Page 25 - HeritageEbooklet

of 1969 the company had run into a series of technical problems and was
struggling to meet the performance guarantees it had committed to. In a
report to the government in September 1970, Rolls-Royce revealed that
development costs for the RB211 were £170.3 million, almost double the
original estimate. The cost of production was also much higher than the
£230,375 selling price of each engine. By January of 1971 Rolls-Royce was
insolvent and the company was placed into receivership on 4 February 1971.
It was a devastating blow: for Osmaston, for Derby and for the nation, and
especially for the thousands of workers employed by the company. It was
Rolls-Royce’s darkest hour, but also a turning point.

Because of the company’s importance, the government stepped in to
nationalise the aerospace section of Rolls-Royce and safeguard the
completion of the RB211 development (the motor car business was
separated and sold by the government in 1973, becoming Rolls-Royce
Motors). In May 1971, a new company called Rolls-Royce (1971) Limited was
formed and a new contract was signed with Lockheed which increased the
price of the engines and cancelled penalties for late delivery.

The RB211 engine was certified on 14 April 1972 and the first Lockheed
TriStar entered service later that month. The RB211 engine was further
developed and later used to power aircraft such as the Boeing 747, 757 and
767. The RB211 was succeeded in the 1990s by the Rolls-Royce Trent family
of engines which is manufactured by the company today.

In 1987 Rolls-Royce returned to the private sector. Rolls-Royce plc is now
a global company producing highly regarded and efficient power solutions
for aerospace, marine, energy and off-highway applications. The company
is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of aero engines for large civil
aircraft and corporate jets and the second largest provider of defence aero
engines in the world. They now operate from an international network of
manufacturing and service facilities, but its largest site is still Derby – where
the company’s history of aero engine manufacture began.

“Derby is our largest site and it’s where we design, assemble
and test our Trent jet engines.”
www.rolls-royce.com

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