What’s in a name? Plenty, if you happen to have one that’s shared by two different entities. Like Rolls-Royce. There’s the plc, the aerospace, power systems and defence company and the world’s second-largest maker of aircraft engines.
Then there’s Rolls-Royce, the one with the motorcars, which is owned by BMW. Nothing too confusing about that, is there? Unfortunately, unless you’re heavy into aviation powerplants or marine propulsion systems, the mention of the R-R name is bound to get you thinking cars.
Which is where we get to the story behind this story. Seems a wire news report about Rolls-Royce – the aerospace one – ran yesterday, about hinting about potential issues than may arise from alleged “malpractice” in Indonesia and China now that it has passed on information related to bribery concerns to Britain’s fraud office.
All good and fine, and still no confusion, because the wire report clearly indicated “aircraft engine maker.” It’s when someone tries to be clever about it that the fun starts – the Straits Times apparently ran a cover photo for the piece online, except that it was a file pix from Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, Spirit of Ecstasy evident and with a suitable caption to boot.
The photo has since been removed from the report, but it has all been enough to get the APAC comms of RR Motor Cars to issue a short statement clarifying that it’s a case of mistaken identity.
“Rolls-Royce Motor Cars makes super luxury cars and not jet engines. RRMC is a totally separate entity to Rolls-Royce Plc. We can confirm Rolls-Royce is not undergoing a corruption probe.”
Right. That clears it up then, no? It’s Rolls-Royce, and not Rolls-Royce. And in case you’re wondering about the graphic here, the logo on the left is that of RRMC, and the one in blue is of the plc.
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The for the fun of it, they should put up a similar logo at our RnRs… :)
Not only this brand, Volvo too. One is motorcar manufacturer another is truck maker. If I’m not mistaken the latter also producing diesel engine for heavy machinery, ships too.
How about Saab?
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Actually, when I see the RR logo, I think of the aircraft engines.
Aircraft engine Rolls Royce Trent is still the best sounding engine onto the aircraft.
Much more quiet than General Electric and Pratt & Wittney engines.
Takeoff sound very smooth as well as at cruising speed.
Rolls Royce Trent is still the best among the aircraft manufacturer like Boeing and Airbus.
Found in Air Asia X and Malaysia Airline.
The Boeing 777 powered by RR engines hv that distinctive whine sound when the thrust is increased or decreased – kind of interesting.
Honda makes aircraft too, but lesser known than other competitors.
Honda makes one aircraft, the HA-420, as far as I know.
Is a small private jet with a unique configuration of the jet engine nacelles on top of the wings.
I am not that into aircraft, but I heard the HA-420 is the fastest and most expensive in it’s class.
I guess u never seen GEnX engine? Trent was a good engine, MAS using Trent 800 for their B777 and Trent 900 for A380. The rest of their fleet, all B737 using CFM(collobration between GE and, Snecma) B747 and A330 using PW. While all AirAsia fleet using GE. GEnX was a new engine in the GE family. 40% of engine components using carbon fiber. First successful customer of this engine was JAL. This engine dedicated for B787 Dreamliner. I heard MAS will retire B747 from service since they have purchase A380….sayonara B747!…..about honda engine, partnership with GE, but mostly heard they will install the engine on business jet or small aircraft such as ERJ.
To understand better the GEnX engines routes can be traced back to the GE90 Family which were originally designed for the 777. The GE90 boast a lot of novelty such as the significant use of composite material (carbon fibre being one of them) but one most with mix view is its composite fan blade structure fused with titanium leading edges. While this provided advantages in saving weight and allowing a significant gain in performance through a much higher by past ratio and more efficient aerodynamic design (largest fan blade diameter of any 777 engines – bigger then a 737 fuselage cross section) there are some skepticism with the engine’s ability to deal with bird strikes more effectively then a conventional titanium material one.
Nevertheless the GEnX has pave way to the development of the LEAP-X engines which will eventually replace the CFM56 workhorse which you can see in the B737 fleets currently. The only thing I hate about the GEs is the fact that they use N1 as the perimeters to measure engine power/thrust as a pose to the EPR on the RR and PWs which I prefer.
In your mentioning of the PW4056 engines on the B747/A330 interestingly the PW engines can trace some of its routes to a collaboration with RR on the engine instrumentation monitoring systems. The PW4056 uses EPR which was originally adopted by the historical RB211s.
The sound on the Trents are indeed very unique. You can also find this in its ancestors the RB211s. One of the few unique things about the Trent/RB211 family is the fact they are compact, modular in design and the employment of triple spool system. The triple spools helps to reduce possibility of surges occurring and improve efficiency. The draw backs are they are heavy, more complex in design, expensive and overhauling difficult. But the modular nature makes upgrades relatively easy and feasible. An example of this was the adoption of the RB211 – G/H-T variants by BA in their 747/767 in later life. Several modification were made to adapt trent parts to the existing RB family.
They’re probably trying to outdo Lotus vs Lotus
Be careful with Rolls-Royce as they still support corruption by paying millions of Dollars to “odd” people who can force airlines to buy Rolls-Royce engines!
I tell the truth.
Dick Taylor (ex Rolls-Royce Technical Liaison Manager)
The reason we have Rolls-Royce plc & Rolls-Royce Motor Cars is because back in the 1970s they went bankrupt due to a problem in developing a jet engine. The jet engine part was nationalized and the motor car division was sold to Vickers who then became British Aerospace who then sold it to VW.
But, Rolls-Royce plc, who held the rights to the RR name sold the motor car naming rights to BMW who in the 90s were partners in jet engine manufacturing. Hence the situation we have now.
Long winded, I know :)
Just to add, the naming rights of Rolls Royce and the RR symbol still belongs to Rolls-Royce plc. It has only been licensed to BMW for the used on its super luxury car (this being due to historical partnership with BMW in supplying engines for the cars and collaboration of making jet engines (see BR700 Family) . Also Rolls Royce plc (under parent company Vickers) originally sold the motorcar division group which included Bentley in the sales to VW. The sale also included the Spirit of Ecstasy mascot and the right to use that trademark Rolls Royce grill. It was VW that later sold the Rolls Royce motorcar portion with mascot and grill to BMW, but BMW still until today has to license the name and RR symbol from RR plc.
Ha, ha, how about same product but with different name lke Lancer vs Inspira?
ho ho… like toyota 86 vs subaru BRZ?
Yea, I can’t imagine ANYONE who can’t tell the difference between the BLACK Rolls-Royce, from the BLUE Rolls-Royce. They’re such a bunch of retards that shouldn’t be working in their line of work.
I mean, come one, is it THAT difficult to tell the 2 images apart ? They must be color-blind. RRMC has every right to be prissy about it, probably having fought very hard to reject all proposals to have a unique logo to represent the other business. Hell no ! That would “fragment” the good “reputation” of the name.
*Tongue kaw-kaw in cheeks*
how about mitsubishi car, mistubishi jet fighter, mitsubishi tanker, mitsubishi fridge, mitsubishi air-cond, mitsubishi pen and etc? are they tje same entiti? lol
Who cares. Not that peasants can afford either the car or the aircraft engine.
Another…. Proton bicycle