ended up at
the bottom of the Atlantic. Its replacement also
suffered the same fate, but the next one
managed to get through. Jig borers, working to
the highest tolerance of 0.00005 inch, were
bought from Switzerland. These machines
journeyed safely across German occupied
France in 1943, through Spain, which was
friendly towards Germany, and thence by sea
to England under the noses of the Germans.
The Germans had to let them through as the
Swiss, being neutral, insisted on their right to
trade with all sides, and the Germans badly
needed other precision machine tools which
the Swiss provided them with. Long before the
factory was completed these tools were busy
making Merlin parts which were sent to the
Rolls-Royce factories for them to use. The first
such parts were made in the old Ford Trafford
Park car factory and sent to Crewe in August
1940.
Skilled engineers and machine tool operators
were very scarce during the war years and Ford
knew that they wouldn'tbe able to recruit many
for the new factory. Even if they could get them
they would be depriving other firms, including
Rolls-Royce, of such talent. Two things enabled
them to get around this seemingly insurmountable obstacle. In the years leading up to the war
there had been a great development in automatic and semi automatic machine tools which
could make the large numbers of highly
accurate and intricate parts needed. Secondly,
these machines, once set up, could be operated
by trainees and unskilled workers.
Pre-war, Rolls-Royce at Derby was in the
position of having a lot of skilled workers who
had started as apprentices and this is why they
could open and operate the new Rolls-Royce
factory at Crewe without recruiting outside of
the Company. Skilled men were simply transferred from Derby and promoted to positions of
responsibility. By the time Ford needed such
men, however, there were not enough left at
Derby to-provide the nucleus of skill at Trafford
Park.
To overcome this difficulty Rolls-Royce and
Ford agreed to open a miniature factory in a
building at the Rolls-Royce Derby factory. One
hundred and ninety of Ford's best men were
sent here from Dagenham and given the 20,000
drawings of the Merlin and told to set-up their
machines to produce the 10,000 separate parts
of the engine. Once a man had become proficient at making one part on a particular
machine he was transferred to the next and so
on until each had built all the parts for a
complete Merlin. These men were then ready to
start production at Trafford Park, supervising
unskilled workers to look after machines they
had set-up. Other men, such as section supervisors and departmental foremen, were placed
in manufacturing, inspection, fitting and
ancilliary departments at the Derby factory,
working with their opposite numbers in RollsRoyce, in a department corresponding to that
for which they would be responsible in the new
factory. All this enabled these men to gain the
new practical experience in aero-engine manufacture, which made a prompt start and steady
progress possible once the new factory was
ready. Additional skilled and semi-skilled men
were later recruited in the Manchester area and
sent to Crewe for training and familiarisation
with aero-engine manufacture.
37
Three buildings were completed by September 1940 and 2,300 people were employed,
this figure including 150 Dagenham technicians. All the buildings were completed in May,
1941 and covered 4434 acres. The following
month the first Merlin XX came off the production line. By this time the original nucleus of
190 skilled men had been swelled by a great
number of men and women, in the main unskilled, but each of whom knew their special job
and was 'skilled' in that particular operation.
Before war's end the total workforce would
number 17,316 of which 7,200 were women.
Less than 100 of them had had anything to do
with an aero engine before they started at Ford,
and no more than 300 anything to do with the
engine of a motor car. Most, especially the
women, hadn't even set foot in a factory before.
A training system was devised by which jobs
were carefully broken down and the trainees
became fully proficient at their jobs within three
months. In many cases men and women were
trained to handle machines never operated
previously by anybody except fully trained and
experienced workers. Ford's own skilled men
were not only skilled in the manufacture of
internal combustion engines but, just as
important, skilled in Ford's own methods of
manufacture. Merlin manufacture was adapted
to Ford's method of mass-production, and it
was these skilled Ford's men who used to
supervise and control this entirely new process
of Merlin manufacture, whereby machines
were operated by men and women of average
intelligence to do the same work as that of the
highly-trained Rolls-Royce technicians and
mechanics.
Preparing for the Duration
Part One
Els.12/1CW
28 August 1939
Production of Aero Engines in War-time
We have been able to watch the growth of various Departments in connection with aero engines
which have been established since the last war. Several of these departments — whilst one tolerates
them in peace time — would have to be restricted in war time.
We accept at the present time an enormous amount of scrap, which could be made into 100%
reliable engines. A lot of this scrap may be due to the fact that the part is non-interchangeable, but it
would make no difference at all to the complete life of the engine, and in many cases the part is not
likely to have to be replaced.
Another big item where considerable saving can be made is on the question of castings and lead
bronze bearings. These are scrapped at the present time due to blow-holes, which we are positive
would have no detrimental effect.
The main point we wish to stress is that we have the knowledge and experience, and should be given
the power to say which parts should be used. There is no-one on the Air Ministry staff who possesses
that same knowledge. It should also be remembered that our engineers are just as conscientious as
Air Ministry officials, and that nothing would go through unless we were satisfied that it would not
affect the reliability.
For years now we have made a practice of running engines built up with parts which have been
scrapped by the A.I.D., and therefore we have that experience to draw upon.
With regard to the accuracy of the screw threads, although this is important on main stressed
units, the quality of threads demanded on some of the unessential parts restricts our and subcontractors' production considerably. Another thing is the external finish a considerable number of
hours can be saved in reducing the quality of external finish without any reduction at all in the finish
of the engine, but we claim that our engineers are the people to decide what can be done.
38
Manufacture
To obtain the maximum production we should require the whole of our sub-contracting firms to be
allotted to Rolls-Royce work, and that they should only be allowed to take on additional work on
condition that we agree. There are cases where we could not employ the whole of the plant. We
should also like to be in the position that if some of our sub-contractors have plant which cannot be
used, and we find that plant could be transferred to another firm and used efficiently, we should
have the power to do this.
It would also be a part of our policy to scatter the production of Rolls-Royce engines as widely as
possible. We may even take plant from Derby and put it into a sub-contracting firm as soon as we
were satisfied that we could still obtain the maximum production.
On the manufacturing side we claim the same specialised knowledge and experience as we claim
on the engineering side, and therefore the whole group of factories working on Rolls-Royce parts
should be under our complete control.
Personnel
We have considerable reserves in personnel, which normally work in the motor car division. These
are first-class men: a number of them are already experienced in aero engine work and the rest of
them can very quickly be absorbed and made into efficient aircraft engine technicians or
manufacturers.
From our experience in the last war, and the whole of the experience that has been built up since
then in the R.A.F., we should strongly recommend that every squadron using Rolls-Royce engines
should have a permanent Rolls-Royce engineer attached to it, even if he was made an
Engineer/Officer in the R.A.F. These men would have the specialised knowledge which will be so
valuable to the services. They would also have direct contact with all the experts at these works, and
could get a reply to any problem immediately. We are certain that an arrangement such as this would
help the R.A.F. officers and add considerably to the efficiency of all the squadrons.
Engine and development work
Assuming war, we should ask to put back the delivery of the Boreas engine. The question of the
Vulture would have to be considered in cdnnection with the aircraft programme.
The engine which I think might prove valuable is the Griffon, because there is the possibility of this
replacing the Merlin in several types. The question of the factors would no doubt be re-adjusted
under war conditions, so we consider that the Griffon may be a very important unit for war.
We shall still be left with some very highly qualified research engineers and technicians, who
would be valuable to tackle any special problems.
Dear Hives,
30th August 1939
Reference your letter Hs.12/KW. dated the 28th August 1939, and your memorandum on the
production of aero engines in war time. As a result of our talk this afternoon we came to the following
conclusions that in the event of war.
(1) in the interests of production you can use for non-stressed parts, scrap which is strictly noninterchangeable and which would not in any way affect the efficiency of an engine:
(2) you will consult with Major Bulman as to what present scrap material could be used, even in
stressed parts, without affecting the life of an engine:
(3) that external finish, as finish alone, should not be attempted:
(4) that the Rolls-Royce representative in charge of sub-contracting should give Mr. Musson the
names of all firms at present carrying out sub-contracting for Rolls-Royce, and say what
proportion of each firm's capacity can be employed by Rolls-Royce in war. Mr. Musson would
inform Rolls-Royce what capacity of firms has been already allocated to Rolls-Royce in war time,
and would write to the firms and inform them what amount of their capacity is allocated to
Rolls-Royce.
(5) we welcome the offer of Rolls-Royce to supply engineers for work at stations in this country and
abroad where there are squadrons using Rolls-Royce engines. It is agreed that these engineers
should remain part of the Rolls-Royce organization and should not, unless it is necessary,
become engineer officers in the R.A.F.
(6) it is agreed that in the event of war the Boreas engine will not be proceeded with but work on the
Griffon should continue;
(7) the manufacture of the Vulture must be proceeded with.
Yours sincerely W R Freeman
39
Dear Sir Wilfrid
War Production
2nd September 1939
Since our meeting at the Ministry on August 30th. I have been thinking about the ways and means of
producing the numbers of engines you estimate will be required in time of war.
