Catalogue description Rolls-Royce Plc Collection

The collection consists of material relating to the Bristol Aeroplane Company and British and Colonial Aeroplane Company and their associated companies.

Rolls-Royce Plc

Collection loaned by Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust and Rolls-Royce Plc

In 1920, the same year that British & Colonial became the Bristol Aeroplane Company, the factory took over the aero-engine department of Cosmos Engineering of Fishponds. This company had built Rolls-Royce engines during the first world war, and then developed their own radial piston engines - the Mercury, Jupiter and Lucifer. When Cosmos went into administration, BAC moved the design team to Filton. Led by Roy Fedden, the team went on to produce some of the most reliable radial aero-engines in the world. The aero-engine department provided the main source of income and employment for the Bristol Aeroplane Company during the lean inter-war years. In the Second World War many British aircraft were powered by Bristol radial engines - the Mercury, the Pegasus, the Hercules and the Centaurus. The company moved into turboprops and turbojets after the war, perhaps the most famous being the Olympus, which powered the Avro Vulcan and Concorde. In 1958, the engine division merged with Armstrong-Siddeley to form Bristol-Siddeley, and subsequently merged with Rolls-Royce in 1966, retaining the Rolls-Royce name. The factory at Patchway is still operational today, focussing on military engines, like the EJ200 for the Eurofigher Typhoon, and marine engines.