Monday, March 11, 2019

Rolls-Royce - London, Derby, Crewe

Merlin - Engine that won the war > .
Rolls-Royce Merlin - one of the most important engines of WW2 > .
Poor Boy Who Invented World's Most Luxurious Car - BusStor > .

Rolls-Royce - London, Derby, Crewe

The Rolls-Royce Merlin is a British liquid-cooled V-12 piston aero engine of 27-litres (1,650 cu in) capacity. Rolls-Royce designed the engine and first ran it in 1933 as a private venture. Initially known as the PV-12, it was later called Merlin following the company convention of naming its piston aero engines after birds of prey.

After several modifications, the first production variants of the PV-12 were completed in 1936. The first operational aircraft to enter service using the Merlin were the Fairey Battle, Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire. More Merlins were made for the four-engined Avro Lancaster heavy bomber than for any other aircraft; however, the engine is most closely associated with the Spitfire, starting with the Spitfire's maiden flight in 1936. A series of rapidly applied developments, brought about by wartime needs, markedly improved the engine's performance and durability.

One of the most successful aircraft engines of the World War II era, some fifty marks of Merlin were built by Rolls-Royce in Derby, Crewe and Glasgow, as well as by Ford of Britain at their Trafford Park factory, near Manchester.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolls-Royce_Merlin

The Rolls-Royce Griffon is a British 37-litre (2,240 cu in) capacity, 60-degree V-12, liquid-cooled aero engine designed and built by Rolls-Royce Limited. In keeping with company convention, the Griffon was named after a bird of prey, in this case the griffon vulture.

Design work on the Griffon started in 1938 at the request of the Fleet Air Arm, for use in new aircraft designs such as the Fairey Firefly. In 1939 it was also decided that the engine could be adapted for use in the Spitfire. However, development was temporarily put on hold to concentrate efforts on the smaller Merlin and the 24-cylinder Vulture, and the engine did not go into production until the early 1940s.

The Griffon was the last in the line of V-12 aero engines to be produced by Rolls-Royce with production ceasing in 1955. Griffon engines remain in Royal Air Force service today with the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and power the last remaining airworthy Avro Shackleton.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolls-Royce_Griffon

Crewe

The British government built a shadow factory in Crewe in 1938 for Rolls-Royce where they could build their Merlin and Griffon aero engines. In 1946 car production was moved there for space to construct bodies and to leave space for aero engines at Derby. The site was bought from the government in 1973. It is now Bentley Crewe

Second World War

Production focussed on aero engines but a variant of the Merlin engine, known as the Meteor, was developed for the Cromwell tank. The Meteor's development completed in 1943 the same team at the Belper foundry restarted work on an eight-cylinder car engine widening its uses and it became the pattern for the British Army's B range of petrol engines for post war combat vehicles in particular in Alvis's FV600 range, Daimler's Ferret, Humber's Hornet and Pig and Austin's Champ.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolls-Royce_Limited

Rolls-Royce Crewe

In preparation for war, Rolls Royce and the British Government searched for a location for a shadow factory to ensure production of aero-engines. Crewe, with its excellent road and rail links, as well as being located in the northwest away from the aerial bombing starting in mainland Europe, was a logical choice. Crewe also had extensive open farming land. Construction of the factory started on a 60-acre area on the potato fields of Merrill's Farm in July 1938, with the first Rolls Royce Merlin aero-engine rolling off the production line five months later. 25,000 Merlin engines were produced and at its peak, in 1943 during World War II, the factory employed 10,000 people.

Car production

With the war in Europe over and the general move towards the then new jet engines, Rolls Royce concentrated its aero engine operations at Derby and moved motor car operations to Crewe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bentley_Crewe#Rolls-Royce_Crewe

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolls-Royce_Motors

Rosies - Women in Manufacturing

Was Rosie the Riveter a Real Person? > .