The largest potential for aero engine production is the U.S.A. I realise at the moment that the
U.S.A. Neutrality Act prevents aero engines being built in that country, but we should anticipate
what advantage could be taken if there is any modification to this act, and also what can be done
within the present act.
We are favourably placed because all the essential drawings for the Merlin engine were sent to the
Ford Company at Detroit for planning the production for the manufacture of Rolls-Royce engines in
France. At the same time we sent out there models of the most important pieces, so that they could
see exactly what it was intended to produce.
Most of the special machine tool equipment for the production of the difficult pieces of the Merlin
engine is obtained from the U.S.A. We have on order a considerable amount of this equipment for
Vulture production at Derby; and for the new factory at Glasgow.
It needs to be weighed up very carefully whether it would not be better to leave this equipment in
the U.S.A. and carry out the production operations on it out there, where there is plenty of skilled
labour and skill, instead of taking the risk of transporting the machinery , which if it was lost would
take months to replace, and also the additional risk of it being destroyed when it is installed here.
I have in mind sending two of our engineers to the U.S.A. as soon as possible, in order to progress
the machine tools we have on order, and also to make sure that these tools are fitted with the
necessary jigs, so that they can start work immediately: in fact, if the decision is to bring the machines
over here, we may send samples of the work over there, so that they can prove out that the whole
machine operates satisfactorily and can be put to work immediately it arrives. At present it is a
considerable time from the receipt of the machine tool until it is doing useful work.
In the last war it took us two years before we appreciated the possibility of producing aero engine
parts in the U. S.A. This time if we mean business, whatever we can possibly do out there should be
done as quickly as possible.
Dear Sir Wilfrid,
Operation of Standard Merlin Engine
2nd September, 1939
It should not be overlooked that the present standard Merlin fitted to Hurricanes and Spitfires could
obtain increased performance at lower altitude immediately if 100 octane fuel were used.
All the necessary tests to clear this have already been carried out. I am sure we could easily
convince R.D.E. that this is so.
The demonstration P.V. Hurricane which Hawkers have been using has been operating for a
considerable time with 100 octane fuel, full throttle.
The point I want to stress is that there is no alteration needed either to the engine or the
installation. It will not give any increased speed at the maximum altitude, but there will be an
immediate increase in the performance at lower altitudes and climb.
The best thing I think in all these cases is for the operational people to try out a flight of Spitfires
with 100 octane fuel and see whether the gain in performance is valuable or not. Unless it has some
real military value there would be no purpose in carrying this out.
Air Ministry, Berkeley Square London W.1
3rd September 1939
Immediate
Gentlemen,
With reference to Air Ministry letter of the 26th ultimo numbered as above, calling for intensification
of production, I am directed to request that, since your products will be one of the determining
factors in the rate of production of complete aircraft, you will at once take steps so to organise your
staff and labour force that, as far as your own supplies allow it, your production will continue for
twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. On the assumption that this rate of work will be
necessary indefinitely, I am to ask that you will commence to build up your organisation so that it
may be possible to give all employees one day off in seven with the least amount of dislocation to
production.
Owing to the urgent need for your products, you should, unless otherwise ordered, give priority'
over civil work to all Royal Air Force requirements (without detriment of course to your orders for the
other Defence Services).
If these instructions involve any unavoidable increase in the total cost of productions, equitable
adjustments to agreed prices will be allowed in the production of satisfactory evidence.
V Meadowcroft Director of Contracts
40
6th September 1939
Dear Hives,
Thank you for your letter of the 2nd September informing me that you have arranged for the
despatch of six of your engineers to R.A.F. Stations. I have now been asked by the Air Officer
Commanding-in-Chief, Fighter Command, to add Croydon to the list of Stations which I sent you by
telegram, and if you have sufficient engineers available I should be grateful if you could arrange for
this to be done.
I welcome your suggestion to short-circuit the present perhaps somewhat cumbersome procedure
by arranging for the despatch of spares and mechanics to squadrons immediately on the request of
the Commanding Officer. Certain detailed arrangements will have to be made from this end, but I
need not trouble you with them. The main point is that it will be necessary to arrange for financial
cover and contract action. We propose to do this by asking the Commanding Officer to forward to the
Air Ministry a copy of the signal or letter which he may send to you asking for your services. The
necessary action will be taken here on receipt of this copy.
By the way, I should like to congratulate you on the great drive and energy which you and your
firm are displaying at the present time.
Yours sincerely W R Freeman
7th September, 1939
Dear Sir Wilfrid,
I am afraid it will be necessary to have a further discussion with you before we commit ourselves
definitely to the Boreas programme.
If we take the Rolls-Royce point of view, it would be in our interests to proceed with the
production of that engine. We have done 3 or 4 years' work on it: we are satisfied that as a type it has
considerable merit over the radial sleeve valve engine, and we are definitely going to be the losers if
the production of this engine is held up. From a national point of view, however, we think it would
be wrong to proceed with this engine.
I estimate that the 275 Boreas engines will be equivalent in production effort to 1200 Merlin
engines. This is a modest estimate because it entails all new test plant, rigs and fixtures, apart from
the manufacture.
The most important point of all is that we are not satisfied it is essential.
I had a telephone message to-day from Barlow at Faireys, Hayes, and he asked me our policy. I
told him the exact position, that the national interests we were recommending that it should be
stopped, but that we had received instructions from the Air Ministry that the production should go
on. I also told him that I was certain, because we had already laid it out, that a Merlin power plant
could be installed instead of the Boreas with very little trouble, no sacrifice in performance, and very
little sacrifice in weight.
We disagree on the estimates as regards the difference in weight. You will appreciate that this is
not surprising, because we find one of the most difficult things we have to deal with is to get
agreement between estimated and actual weights. I explained to Barlow, however, that we were in a
favourable position because we have got several Battle machines fitted with Merlin engines, we also
have a Battle machine fitted with a Boreas engine, and that it will save a lot of mistakes in calculation
if we weigh these two machines and get the real answer. We have already done it once, and whereas
Faireys estimated a difference of 500 lbs in weight, we say that the actual is 150 to 200 lbs.
I am arranging to work in connection with Faireys and to get out an agreed policy as regards this
machine, and if necessary we can jointly attend a conference which you might wish to call, with the
Admiralty officials present.
We must expect that a certain amount of work which Faireys have already done will have to be
scrapped, and done again to suit the Merlin, but as for years now the engine builders have been
making sacrifices in order that the airframe programme should not be interfered with, I think it is
time that the airframe makers helped to relieve the engine position.
To summarise the position, we are going ahead with all our development work and testing for the
Boreas engine, but we should like to have another talk with you before we get committed on
production.
P.S. You might make a bargain with the Admiralty that they can have some more Merlins for marine
work if they do not insist on the Boreas.
41
Wartime Sub-contracting
IN-
II..
Ilim
Ilim
Illim
II.
The expansion of the R.A.F. in 1935 caused the firms manufacturing aero engines to
consider methods of increasing their production. The Government had started a series of
shadow factories, the idea of which, was to increase the production of certain types of
engines in a place remote from the parent firm and fully financed by the Treasury.
In December 1936 Hs wrote a memorandum on the subject:
AERO ENGINE PRODUCTION
Rolls-Royce are the only firm in this country producing aero engines today which
designed, developed and produced their own aero engines during the last war. 80% of the
design and supervisory staff who were responsible for producing aero engines during the
war are still with us.
All kinds of schemes for expediting the production of aircraft engines were tried out, but
we claim the scheme that gave the most satisfactory results is the one we adopted of
producing a large number of sub-contractors, controlled by Rolls-Royce. It was because of
the experience we had that we were able, on the first expansion programme order for
Kestrel engines, to anticipate the Air Ministry delivery dates, and it would have been easy
for us, witnout working any excessive overtime, to have completed the Contract 6 months
before the scheduled date.
We admit that at the present time, when all engineering firms are busy and there is no
control, and they can pick and choose the most profitable work, sub-contracting is more
difficult. We are finding in the case of big units like Merlin crankcases, that we cannot
sub-contract this work at the present time, and we are having to increase our plant on this
section in order to get the required output.
As regards war emergency production of Rolls-Royce engines, our views briefly are as
follows. We should first of all arrange that the equipment in this factory is such that at a
day's notice we could double our aero engine capacity by stopping all work on motor cars.
To do this it would mean
analysing the machines used for motor cars, and
balancing up the capacity for the production of aero engines, and in some cases getting
improved types of machines. We should also require duplicate jigs, tools, fixtures and
patterns.
In a war emergency we should expect the acceptance tests of aero engines to be reduced;
there would also be less experimental work, so that we consider our present test plant
under these conditions would look after the whole of this present factory for producing
aero engines. We do want to stress that we have the most wonderful asset for war
production, owing to the fact that we have the personnel, the organisation and the
experience to immediately double our production, as long as the project is planned and
organised.
We estimate that the present factory, with the present sub-contractors, could produce
3,000 Merlin engines a year. As an approximate figure, we estimate that to build a factory
and equip it completely to produce a further 7,000 engines per year would cost
approximately £7,000,000.
