Rolls-Royce plc
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Rolls-Royce Holdings plc is a British multinational aerospace and defence company incorporated in February 2011. The company owns Rolls-Royce, a business established in 1904 which today designs, manufactures and distributes power systems for aviation and other industries. Rolls-Royce is the world's second-largest maker of
aircraft engine An aircraft engine, often referred to as an aero engine, is the power component of an aircraft propulsion system. Aircraft using power components are referred to as powered flight. Most aircraft engines are either piston engines or gas turbin ...
s (after
CFM International CFM International is a Franco-American aircraft engine manufacturer. The company is a joint venture between GE Aerospace and Safran Aircraft Engines (formerly known as Snecma) and is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was founded in 1974 to bu ...
) and has major businesses in the
marine propulsion Marine propulsion is the mechanism or system used to generate thrust to move a watercraft through water. While paddles and sails are still used on some smaller boats, most modern ships are propelled by mechanical systems consisting of an electri ...
and energy sectors. Rolls-Royce was the world's 16th largest defence contractor in 2018 when measured by defence revenues. The company is also the world's fourth largest commercial aircraft engine manufacturer, with a 12% market share . Rolls-Royce Holdings plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange, where it is a constituent of the
FTSE 100 Index The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is the United Kingdom's best-known stock market index of the 100 most highly capitalised blue chips listed on ...
. At the close of London trading on 11 February 2025, the company had a market capitalisation of £52.66bn, the 11th-largest of any company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange. The company's
registered office A registered office is the official address of an incorporated company, association or any other legal entity. Generally it will form part of the public record and is required in most countries where the registered organization or legal entity ...
is at
Kings Place Kings Place is a building in London's King's Cross area, providing music and visual arts venues combined with seven floors of office space. It has housed the editorial offices of ''The Guardian'' newspaper since December 2008 and is the form ...
, near Kings Cross in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
.


History


Ownership

Rolls-Royce grew from the engineering business of Henry Royce, which was established in 1884 and ten years later began to manufacture dynamos and electric cranes.
Charles Rolls Charles Stewart Rolls (27 August 1877 – 12 July 1910) was a British motoring and aviation pioneer. With Henry Royce, he co-founded the Rolls-Royce Limited, Rolls-Royce car manufacturing firm. He was the first Briton to be killed in an aeron ...
established a separate business with Royce in 1904 because Royce had developed a range of cars which Rolls wanted to sell. A corporate owner was incorporated in 1906 with the name
Rolls-Royce Limited Rolls-Royce Limited was a British luxury car and later an aero-engine manufacturing business established in 1904 in Manchester by the partnership of Charles Rolls and Henry Royce. Building on Royce's good reputation established with his Crane ( ...
. In 1971 the same company, Rolls-Royce Limited, entered voluntary liquidation because it was unable to meet its financial obligations. It remains in existence today, still in liquidation. Its business and assets were bought by the government using a company created for the purpose named Rolls-Royce (1971) Limited.
Rolls-Royce Motors Rolls-Royce Motors was a British luxury car manufacturer, created in 1973 during the de-merger of the Rolls-Royce automotive business from the nationalised Rolls-Royce Limited. It produced luxury cars under the Rolls-Royce and Bentley brands. ...
was separated out in 1973. Rolls-Royce (1971) Limited currently carries on the business under the name Rolls-Royce plc. Rolls-Royce plc returned to the stock market in 1987 under the government of
Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...
. In 2003 ownership of Rolls-Royce plc was passed to Rolls-Royce Group plc. In the same way, Rolls-Royce Group plc passed ownership on 23 May 2011 to Rolls-Royce Holdings plc.Rolls-Royce Holdings plc, Annual Report 2011
accessed 27 January 2017
Throughout these corporate changes Rolls-Royce plc has remained the principal trading company. ;Companies with shares available to the general public * 1906 company, Rolls-Royce Limited. Its shares became more or less valueless in 1971 and their price sank as low as a penny from a high of £1.25. :By the time the liquidation was effectively complete those shareholders had received more than £0.60 per share from the liquidation and they may have bought them for around a penny. * 1971 company, floated as Rolls-Royce plc still owns the principal business but itself was sold to the new holding company in 2003 * 2003 company floated as Rolls-Royce Group plc bought the 1971 company * 2011 company floated as Rolls-Royce Holdings plc bought the 1971 company from the 2003 company


