Grace's Guide To British Industrial History

Registered UK Charity (No. 115342)

Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 162,258 pages of information and 244,499 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.

Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 147,919 pages of information and 233,587 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.

Rolls-Royce Engines: R

From Graces Guide

Note: This is a sub-section of Rolls-Royce

The Rolls-Royce 'R' was a racing aero engine. Developed from the Buzzard it was a 36.7-litre V12. It was capable of producing over 2,500 hp and weighed 774 kg. It was used for Schneider Trophy seaplane racing and for land and water speed record attempts.

Serial numbers were odd, Rolls-Royce practice being to have odd numbers for anticlockwise rotating engines when viewed from the front. The R engine with the serial number R27 broke the world air speed record in a Supermarine: S.6B seaplane travelling at 407.5 mph, was subsequently fitted in George Eyston's Thunderbolt land speed record car, and is now in the London Science Museum.

The design was later used as the basis for the Rolls-Royce Griffon.

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