The scheme we recommend for increasing the quantity of engines in case of war would
be as follows. We assume that in the case of another war, all factories capable of producing
war material would be conscripted. We know from experience that there are a large
number of firms in this country whose ordinary business would stop in case of war, and
yet they are quite fitted for producing aero engine parts. Two of the best sub-contractors
we had in the last war were (1) The British Boot and Shoe Machinery Co. of Leicester, and
(2) The Linotype Co. of Manchester. We got infinitely more help from these people than
we did from any of the motor car people.
42
If we were given the necessary authority, we could organise a section to go round the
country and to examine the equipment and tabulate the capacity of various factories for
producing Rolls-Royce parts. It would mean setting up a department to do this, but we are
certain that there is any amount of capacity for producing aero engines parts in factories
which at the present time have no connection with war material.
When it was known how much this capacity was, a factory or factories would have to be
built up to provide the balance of equipment necessary and to provide for erecting and
Hs
testing.
At a conference held at Derby on 7th December 1936 with Colonel Disney, Director of
Aeronautical Production of the Air Ministry, he stated he was very interested in a proposal
made by the Company that they should set up a department to take stock of the machining
capacity of suitable firms throughout the country. Nothing came of this point, however,
although it would have proved very useful when the time came for the rapid expansion of
the Company's output.
Discussions continued for the next two years, Hs always insisting that the method of
sub-contracting was the most efficient and most economic.
The Company's expansion proposals came to fruition in 1938 when it was agreed that a
factory should be built at Government expense at Crewe, the chassis division at Derby
should be adapted to enable it to change-over to aero engine production at a moment's
notice and that the Company should find additional sub-contractors both for Derby and
the new factory at Crewe, enlarging their capacity if need be by the supplying of additional
machine tools at Government expense.
At the beginning of 1939 the Company started to hunt for additional capacity. A team
was sent to Scotland to inspect possible firms and they visited 30 in the Glasgow and
Aberdeen district, 8 of whom proved suitable. At the same time, a team of ten men was
sent round England which was split up in four main areas — North East England,
Lancashire, Yorkshire, Midlands. Some 60 firms were visited, 17 proved suitable and their
services were immediately available. Hs and Sft visited Scotland in February 1939 to
discuss the Company's proposals and it appeared that there was a genuine desire to help.
In order to find additional firms, the Engineering and Allied Employers Federation were
asked to circulate members and 450 applications were received. These firms were sorted
out into (a) 110 who appeared to have machine tools of our type (probables) (b) 100 who
appeared to require only small additions to their plant (probables) (c) 140 who were not at
all suitable for work we have to place.
Unfortunately, on closer contact a large number of the (a) and (b) classes were ruled out
as not suitable.
The firms chosen and willing to take on sub-contract work in some cases required
additional machine tools to enable them to complete the series of operations necessary. In
these cases machine tools were supplied at Government expense out of the capital grants
received by the Company.
At first it was suggested that a rent of 10% of the capital value should be charged but the
Company pointed out to the Air Ministry that this rent would only be charged back in the
form of increased prices and it was finally agreed that no rent would be charged. The
Company had full control and disposition of the plant and the terms and conditions under
which it was supplied were sent out in a circular letter, the salient points of which were:
(1) The Company could specify the work and purposes to which the plant should be put.
(2) The Company could transfer the plant at any time without compensation.
(3) The sub-contractor was responsible for the installation and maintenance of the plant
and adaptations to suit local conditions was to be done at the sub-contractors expense.
43
More than 120 firms received machine tools, plant and equipment under this scheme.
Throughout the war the number of sub-contractors increased and the proportion of
sub-contract work to total production at Derby and Crewe was as follows:
U
Year
Actual labour
Sub-contract
Derby and Crewe
Actual labour
R.R. Production
Derby and Crewe
Per centage of
Sub-contract to
R.R. labour
1939
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
£
654,534
1,194,133
1,459,358
1,717,427
1,812,813
1,652,301
892,822
£
1,023,034
1,909,465
2,327,758
2,455,032
2,630,134
2,772,831
1,547,875
64.0
62.5
62.7
69.9
68.9
59.6
57.7
It was the policy of the Company to increase its output by the use of sub-contractors for
the machining operation, the assembly being done at Derby and Crewe. In this way
workshop space which was particularly tight at Derby, was saved for the inspection and
assembly operations, thus enabling a greater number of engines to be produced and
keeping the activities of the Company dispersed as much as possible, reducing the
possibilities of an air attack upsetting output.
In order that this complex system of sub-contracting might work efficiently a special
department was set up. It consisted of a manager and his assistant, office staff of clerks
and typists, progress men and outside representatives. The outdoor staff consisted of
Rolls-Royce trained men up-graded from the Inspection, Fitting or Machining
Departments. It was their responsibility to progress the parts from the firms under their
control and to give any help they could of a practical and technical nature on the spot
rather than the sub-contractor having to contact the Derby Works every time he had a
problem to solve. It was found from experience that this was essential as almost every firm
needed such help and this method enabled the quick attention to difficulties and a watch
to be kept on material floats and actual deliveries.
The office staff was responsible for the office routine. On the issuing of a production
card to the depat tinent, it became their responsibility to produce that part and to arrange
payment for it. A check, therefore had to be kept on all outgoing material — bar, forgings
and castings — and all finished parts received. The inspection reports of these finished
parts had to be reported to the firm concerned and care taken that only good pieces were
paid for.
The price fixing was the responsibility of the Chief of the Department and he was, of
course, also responsible for the smooth working of the organisation.
From Laurie Fletcher comes this picture of a
Merlin-powered motor-cycle. Actually, it has two
cylinders only from an engine that once powered
a Mosquito, giving it a capacity of around 4 1/2
litres. There is no kickstart — the engine being
fired up by a DC-3 starter.
The noise it makes is, apparently, deafening
and it goes like a dingbat. So far the rider has
ventured to 4000 rpm in second gear but the
estimated 200 mph in top gear is not considered
safe with the present frame.
Firms which produced parts for Rolls-Royce
Alvis Ltd. Coventry (supercharger casings,
cylinder liners, air screw shafts, general machining). Armstrong Whitworth Ltd. Gatesheadon-Tyne (cylinder heads, cylinder skirts). Ashtead Engineering Co. Ltd. Surrey (adaptors,
bushes). Associated Motor Cycle Co. Ltd. London SE 18 (gears, shafts). The Austin Motor Co.
Ltd. Birmingham (gears, shafts). J. W. Bamkin
& Co. Leicester (levers, etc.). Beans Industries
Ltd. Tipton, Staffs. (gears, shafts). Brighouse
Motor Agency Ltd. Brighouse (flanges, clamps,
etc.). The British Gear Grinding & Manfg. Co.
Ltd. London NW10 (tooth grinding). Brock
Motors Ltd. Huddersfield (casings, housings,
liners). David Brown (Tractors) Ltd. Huddersfield (gears, shafts). Geo. Brough Ltd.
Basford, Notts. (general machining). Cannon &
Stokes Ltd. Leicester (conn. rod bolts, carrier
plates, general machining). Carlier Bros. Ltd.
Little Eaton, Derbyshire (flanges, clamps). Thos.
Chatwin & Co. Birmingham (flanges). Clarke
Cluley Ltd. Kenilworth (camshaft brackets and
general machining). Clifford Aero & Auto Ltd.
Birmingham (machining small parts). Wm.
Cotton Ltd. Loughborough (plates, housings
etc). Coventry Gear Cutting Co. Ltd. Coventry
(gears and shafts). Craven's Railway Carriage &
Wagon Co. Ltd. Sheffield (exhaust manifolds).
Daimler & Co. Ltd. Coventry (propellor shafts,
casings). Durion Ltd. London (plating). Gear
Grinding Co. Ltd. Birmingham (tooth grinding,
gear production). Hanwell Engineering Co.
Northampton (studs, screws). Hepworth &
Grandage Ltd. Bradford (pistons, gudgeon
pins). Humber Ltd. Coventry (bearing bushes,
general machining). Hoburn Aero Components
Ltd. Rochester (valve seats, gears, shafts, oper.
levers, general machining). A. A. Jones &
Shipman Ltd. Leicester (races, etc.). N.C.
Joseph Ltd. Stratford-on-Avon (exhaust
manifolds). Jowett Cats Ltd. Idle, Yorks.
(coolant pump units). Laycock Engineering Co.
Ltd. Sheffield (coolant pump units, exhaust
manifolds, general machining). Lloyd & Ramsden Ltd. Nottingham (machining small parts).
Low Moor Foundry Eng. & Machine Tool
Works Bradford (valve seats, water rails).
Mattersons Ltd. Rochdale (gears). Mellor &
Sons Ltd. Huddersfield (adaptors, caps, etc.).
Mitchell Ltd. Nottingham (housings, plugs,
etc.). Morris Commercial Cars Ltd. Birmingham
(conn. rods). Robert Morton & Co. Ltd. Burtonon-Trent (pipe bending and brazing). Motor
Components Ltd. Birmingham (valves). Monochrome Ltd. Redditch, Worcester (plating).
Morris Motors Ltd. Coventry (gears). Nuffield
Mechanisations Ltd. Coventry (clutch units).
