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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Rolls-Royce
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Company with a long history in the manufacture of luxury cars and of aero-engines. Charles Stewart Rolls (1877–1910) was an early pioneer in both fields, as a driver and a pilot (in 1900 he won the Automobile Club's Thousand Mile Trial, and in 1910 he was the first man to fly across the English Channel and back non-stop). In 1902 he began selling cars in Mayfair and in 1904 he met Henry Royce (1863–1933), a one-time railway apprentice who had established his own electrical engineering company in Manchester in 1884. Royce had recently begun manufacturing cars to a high technical standard. Together they formed Rolls-Royce, setting up a factory in Derby in 1907 and in that first year producing their famous Silver Ghost. The firm moved into aircraft engines in World War I, but by then Rolls had died in a flying accident (in 1910, shortly after his record cross-Channel flight).
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In World War II Rolls-Royce engines powered the *Spitfire, the *Hurricane and Britain's first jet fighter, the *Meteor. This head-start in turbine and jet technology meant that after the war Rolls-Royce engines were used in many aircraft, such as the *Viscount, the *Comet, the Caravelle and several Lockheed and Boeing wide-bodied jets. Nevertheless by 1971 the company was in severe financial difficulties, and in that year the aero-engine division was nationalized (it was privatized in 1987). Rolls-Royce Motors remained in the private sector.
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