Sir Henry Royce: Establishing Rolls-Royce, from Motor Cars to Aero Engines

Superb book from one of the best engineers the modern world has ever seen.

A very interesting biography of a man, who from humble beginnings gave the world the Silver Ghost followed by the development of aero engines leading to the Merlin without which WWII may well have lasted longer than it did or even lost from a British perspective. And that these engineering gifts were given while enduring health issues which finally got the better of him.

I have been looking forward to the publication of this new book by Peter Reese for some time. Although I saw an early draft while he was writing it at the National Aerospace Library the dreaded Covid lockdown got in the way. Now it is published and worth the wait. Peter Reese is a full time author and has produced numerous books that are of a completely different perspective to the usual aviation history book which are invariably on aircraft and their development. Instead the author writes about the people involved. He has written a series of aviation books about Cody and about the movers and shakers in the periods before WW1, between the wars and after WW2 until Dennis Healy destroyed the industry. In his previous work he realised that Sir Henry Royce had been ignored and discovered a fascinating story that he unfolds.This is a fast paced and readable book starting with young Henry employed as a scarecrow and without much education. It is a story of a man who was intensely driven to succeed in making the best. His business history is traced from his early days setting up an electric lighting company before moving onto prestige cars and then aero-engines. It is also a story of a man who surrounded himself with like minded highly driven individuals with business and engineering acumen who stayed with him despite his demands. It is the style of this author that he also writes about these individuals and we soon get a picture of why Royce ended up an icon. There was a downside in that he (and indeed his early partners) deprived themselves of food and sleep and lived in their workshop in order to succeed. This ended up governing his later career when his health failed through overwork and his directors banished him to the coast to keep him away from the tensions of the factory. Here he could set up a dedicated design team to work to his exacting requirements. One can sum up his work as a drive for ultimate reliability through design excellence.The author traces the story through all his most significant achievements:The Silver Ghost and its unplanned re-invention into WW1 armoured cars;The diversion to support WW1 with the design of the Eagle aero-engine and its derivatives. Royce set about designing a reliable engine when the early WW1 aero-engines were chronically unreliable. After the war it was the engine of choice;The continuing development of the most magnificent of luxury cars between the wars;The development of the Kestrel aero-engine for the interwar period which by the 1930s became the engine of choice;The development of the R aero-engine for the Schneider Trophy challenge and his subsequent directives to develop it into the Merlin of WW2.All these aero-engines changed the fortunes of Great Britain in the air wars and clearly shows how much we owe Royce.We are fortunate that because Royce had been banished to the south coast during WW1 he communicated by daily letter to the factory in Derby. These letters were so informative of the design story that after WW1, and the completion of the design of the Eagle engine, that Rolls Royce saw fit to publish them in the 'Blue Book' which the author has used to analyse the engineering and the role of the key players.This book is well researched and has the benefit of being supported by many in the heritage community and by Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust’s photo archive. The author discusses Royce's design decisions but at a level where all can understand. His descriptions of Royce's involvement in the Schneider Trophy is fresh and exciting even though the story is well known.An excellent read that leaves you wondering why there are not people like Royce and his business partners around today. Where are they?

A great insight into one of the best engineers and british too.