Rosie the Riveter was a cultural icon of WW2, representing the women who worked in factories and shipyards during WW2, many of whom produced munitions and war supplies. These women sometimes took entirely new jobs replacing the male workers who joined the military. Rosie the Riveter is used as a symbol of American feminism and women's economic advantage. Similar images of women war workers appeared in other countries such as Britain and Australia. The idea of Rosie the Riveter originated in a song written in 1942 by Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb. Images of women workers were widespread in the media as government posters, and commercial advertising was heavily used by the government to encourage women to volunteer for wartime service in factories. Rosie the Riveter became the subject and title of a Hollywood movie in 1944. 

Rosie the Riveter - Rockwell (43-5) ..
Rosies - Women in Manufacturing ..
We Can Do It! - iconic poster (43-2) ..

Rubber & Plastic


Rubber & Plastic

Supply-Chain Issues 2021 - Natural Rubber 

In the 1840s, sulphur was used to vulcanise rubber, stabilising it and making tyre production possible.

A closely-related material, gutta-percha, is a natural latex. This early thermoplastic was used from the mid-1800s, enabling telegraph wires to be laid at the bottom of the sea and electrical wires to be insulated. Other natural polymers resembling modern plastic were developed from cellulose, a natural polymer found in wood. The first, parkesine, was developed to produce celluloid in 1870, a medium for cinema film.

How Nylon Was Discovered - Ri > .
Plastics in WW2 - TedEd > .

But it was during the 20th century that plastics really took off. In 1907, Leo Baekeland invented the first synthetic plastic, bakelite, from fossil fuel-based chemicals. These revolutionary plastics were easy to mould and could be quickly mass produced. These materials were popular, cheap and built to last. The pace of development increased and by 1935 other polymers, such as polystyrene, polyester, PVC, polythene and nylon were all being manufactured from fossil fuels."
https://theconversation.com/plastic-is-now-part-of-our-planets-fabric-a-scientist-and-archaeologist-discuss-what-happens-next-106019 .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GirvOmjPZrc

Plastics: "Origin and Synthesis of Plastics Materials" 1945 US Office of Education
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_gDAjkfrz4

A brief history of plastics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW3OGMZ1bWc

How A Crazy Laboratory Accident Helped Create Plastic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML0PN_zvML8

Sunday, March 10, 2019

Sanctioned Aviation Industry

23-1-23 How Airspace Closures Work - neo > .2022+ Economics - Weighs 'n Means >> .

Scottish Aviation Limited


Scottish Aviation Limited was an aircraft manufacturer based at Prestwick, Scotland. The company were founded in 1935. Originally a flying school operator, the company took on maintenance work in 1938. During WW2, Scottish Aviation was involved in aircraft fitting for the war effort. This included maintenance and conversion of the Consolidated Liberator bomber.

The factory building of Scottish Aviation, which still exists today, was formerly the Palace of Engineering at the 1938 Empire Exhibition in Bellahouston Park, Glasgow. The building was dismantled from its Glasgow site and reconstructed.

STOL - PioneerTwin Pioneer | Jetstream turboprop | Bulldog trainers.

In 1977 Scottish Aviation merged with the British Aircraft Corporation, Hawker Siddeley Aviation, and Hawker Siddeley Dynamics to form British Aerospace. Much of the former Scottish Aviation assets now belong to Spirit AeroSystems.

The British aerospace industry has made many important contributions to the history of aircraft and was solely, or jointly, responsible for the development and production of the first aircraft with an enclosed cabin (the Avro Type F), the first jet aircraft to enter service for the Allies in World War II (the Gloster Meteor), the first commercial jet airliner to enter service (the de Havilland Comet), the first aircraft capable of supercruise (the English Electric Lightning), the first supersonic commercial jet airliner to enter service (the Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde), the first fixed-wing V/STOL combat aircraft to enter service (the Hawker Siddeley Harrier), the first twin-engined widebody commercial jet airliner (the Airbus A300), the first digital fly-by-wire commercial aircraft (the Airbus A320), and the largest commercial aircraft to enter service to date (the Airbus A380).

sī vīs pācem, parā bellum

igitur quī dēsīderat pācem praeparet bellum    therefore, he who desires peace, let him prepare for war sī vīs pācem, parā bellum if you wan...