Pressed Steel Co. Ltd. Cowley, Oxford (exhaust
manifolds). Petrie & McNaught Ltd. Rochdale
(bearings, etc.). A. Pattison Ltd. Coventry
(shafts, housings, etc.). Frank Price Ltd. Derby
(pipe bending & brazing). Peglers Ltd. Doncaster (boost control units). W. H. Paul Ltd.
Breaston, Derbys. (exhaust manifolds). Ruston
& Hornsby Ltd. Lincoln & Grantham (casings
etc.). Rushworth Automobile Components Ltd.
Bradford (valve guides). Sanderson & Holmes
Ltd. Derby (pipe bending & brazing). Spencer &
Co. Leicester (gears). Ambrose Shardlow & Co.
Ltd. Sheffield (crankshafts). Sheepbridge
Stokes Centrifugal Castings Co. Ltd. Chesterfield & Sutton-in-Ashfield (cylinder liners)..
Slack & Parr Ltd. Kegworth, nr. Derby (lateral
bolts, cylinder studs, clutch weights, etc.). Smith
& Jewell Ltd. Chichester (exhaust manifolds).
Specialloid Ltd. London N.12 (pistons). Standard Motor Co. Ltd. Coventry (cam. brackets,
wheelcase units, manifolds). Swinnard Ltd.
Tunbridge Wells (plating). Tilling-Stevens Ltd.
Maidstone (cylinder liners). Wolseley Sheep
Shearing Co. Ltd. Wilton, Birmingham (guide
vanes, housings). Woodhouse & Mitchell Ltd.
Brighouse, Yorks. (connections, pipes). Webley
& Scott Ltd. Birmingham (conn. rods, gears,
rockers, general machining). Wellworthy Ltd.
Lymington, Hants. (pistons). Westinghouse
Brake & Signal Co. Ltd. Chippenham, Wilts.
(oper. jaws & levers, gears, etc.). Weyburn
Engineering Co. Ltd. Elstead, Surrey (boost
units, liners). Williamson Higgs Ltd. Southampton Row, WC1 (exhaust manifolds). Yarwood Ingram Co. Ltd. Birmingham (studs,
screws). British United Shoe Mach. Co. Ltd.
Leicester (wheelcase assembly). Riley Ltd.
Foleshill, Coventry (carburettor assy.). Turner
Manfg. Co. Ltd. Wolverhampton (boost assy).
A. Beebee Ltd. Wednesbury (studs, bolts,
screws). Clancey Brown Ltd. West Bromwhich
(valve guides, etc). Coventry Repetition Co. Ltd.
Coventry (fuel pumps, valve seats). Cylinder
Components Ltd. Birmingham (general machining). Glyco Metal Co. Ltd. Manchester (general
machining). Jaff Engineers Ltd. Manchester
(general machining). Peacock & Waller Ltd.
Hinckley (casings). Vickers Armstrong Ltd
Newcastle-on-Tyne (cylinder blocks). Dixon
Bate & Co. Chester (studs, etc.). Gilmore &
Daniels Ltd. Blackpool (machining small parts).
W. H. & S. Jones Ltd. Wilmslow, Manchester
(pipe bending & brazing). Maudslay Motor Co.
Alcester, Warwick (casings, etc.).
45
Other firms for which type of parts
produced is not known
Aluminium Engineering Ltd. Birmingham.
Alexander Ltd. Surbiton, Surrey. Axminster
Carpets Ltd. Axminster. Adam Steel Ltd Beeston, Notts. Adcock & Shipley Ltd. Abrey
Heating & Engineering Ltd. Henley-onThames. B.C.R. Motors Ltd. Torquay. Blackstock Engineering Ltd. Cockfosters, Herts. The
British Organ Blowing Co. Ltd. Derby. Bullock
Parsons & Co. Ltd. Brimscombe, Gloucester. F.
Blount & Co. Ltd. Belper, Derbys. British
Metallic Packing Ltd. Sidcup, Kent. The Bird
Manufacturing Co. Ltd. Eastbourne, Sussex.
Bow-Styles Ltd. Leicester. F. G. Burgin Ltd.
Birmingham. Clarendon Engineering Co. Ltd.
Leicester. The Cinemaker Co. Nottingham.
Thos. Coleman & Sons Ltd. Derby. Cunliffe &
Ward Engineering Dept Blackburn. Clifford
Motories Engineers Ltd. Eastwood, Nottingham. G. E. Compton Ltd. Teddington, Middlesex. Cotterill Ltd. D. R. Croft Ltd. Birmingham.
H. H. Cook Ltd. Derby Gas Co. Ltd. Derby.
Duplus Specialited Co. Ltd. Leicester. R. I. R.
Dean Ltd. Derby. Doughty & Smith Ltd. Nottingham. Dean & Mullhall Ltd. Sheffield. Ena
Engineering Co. Heanor. B. Finnan & Co. Ltd.
Nottingham. C. A. Foyster Ltd. Lincoln. G. & R.
Garage Ltd. Surbiton, Surrey. The General
Engineering Co. Ltd. Derby. A. Green Ltd.
Derby. Government T. Centre Ltd. Leicester.
John Gaul Ltd. Crawley, Sussex. Haycock
Engineering Co. Ltd. Ashboume. W. A. Hodkins Ltd. Mansfield. Hodgkins & Blythe Ltd.
Mansfield. Holland Ltd. Preston. Heathcote
Ltd. Derby. Harcourt Motors Ltd. Ashboume.
Hayes Plant Ltd. Cowley, nr Uxbridge. Haydon
Peters & Co. Ltd. Wellingborough. Thomas Hill
Ltd. Derby. W. Jenkins Ltd. Cheltenham. J. D.
C. Engineering Co. Wimbledon, London. Kennings Ltd. Sheffield. Kelvin, Bottomley & Baird
Ltd. Basingstoke. Loughborough College
Loughborough. Loxham Garage Ltd. Lancaster. Lake Manufacturing Co. Ltd. Ambleside, Westmorland. Monitor Engineering Co.
Ltd. Birmingham. J. F. Mellings Ltd. Bourne,
Lincs. Musgrave Spinning Co. Ltd. Bolton.
Motor Repairs Ltd. Nottingham. Mathew Hall
Ltd. London. Modem Machine Tools Ltd.
Coventry. Geo. Mann Ltd. Leeds. Morton &
Sundour Fabrics Ltd. Carlisle. Musgrove &
Green Ltd. G. E. Neville& Sons Ltd. Mansfield.
Northampton Polytechnic London. Newton
Engineering Co. (Bedworth) Ltd. Bedworth.
Oakengates Engineering Co. Ltd. Oakengates,
Shropshire. A. Pearson Ltd. Hull. John Player &
Sons Ltd. Nottingham. Pneumatic Components
Ltd. Sheffield. Precision Castings Ltd. Wolverhampton. Pye Ltd. Cambridge. Pye Motors Ltd.
46
R. B. Page Ltd. Stoke-on-Trent. Prices Patent
Candle Co. Ltd. Battersea. Pikar Robinson Ltd.
London. Rustless Iron Co. Ltd. Keighley.
Roberts Ltd. Cleckheaton. J. V. Rushton
(Anodise) Ltd. Wolverhampton. Qualcast Ltd.
Derby. Sharston Garage Ltd. Manchester.
Siskol Machines Ltd. Sheffield. Leo Steinle Ltd.
London. R. Sutcliffe Ltd. Wakefield. W. & G.
Sissons Ltd. Sheffield. Tom Senior Ltd.
Liversedge, Yorks. Status Office Equipment
Ltd. Nottingham. J. Smith Ltd. Derby.
Satchwell Smith & Co. London. J. Sankey Ltd.
Wellington, Shropshire. Spot Engineering Co.
Ltd. Derby. P. Thornton Ltd. Stafford. J. I.
Thomeycroft Ltd. Basingstoke.
BOOK REVIEW
Trust member Reginald Phillips has written
and published his autobiography entitled
Bulldog to Matador. Born and raised in Filton he
grew up observing the activities at the local
aerodrome of the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company (on whose premises he was
born) and those of the Bristol Aeroplane
Company following the re-naming of the
former in 1920.
The book is a 50/50 evocation of life away
from the Bristol aircraft works and within it.
The former records the long-gone sleepy
village-style life before the expansion of the
suburbs and tells us of family life during the
inter-war years, all peppered with characters
and habits of the time.
He commenced work at Bristol at the time
when the delightful Bulldog fighters were
being built, and progressively prospered under
the influences of such notables as Frank
Barnwell, Roy Fredden, Stanley Hooker and
Archibald Russell until his retirement in 1980.
In 1942 he joined the Service Department instructing service personnel of all nationalities in
the maintenance of engines and was to remain
on the training side for the rest of his career,
being strongly involved with the Proteus in the
Britannia and finally thePegasus in the Harrier.
The book is well illustrated and contains an
excellent collection of photographs of the radial
engines along with nostalgic scenes of the
Filton of his childhood. The odd error creeps in
now and then, the worst, perhaps, being the
complete mis-spelling of Bristol Chief Test Pilot
Godfrey Auty's surname. It is the same size as
books in the Trust's Historical series and with,
118 pages for a price of £3.50 is very good value
for money.
It can be obtained from the author at Pantaw,
Camarthen Road, Llandeilo, Dyfed SA19 6RY.
Presumably you should add something for
postage.
D Birch
Kestrel engines undergoing strip, inspection and assembly. From the left: Pat Bate, later manager of Hucknall,
author, Jim Lomas, Harry Nixon and Wat Moreton. Extreme right is Bert Millwa rd.
AN APPRENTICE'S STORY
PART ONE
by Tony Henniker
When my father approached the Bristol
Aeroplane Co. with the view of me becoming
an apprentice, he was met with casual indifference, while the encouragement received
from R—R was quite the reverse. A visit to
Nightingale Road quickly followed, and an
interview with Arthur Wormald (Wor.),
Director and General Works Manager, had a
successful outcome. He said I would never get
rich, but Rolls-Royce made me feel wanted:
many years later I felt wanting!
On 12 August 1929 Rod Gratton, Wen dle
Holmes, and I — three eager premium apprentices — arrived at the old main entrance at the
No.1 gate end of the Nightingale Road office
block (pre 'Marble Hall'), to commence our four
years of tuition. Perhaps 'The Glorious Twelfth'
signalling the start of grouse shooting on the
moors, influenced the course of my subsequent
training for trouble-shooting in the field!
Formalities completed we were taken to where
our four-week initiation period was to be spent.
As I was concentrating on aero work, I was sent
to the '190' shop on Kestrel build under Bill
Smithdale, or as the lads called him, 'Buffalo
Bill'. He always wore a hat on the back of his
head, a worried look, but a sense of humour
waiting to explode. I was put with several of the
fitters in turn, including Walter Hampton, and
given simple jobs to do to assess whether or not
I would make an engineer. There was no set
tuition; you learnt the hard way, joined the
AEU, and if you were keen enough nearly
everybody was ready to help you. Coming
straight from a boarding school where you are
organized by the staff and everything is laid on
for you, I found this marked contrast took a
little getting used to. Bill (whose secretary
Francis attracted wolf-whistles), was a great
help to me, and we became good friends over
the years. He considered I had a future in the
Company — even after successfully scrapping a
cylinder block by drilling a dowel hole for a
sparking plug adaptor through into the cylinder head! At seventeen I felt rather lonely in
this Midland town where the dialect was
strange to me, and local expressions I heard at
work were difficult to comprehend at first. The
apprentices saw little of each other at work or
play. There was nothing in the way of a room or
club where we could meet, discuss our work,
voice our grievences, or suggest improvements. We had to find our digs: I had six in the
first eighteen months, and a total of eleven in
four years. R—R paid us the lowest legal wage of
one shilling per day from which twopence ha'penny was deducted every week for 'widows
and orphans' leaving 5/91/2d spending money
47
to which my father added half a crown weekly
and covered my digs. Mr Scott, the chief
cashier, made me a small loan once when I was
very broke. I knew not a soul, and as events had
scattered my father and his family from their
Ashbourne home (now a 'country house restaurant'), the only acquaintance he could find
from times past was a Miss Oakeover, but after
one meeting I felt the range of my push-bike
was inadequate for return trips to Mappleton
(also my grand-parents resting place), so
contact was lost; new friends found. Infrequent
chance meetings at work meant that it was
some time before I got to know any of the other
sixteen or so of my peers that I can now recall by
name. Their four years completed few were
offered, or wanted to accept employment with
the Company. George de Sechias and Harry
Rugeroni returned to Portugal, the latter to run
his family's very anglicized Aviz Hotel - the
Ritz or Raffles of Lisbon, Frank Evershed (car
Sales Conduit St.) and Lesley Thomas live on
the south coast, Rod Gratton and John Martin
live in Canada, while Terence - of the two
Henrys - and Wendle Holmes live locally ( Hny
passed-away last year-Ed.). Gordon Wood-of
the two Woods - returned to Weybridge to run
his family's garage; the RN entrusted him with
a motor torpedo boat during WWII, while Peter
Bair was for a while a Lt/Cdr. on Mountbattern's staff in India. Others did not return.
The now extinct premium apprentice was never
highly thought of in certain circles, but over the
seventy years or so of their existance some Platford, Haldenby, Robotham, Harker, Nicholson and others including - in another place Henry Royce, might be considered worthy
ones. It seemed strange to me that we were not
encouraged to attend the Derby Technical
College (in Green Lane), but if you wanted to
you were excused one morning a week, while
the remaining tuition was covered by evening
classes, plus homewbrk -all in your own time. I
found that living in digs, often with no private
room, was not conducive to study. There were
five of us in my year; Terence Henry, Wendle
Holmes, Ron Kibby and• George Watson, and
while mechanical engineering was the subject,
the majority were LMS students, so in my time
we learnt a lot about superheated steam and hot
bearing boxes, but in deference to the R-R
students an old 1925 Singer 8 chassis with flat
tyres was there for us to look at! However we
learnt to put the spark on an indicator diagram
(gas engine), and that Brinell was not, as I had
thought, the West Country engineer who built
railways, bridges and ships. I understood
torque a little better when I found that the
word in early English meant necklace - made by
twisting metal!
48
The exception to the apprentice 'apartheid'
was the monthly works visit to other motor-car
manufacturers in Coventry or Birmingham;
steel works in Sheffield, or on one occasion the
Players factory in Nottingham - for which we
were excused work on the Saturday morning.
There was no coach laid on of course: you had
to supply your own transport. I went with
anyone who had a car. Most had four wheels of
some kind, with the exception of Dick Buckle
and 'Lousy' Henry who owned three-wheeled
Aero Morgans. We were always given a good
lunch and after the visit the race back to Derby
was always won by Buckle or Henry with their
snarling twin cylinder JAP motorcycle engines.
Remembering a few faces of the six thousand
Company employees should help me recall
more of that period of over sixty years ago;
coupling names with faces may be more difficult. Memory can tell lies; can be distorted by
sentiment, or by a touch of nostalgia, but some
facts can hardly be in doubt. Times were hard
for the works employees, and they worked
hard in accord with the times. Jobs were scarce
which helped the management to strictly enforce the unwritten but quickly learnt, rules.
The factory gates closed at 7.55 am only to open
again after fifteen minutes ensuring the loss of
that much pay for the late arrivals. You vacated
your workplace only when the 'bull' went.
Strikes were unheard of; employment too valuable to chance losing, and the AEU had no teeth.
The rarity of overtime was a luxury. Except for two
half hour periods, smoking was prohibited unless driven by desperation you were prepared to sit on a non-lifting seat of two wooden
strips embedded in porcelain, anticipating the
thunderous kick on your pub-like half-door by
the boot of the lavatory attendant so terminating your few puffs of Players. Even the
labourers wore ties, and for foremen and
apprentices, 'plus fours' were quite the thing
for Saturday morning wear. The majority travelled to and from work by bicycle for which
racks were placed near the four factory gates:
no requirement for car parks. Trams were still
,running until 1934, and riding with the wave of
cyclists down Osmaston Road required a certain amount of skill. Where the road narrows
over the railway bridge it tended to become
congested, and the trick was not to get your
tyres in the tracks. One day I was nudged into
one line, and as I fell off the domino effect was
quite dramatic, and I heard a few new expletives for the first time! Rolls-Royce had been in
Derby as a Company for a little over twenty
years: the thoughts of a certain young RAF
officer in No.111 Squadron were turning to gas
turbines engines for aeroplanes. The enormous
developments of the next decade were about to
begin.
One of the 76 Submarine Scout Zero 'Blimps' built; powered by the Hawk
Westland Wizard with the Kestrel F.XI
49
Starting from basics
So after one month probationary period I was
launched on my four-year journey through the
twenty or so departments in the factory, the
first group being the three foundries, dropforge, and pattern shop. The latter, a carpenters
paradise, was run by a Mr Walker (who had a
daughter named Ivy), and where seasoned
timber was carved into shapes as surrogates for
the castings they would replicate in aluminium,
iron, or brass in the foundries. The working
conditions were dusty, but reasonable compared to those I found in the foundries which
were pretty grim. The brass foundry was not
unpleasant as it was small, but the iron and
aluminium foundries I thought dreadful. Particularly in the summer with the heat of the
furnaces and the atmosphere of smoke and
acrid fumes, I felt I would never survive the two
months schedule. The aluminium foundry was
the worst, and being isolated from the main
works, there was no escape during working
hours, but I found a steel ladder leading out
onto the roof where I took in lungs of fresh air
before descending into the murk again. Die
casting was worse than sand as the operation
was practically continuous, while for the larger
items — crankcases, cylinder blocks, wheelcases
and the like it was less strenuous as pouring the
metal took only a fraction of the time taken to
that of making the sand moulds. The iron foundry was slightly better as it was within the main
factory (long since displaced by the `chapel'),
and I could slip outside for a breather, or to feed
the cupola with pig iron, and casting car
cylinderblocks and exhaust manifolds was only
carried out twice a week. With the wooden
pattern I had made in the pattern shop, and the
sand mould with the brass tools I had made in
the brass foundry, I cast what was to emerge
after my machine, grinding and fitting experience, a small cast iron surface plate now serving
as a reminder of the foundries.
My father used to tell me (I suppose with a
farmer's outlook), that motorcar manufacturers
were really sophisticated blacksmiths! Had he
been more specific and compared the dropforge with the smithy, his analogy would have
been more accurate. I found that the smith's
hammer and anvil had been replaced by steam
operated hammers, or larger drop hammers
with dies interposed between them and the
'anvils' hollowed to the shapes of valves, conrods, shafts or gear wheel blanks. The real
blacksmith was the large man with the beefy
arms who, with a pair of tongs would pull a
large white hot ingot of steel out of a furnace
and manoeuvre it undera large hammer cleverly controlled by his mate and beat it into a long
shaft of different diameters, or a blank for a
50
reduction gear wheel. Yes, I was told to pick up
that bar of steel, but I had been warned, and
made sure it had cooled off first! All these items
which I had now seen made in the rough were
followed through to their various cleaning up
processes the castings having all the unnecessary runners and flashes cut off, wire
brushed or sand blasted before being machined
to receive their moving parts which were made
from the forgings.
But before going on to what I considered the
more interesting stages of turning what I had
seen into parts of aero engines, I was put into a
variety of small departments which in their
own way played their important roles, but I felt
I was being side-tracked, as much of the work
had little or nothing to do with aero engines.
The electrical department for instance, which
was operated almost exdusively by girls (who
frightened me), and wound ignition coils,
dynamos, starter motors for cars — but not
magnetos; the work that Lucas did in later
years. I found the gearbox and back axle
assembly and test interesting where gears were
run in pairs and checked for high spots by the
use of Prussian Blue (red, actually), and then
quietened by hand stoning the high spots.
Next I was sent to the coppersmiths which I
enjoyed as I was able to do some useful work by
myself, and after a while help with the production of parts for cars and aero engines. Here
car radiator shells were built by hand, and the
honeycomb matrix built by stacking brass tubes
in a jig and dipping both sides in a bath of
solder. One of my mentors was Harold Fogg who
taught me how to braze, bend pipes and generally turn copper or brass sheet into useful
'foreigners' for domestic use!. He told me that
the standard test to qualify for coppersmith
status was to be able to turn a piece of copper
tube one inch in diameter and one inch in
length, inside out. Of course I believed him and
after days of continuous hammering and annealing, expanding one end and contracting the
other, I had a flat copper disc with a tiny hole in
the centre. 'You simply reverse the process
until you finish up with the short length of tube
with which you started — only inside out'. I
made a small copper jug instead. It was while I
was learning to weld that I had my first brush
with the management. One became very popular doing odd private jobs for friends you
didn't know you had. Fishtails for exhaust
pipes were fashionable, and I had progressed
far enough to weld together the two halves of
stainless steel pressings forming fishtails for the
car production. One day Peter Barr brought two
halves of an extra large fishtail for his MG
Midget which was a bit large to conceal and
sure enough Jimmy Bowers the shop super-
intendent must have seen it, and Jimmy disliked apprentices. The next day I was sent for by
Wor. who gave me a lecture and severe reprimand, which I considered quite unnecessary.
As I was leaving his office quaking in my oily
welding shoes, Wor called me back and in a
different tone of voice explained that he had
broken his fire tongs at home and would I call at
his office in the morning to collect them and
weld them up for him, and he expected a good
job made of them. Then came the punch line;
'and if you are caught or anyone finds out who
they belong to, I'll sack you, and I mean it'. I
looked for a comforting expression on Miss
Tunnicliffe's face (Wor's secretary), but drew a
blank, so trembled my way back to the shop,
my hands being much too shaky to do any more
welding that day. But, was I in luck? Jimmy
Bowers was taken ill the very next day and was
whipped off to the DRI. I was never thanked for
doing the job, and I nevergot the sack—well not
until forty years later. My second encounter
with management was on the occasion when I
found my way into the Experimental Department and it wasn't long before I was hounded
out by Bob Cloverley — or was it HPS? I can
remember Royce Speed smiling, but perhaps
this was on another later occasion when I was
spying for EP.
I suppose because nothing was actually being
manufactured, and that test-tubes and bunsen
burners reminded me of chemistry classes at
school, that I found the labs, one of the least
interesting of all the departments. No doubt the
occupants of the small building between the
Technical Block and Addison Road produced
many important things such as Bill (Eric)
Whitehead's RR 50 aluminium alloy series. My
contribution was the making of a large
soldering iron which I hack-sawed from a
copper ingot. Mr Bradbury was not pleased,
while Mr Hall (HI), who ran the small staff
seemed impressed by the method in which I
attached the head of the shaft: by drilling the
hole for the shaft undersized, heating the head
and shrinking it onto the shaft. Hi. talked about
the coeficient of expansion — of which I had
never heard — and next time the iron was heated
the head would fall off. It hasn't yet!
I can't remember whether Eric Aspley was
there at the time but I got on well with a lad
some five years my senior named Harold Gresham. Although some distance from the labs., a
Mr Talbot ran a small mechanical test dept.,
appropriately at one end of the central stores
near the Hawthorn Street entrance. Measuring
the physical properties of metal I found
interesting. Of the hardness (I think the
Brinnell scale was used), ductility, and
elasticity testing, I thought the latter the more
dramatic; gradually increasing the load and
waiting for the test piece to pass through its
elastic limit and break with a bang. Less
spectacular was impact testing on the Izod
machine. I seem to remember there was also a
certain amount of viscosity testing done on
various grades of lubricating oils. Which
reminds me that one could buy a five gallon
drum of Prices Motorene oil through the firm
for something under nine shillings. Of course it
was stopped when some idiot started re-selling
at a profit.
Unscheduled excursions
When a working week was 47 hours and
holidays measured in days rather than weeks as
today, at times I felt slightly restricted compared with the freedom enjoyed by the erstwhile schoolboy. So during my four years I
managed to wangle one or two jaunts into the
outside world. I spent a few days at Pobjoy
Airmotors (bought by Shorts in 1936) at Hooton
Park to see the small geared radial engine of
80 bhp being made. As it was almost half the
diameter of the Bristol Pegasus, Shorts were
able to power their half-size flying replicas of
the Stirling bomber and Empire flying boat,
each with four Niagras. My next escape from
captivity requiring Wor's permission, was to
attend the Schneider Cup of 1931. By now I had
a Douglas 350 cc motorcycle which carried me to
Portsmouth where conveniently one of my RN
uncles had an assignment which sounded
something like 'Portsmouth Harbour Master';
two boats went with the job. My uncle (Ratsey
of Cowes — makers of 'fine sails for fine vachts'),
wasted no time in showing up my lack of nautical skills, and then proceeded to extend my
ignorance by airing his aeronautical knowledge. He enumerated all the airships which
had been powered by Condor, Eagle and Hawk
engines.
At the time I had never heard of the latter, let
alone that it had ever been installed in aeroplanes such as the Avro 504F, Sage III, and a
few BE2E's, but the number must have been
small as the bulk of the total production of 100
powered the small North Sea class airships
(Class B — Limp, hence 'Blimp'). One of my
uncle's crafts was a speed-boat in which we
made our trips to shore from the larger boat,
and out to one of the timing ships for the actual
race. My attempt to make fast to the rope ladder
lowered for us from the latter vessel, extracted
salty expletives from my nautical relative which
seemed to amuse the matlots above on deck.
We were not piped aboard, but uncle was on
christian name terms with the captain, and
51
several pink gins later I tried to follow the S6B
as it passed over the ship!
I wanted to have a look at aircraft being
manufactured, so arrangements were made for
me to spend one of my summer holidays at
Westlands, Yeovil. I motor-cycled the daily
round trip of 90 miles from my home in Somerset; well worth a respite from living in digs.
Wapitis were in full production, while the
Wizard II (F/Kestrel), was on test at Martlesham
Heath, but returned to Yeovil for a couple of
days while I was there.
I flew with Capt. Paget while he flight tested
production Wapitis, and on one trip over Portland Bill we could see the stricken submarine
'M2' lying in seven fathoms like a large sleeping
fish. One of three vessels in her class, a small
hangar had replaced the large 12" battleship
gun to house a small folding wing float-plane.
Catapult trials of the Parnell 'Peto' had been
successful, but in January of '32 the vessel had
dived with the hangar doors not completely
closed, and no further contact was received
from the sixty officers and ratings — including
the pilot.
to be continued
Dear Sir
In 1949/1950 during the course of my
Engineering Apprenticeship I was posted to the
Experimental Test Department (Sinfin A Site)
run at that time by Frank Greaves.
In those days we were mainly involved in
testing Nenes, Tays and Avons and I had the
good fortune to be placed under the watchful
eye of Leading Tester Dusty Miller, a very
experienced ex Power Jets man. The assistant
tester, Bill, whose surname escapes me was a
tall, powerfully built man with a good sense of
humour and a strong disdain of Authority.
Like John Poyser (single cylinder test memories, Archive 24) I recall the long, somewhat
boring, periods of endurance testing being
enlivened by numerous incidents.
During an early morning start on a Nene,
Dusty noticed a momentary higher than normal
JPT reading. A precautionary shutdown was
carried out and we gathered round the engine
to check for any anomalies. At this moment the
labourer arrived and with mixed expletives
removed the remains of his mop and broom
which he had stored in the Jet Pipe overnight.
On another occasion we were caught in a
torrential rainstorm as we cycled into work. Bill
decided he would hang his trousers up to dry in
the detuner annexe. We were running performance curves at that time and at the lunch break
Bill was not amused to find that his trousers had
apparently been stolen. He was even less
amused when the remains, including scorched
pound notes and coins were eventually located
at the end of the detuners. You can guess who
had to crawl down the filthy interior to retrieve
them.
Still on the subject of detuners there was the
occasion when we ran our first Avon (an RA.7)
as the engine passed the previously unheard of
thrust level of 7000 pounds. Dusty detected a
rattling and rumbling noise and hit the 'panic'
button. It transpired that the detuner, previously accustomed to a max thrust of 6500
pounds for the Tay, had jumped its chocks and
headed off in the direction of Sinfin Moor.
Another incident which could have had
tragic consequences involved an Avon which
had a vibration problem, serious enough to
require the personal attention of Dizzy Drew.
Dizzy favoured a manual approach to vibration analysis which consisted of putting his left
hand on the starter fairing (no intake guards in
those days!) and signalling for RPM changes
with his right hand. At some fairly high RPM
we saw, to our horror, that his left arm had
disappeared into the intake. The 'panic' button
was hit and we descended into the cell in some
trepidation to find Dizzy minus the left sleeve
of his jacket but otherwise unharmed. Fortunately his hand had lodged on an intake strut.
The engine was R.T. S. with the cryptic but true
comment, 'Harris Tweed in the bleed valves'.
The fire extinguisher system in those days
was somewhat archaic being mechanically
operated by a system of wires and pulleys
which led to large fire bottles mounted on the
wall in the pre-rig area. A millwright working
in the cell hooked his ladder round the wire
which triggered the alarm but did not fire the
extinguisher bottles.
The fire brigade arrived in record time but
then blotted their copy book by discharging the
bottles. The interesting result was several
seconds spray of a mixture of oil and kerosine
from the large bore fire extinguisher pipes
which were located in a trench directly below
the engine. This somewhat lethal cocktail being
followed by the foam which was most effectively deposited into the intake, jet pipe and
over the whole Test Cell. A somewhat Shake-
52
spearean R.T.S. note read, 'Full of foam, old oil
and kerosine but signifying nothing (in terms of
fire damage)'.
The presence of the millwright in the test cell
was an edict to check all test cell hoists as a
result of another incident. These hoists were of
the manually operated chain type and ours
managed to jam solid with the Avon suspended in mid-air during installation for a 150 hour
test. Nothing daunted Bill clambered onto the
engine and performed a war dance, to no avail.
Considerable activity by the millwrights eventually enabled the engine to be parked back on
its transportation stand. This was fortuitous to
say the least as further investigation resulted in
the complete hoist crashing down onto the test
stand. It transpired that the bolts on the top
travelling pulley had sheared due to heavy
corrosion and wear. Bill was a bit subdued for a
while after this event.
Other incidents included a new design of
multi-breech cartridge starter for the Nene
where all the cartridges fired simultaneously
distributing the contents of the wheelcase over
a wide area.
Then there was the new Esso oil which during
endurance testing degraded into a tomato soup
colour. Frank Greaves came to witness this
phenomenon, dropped his Parker pen into the
sample bucket and was slightly affronted when
Bill in no uncertain terms refused to retrieve it
for him.
All the above occurred in a 12 month period
but in between times a considerable number of
successful tests were completed.
IP D Sherrard
East Kilbride
Dear Sir
Following the appeal to RRHT members to help
in creating a classified filing system of historical
data (Archive No.26). I wish to thank three
members for volunteering. They are Mrs Betty
Arnold, Mr John Powell and Mr Tom Bowen.
Good work has already been done in accelerating the classification of material.
In due course there will be the need to rearrange the classified data into years and, in the
case of the Engine Type box files, to subdivide
these into Design, Development, and Installation.
At present I think that is as far as we could
reasonably consider developing this classified
system. We would still welcome assistance
from other RRHT members interested in creating as soon as possible a reference system of
valuable data that might otherwise be lost to
everyone.
G L Wilde
Turnditch, Derby
Dear Sir
No doubt, as with all recipients of the Archive,
each new issue triggers my own memory cells,
prompting a written response which may be of
interest, or useful for the records.
With regard to the RB39 Clyde, I recall that
late in its development, before air cooled
turbine blades became the vogue, we (Exp
Department) received scheme drawings for
steam cooled turbine blades, the design
required water to be fed into a collector ring in
the rim of the turbine wheel, where it would
immediately turn into steam, and be centrifuged through holes in the wheel rim, and
through corresponding holes in the blade roots
and up through a hole running inside the
length of each blade leading edge.
The blade LE hole was blind at the tip, with
the idea that the heavy wet steam entering the
blade root would be centrifuged up the core of
the LE hole, and as it became further heated
and therefore lighter, it would be forced back
down around the inside wall of the hole by the
mass of fresh steam entering the blade root. I
remember this project particularly well, since at
that time we had not developed ECM and we
broke many drills trying to drill the small
diameter, deep holes, before Noel Thompson
(Exp Drilling Foreman) developed the technique of 'peck drilling'.
In the event, the blade steam cooling scheme
was quickly abandoned after testing because
the bulk of the steam did not recirculate, and
was therefore lost through the turbine. The net
result being that the potential increase in
engine power could not compensate for the
substantial amount of water the aircraft would
have to carry. Incidentally, I have a hollow
Clyde Stage-1 rotor blade which I made as an
experiment at this same time, when I was
heavily involved in finding new ways of
manufacturing blades. In this case, I etched
.010"—.012" from the surface of a standard
blade, and cast a die from it using the 'Cireperdue' method. A wax replica of the blade was
then cast and coated with copper powder and
then slow plated with hard chrome .010"—.012"
thick.
After drilling two holes in the blade root, the
wax core was melted out and the root and a
short stub of the aerofoil cavity was filled with
tin/antimony alloy to provide solidity to the
root. I was agreeably surprised at the apparent
rigidity of the blade, which easily polished to a
very smooth finish, and of course it is much
lighter than the original blade. At the time I
showed the blade to several people in Development with the suggestion that a strengthening
matrix could be planted inside the blade if
53
necessary. However, it ended up stuffed in my
desk drawer along with the samples of all of the
other blades I worked on, starting with Dr
Griffith's CR1 blades in KE965 material in mid
1940.
Ken Grundy
Ontario, Canada
Dear Sir
In today's Daily Telegraph (5 March 1991) an
obituary is published of 'Jock' Bonar GC who,
as many will know, was a Test Pilot at Hucknall
during the 39-45 war; he flew also on liaison
duties between the Company and RAF Stations.
He flew me, as Installation Development
Engineer at Hucknall, on several 'troubleshooting' missions to Service Squadrons in
Yorkshire and Lincolnshire to investigate
reported faults or misbehaviours in the oil and
coolant systems of Whitley, Manchester and
Lancaster bomber aircraft.
Frequently, the Miles Whitney Straight dualcontrol liaison aircraft was used. Having taken
off from Hucknall and set a course at 2000 ft he
would leave me — a non-pilot — to keep the
machine straight and level till we arrived over
the destination, with a firm instruction 'If you
see anything coming towards us, wake me up
bloody quick' whilst he took a nap or read some
more chapters of a paperback thriller.
A great character with a 'not to worry'
attitude to life.
Incidentally, in pre-war days Hucknall was a
grass airfield with no hard runway. In one
corner, very remote from the Flight Hangar, an
area known as 'Ronnie's Patch' had a liberal
sprinkling of mushrooms. The Skipper (Captain R
Shepherd) on returning from a test flight in one
of the Hawker biplanes — usually a Hart or Hind
— would side-slip over the boundary fence and
pull up in this corner to cram his pockets with
these delicacies before taxying back to the Flight
Hangar.
Tom Stern
photography, on a fortnightly basis, should be
employed.
This was fine, except that the proposed site
was then an indeterminate area in a vast and
beautiful wilderness, bounded by random sections of Hadrian's wall. Frank Kirk, now sadly
dead, was to be pilot of the aircraft. Frank was
then chief air traffic controller at Hucknall, also
a Company communications pilot and CFI at
Tollerton, and was of course an excellent
navigator. After much poring over maps he
said: 'What we need is an 'X' to mark the spot!'
And that is exactly what happened. A local
farmer was recruited to lay out flour bags in the
centre of our 'target'. The result was quite
spectacular and the cross could be seen many
miles away. The farm, very inappropriately,
was called Moscow Farm.
The wastes of Cumberlandwith the cross of flourbags
marking the spot where the Spadeadam site was to be
built
Nottingham
Dear Sir
As a retired photographer I take perverse
pleasure in enclosing for your readers scrutiny
probably the most uninteresting photograph
ever submitted to the Archive, or any other
publication for that matter.
When the Cold War was very cold, Spadeadam rocket site, in the depths of Cumbria,
became a new and important part of Company
activity. An early MoD requirement was the
supply of comprehensive photographic coverage to monitor building progress, disposition of
plant, rigs and so on. It was decided that aerial
54
The same site under development
The initial aircraft was a Proctor but later an
Auster was used. By removing the passenger
door and dual 'stick', an excellent camera
platform was achieved. And so there followed
many months of the 'milk run' up to Spadeadam, a task of mixed blessings; I learned not
to have too much pre-flight liquid intake; it was
a long way with legs and fingers crossed.
The photographs despatched to MoD were
treated with rigorous security; stamped 'secret'
and put in an envelope marked 'secret'. This
envelope was then placed in another envelope.
During the long, sometimes boring cross
country flights, I had a very bad habit of using
up film by photographing anything that looked
even faintly interesting: grazing sheep, canals
and boats, country mansions and railway
stations. One building I filmed brought me very
close to becoming a statistic in the espionage
war: the odd looking structure turned out to be
the 'oh-so-secret' Calder Hall Atomic Power
Station! And the photograph found its way into
one of the 'secret' envelopes. 35 years on it is
difficult to imagine the hysteria generated in
those days by anything 'atomic', and I was
indeed fortunate to escape with a severe
reprimand.
Footnote: I was offered a job of starting up the
photographic department at Spadeadam, reporting to the respected Colin Smith. A great
car enthusiast, his reaction when I proposed
the purchase of an expensive camera was
' Good God— I could buy a decent car for that!' I
almost replied (but didn't) that I could buy a
nice house for the same money, but would have
some trouble filming rocket engines with it!
George Webb
Hucknall
Dear Sir
Those who came to know Clitheroe through
working at Bankfield Shed or Waterloo Mill will
have had memories revived by the T.V. coverage of the recent Ribblesdale by-Election with
its several shots of the town centre including
the High Street with the Swan & Royal Hotel,
the venue of the deal between Hives and Wilkes
for the swap of the jet work of Rover for the
Rolls-Royce tank factory at Nottingham (as
mentioned in David Oddie's letter).
Another very significant and important event
which took place in this hotel, affectionately
known at Barlick as the Swan & Jet Pipe, was a
meeting of Hooker and his team with Gloster
test pilots during their visit in November '44 to
see the B41 which had started running at Barlick
and performing very well. Discussion followed
on possible application to the Meteor then in
operation with 616 Squadron R.A.F., and
whilst successful in dealing with 'doodle-bugs'
really needed improved performance.
Realisation that the B41 (Nene) was too large
in diameter, led to the suggestion, claimed to
have been made by John Herriot, for a scaled
down B41 tailored to Meteor installation
requirements. This was taken up with typical
Barlick enthusiasm, and if I remember correctly
was the engine drafted one lunch time on the
table cloth by Lombard and Hooker in the
Senior Staff Canteen! Both had sketched all
over the table cloth with blue pens and after the
meal Lombard turned to me and said 'now
RTO, you can sort out the security!' The
immediate problem in late November '44 was to
sell the Derwent V project as Hives had taken
over a factory at Newcastle under Lyme and
this had just been tooled for Derwent I production. Hives did not forbid the change, so
Barlick went ahead with design and Ron Kibbey
cleared all outstanding work in his D.O. to start
detailing on 1st January 1945 with 'clean sheets
of paper'. By then the war situation had
changed dramatically and Barlick was told in
the strongest terms that every effort was to be
exerted to get the Derwent V cleared for
production. Barlick took up the challenge, by
the end of January all detail drawings of major
components were issued and a record set for
design, manufacture and test of the new engine
in six months. This Derwent V put the Meteor
into an advanced fighter class and with
improved turbine blade material took the Air
Speed Record in 1945 and '46.
The late John Herriot was a very forceful
character and as Hooker's Chief Development
Engineer kept the test beds very actively
engaged on endurance testing the major design
changes which were arising from the change
from Rover to Rolls-Royce management. Herriot had been loaned to Rover by the Aeronautical Inspection Directorate and claimed to
know his way around official regulations,
Herriot was transferred from Barlick to cover
the opening up of the Newcastle factory. He
told me some 500 engines were produced there
before the factory was dosed following Hives
decision to concentrate jet engine design and
manufacture within the Derby organisation.
Barlick was retained for experimental manufacture and test. Herriot had intended to write a
book covering 60 years in aviation, from a boy
in Royal Flying Corps to becoming a General
Manager of a Rolls-Royce Division — unfortunately this book was never completed but much
of the information collected was passed over to
Hooker for his lecture in 1978 to the Royal
Aeronautical Society. 'Early Days at Barlick' I
was, fortunately, able to attend this lecture and
participate in the discussion pointing out the
unique conditions under which Barlick operated. This was a small group of young men with
adequate facilities and great freedom of
operation under the technical direction of
Stanley Hooker with skilled design support of
Adrian Lombard and Fred Morley and Harry
Gresham's metallurgical guidance with Les
55
Buckler's skilled factory management and
Hives full support if additional help was
required'. Hooker agreed.
I would like to mention one of Herriot's less
known skills, that as a magician. He was a very
polished performer and a member of the Magic
Circle. He gave a very fine performance at the
Reactionaries Dinner at N. G.T.E. Pyestock in
April 1947, including his act of making a radio
set, whilst playing, disappear; so amazed were
the diners that he was persuaded to repeat the
act the following year.
Arthur H. Travis
R.T.O. (Engines)
Barlick 1943-48
Dear Sir
Following on from D. Birch's account of his visit
to Santa Maria in the January 1991 Newsletter,
there was another 'Golden Gathering of P51's'
in California last year. Pat and I moved to Long
Beach in early April 1989. My secondment to RR
Inc has been to cover the Adour in T-45A
Goshawk, and we are now in St. Louis, but
that's another story.
Around the middle of 1990, Ray Barnes who
is based in the Commercial Aircraft Office at
Douglas, asked if I would be willing to help out
on the RR stand at Hawthorne Air Show in
August. This was the weekend before we closed
the T-45 office and shipped our chattels east,
but tales of 'a dozen or so Mustangs, some
Mitchells and sundry other interesting stuff',
made the decision easy. A little closer to the
date, Ray phoned to say there might be the
chance of a flight and was I interested. Darn
right! The implication was that a circuit or two
in a B25 might be on offer and the engines are
the right shape for a Bristol lad, no offence
intended.
25 August dawned with just the right shade
of sepia to promise a great day in the LA basin.
Hawthorne is only twenty minutes up the freeway, and we got there early. Eight Mustangs
and a half dozen Mitchells were parked within
touching distance along the barriers, glinting in
the early sunshine, looking glorious etc. More
Mustangs arrived whilst we hunted for the RR
stand, and a TriMotor started giving ten dollar,
(there's inflation for you, it was ten bob in my
day), trips around the circuit.
Having found the stand we settled down to a
most agreeable day. There are stacks of airplane
nuts in California, and Pat had read the
brochure, so became quite good at conducted
tours of the Merlin.
Then John Hodson turned up, and it became
apparent that the 'flight' was a big ceremonial
deal and no seats had been actually booked so
56
we trailed along to the briefing. It was decided
that thirteen Mustangs and five Mitchells had
the right paperwork, so the formation would
consist of a box-plus-one of B25's escorted by
four flights-of-three P51's and a singleton. The
flight plan included a fly-by of all the major
airfields in the Los Angeles area. Sounded good,
but how to get a ride?
John managed to get with Clay Lacey in a
P51, but the B25's all seemed to be full up and a
whole posse of extras were trying to find seats,
so I wandered down to the flight line looking
for a lonely pilot and found one.
Mike DeMarino had brought along the
Planes of Fame P51D from Chino, and readily
accepted my offer to keep him company in the
back seat. This one is finished in a fetching
scheme of polished aluminium withblue 'Mickey Mouse' camouflage, invasion stripes and a
yellow spinner. He would be flying number
three in the third flight of P51's. I couldn't
believe my luck.
The flight? Well, what can I say? It was sheer
poetry. An almost two hour, low level, tour of
the home town. They even closed LAX for fifteen minutes for the fly-by of antiques from fifty
years ago. Pat 'counted them out and counted
them back in' with a sense of relief when we
finally rolled to a halt in front of the crowd. I
was in a state of total euphoria and was pleased
to see that John Hodson, despite his greater
experience, was just as brim full of enthusiasm.
The evening banquet to honour 50 year anniversary of Battle of Britain was fun but an anticlimax. Anything would have been after that.
John summed it up in his after dinner speech by
saying that if he ever had a 'Monday morning
feeling' he would just have to remember that
flight.
I have some good, if not great, pictures and
some video which, since it is in PAL format, I
won't be able to even see in colour until we
return to the UK. Most important, I have an
irradicable memory of noise, smell, vibration
and sheer pleasure which can be replayed
without even closing my eyes. Just because we
were in the right place at the right time. What a
fabulous fiftieth birthday present!
Chris Powell
Bristol Branch