Growth

The 1980s saw the introduction of a policy to offer an engine fitment on a much wider range of civil aircraft types, with the company's engines now powering 17 different airliners (and their variants) compared to
General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...
's 14 and
Pratt & Whitney Pratt & Whitney is an American aerospace manufacturer with global service operations. It is a subsidiary of RTX Corporation (formerly Raytheon Technologies). Pratt & Whitney's aircraft engines are widely used in both civil aviation (especially ...
's 10. The civil engines business represents the company's main area of growth. Between 2010 and 2018, Rolls-Royce invested £11 billion in facilities and R&D and launched six new civil engines including the Trent XWB and the
Pearl A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle (mollusc), mantle) of a living Exoskeleton, shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pear ...
15 for the business aviation market. It secured orders for 2,700 engines for
wide-body A wide-body aircraft, also known as a twin-aisle aircraft and in the largest cases as a jumbo jet, is an airliner with a fuselage wide enough to accommodate two passenger aisles with seven or more seats abreast. The typical fuselage diameter is . ...
aircraft and
business jet A business jet, private jet, or bizjet is a jet aircraft designed for transporting small groups of people, typically business executives and high-ranking coworker, associates. Business jets are generally designed for faster air travel and more ...
s. It expects to produce over 600 wide-body engines a year and should power over half of the world's wide-body fleet within a few years, up from 22% a decade before. In 2023, Rolls-Royce entered into an agreement for $3.52 million of funding with the
UK Space Agency The United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA) is an executive agency of the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the United Kingdom's British space programme, civil space programme. It was established on 1 April 2010 to replace the Britis ...
for the creation of a nuclear reactor on the moon. The project is intended to provide power for space missions.


Restructuring

In 2014 and 2015, Rolls-Royce issued at least four profit warnings due to US defence cuts, a downturn in the offshore oil and gas market and its civil aerospace business, the company initiated job cuts of over 3,000 in response. Rolls-Royce had been selling many of its aero-engines in combination with long-term service contracts. Even though the company booked profits in part with the delivery of the engine, actual payments only came in over time. Between 2003 and 2015, it sold a majority of its engines with these “TotalCare” contracts. The company announced it would no longer be able to move its revenues forward from its long-term service contracts to compensate for its contracts being unprofitable in the early stages after the introduction of IFRS 15 in 2018 and its profits for 2015 would have been £900m lower than the £1.4bn it reported if it had followed the new accounting standard. In February 2017 Rolls-Royce posted its largest ever pre-tax loss of £4.6 billion; This included a £4.4 billion writedown on financial hedges that the company uses to protect itself against currency fluctuations, and a £671 million penalty to settle bribery and corruption charges with the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), the US Department of Justice, and Brazilian authorities. On 14 June 2018 the company announced a restructuring of the business to create three simpler decentralised units ( civil aerospace, defence and power systems), to rationalise
back office A back office in most corporations is where work that supports '' front office'' work is done. The front office is the "face" of the company and is all the resources of the company that are used to make sales and interact with customers and clien ...
functions and to remove
middle management Middle management is the intermediate management level of a hierarchical organization that is subordinate to the executive management and responsible for "team leading" line managers and/or "specialist" line managers. Middle management is indire ...
functions. The cost savings should amount to £400 million per year by 2020, with an up-front restructuring cost of £500 million. Some 4,600 people are likely to leave the business out of 55,000 employed worldwide, 3,000 job losses from the UK and the rest from elsewhere in the world (15,700 of the employees work in
Derby Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...
and 10,300 work elsewhere in the United Kingdom). In August 2018 Rolls-Royce announced it was taking a charge of £554 million to cover faults with some Trent 1000 engines on Boeing 787 Dreamliners. Rather than going thousands of hours between inspections, the faults with turbine blades mean the engines currently require inspection every 300 hours of flight. In the same announcement Rolls-Royce said it would spend £450m fixing faults on the Trent 1000 in 2018, £450m in 2019 and £350m in 2020, with the work complete by 2022. In May 2020, the company announced its intention to cut 20% of its workforce (approximately 9,000 staff) worldwide as a result of the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
. Around 3,000 job losses were expected in the UK, half of them in Derby. In February 2021, Rolls-Royce started talks concerning an operational shutdown of its civil aerospace unit that might last for two weeks due to the impact of Covid-19 and its restrictions. Rolls-Royce announced, in October 2023, that it would cut 2,500 jobs, or 6 per cent of its total workforce.


Senior leadership

* Chairman: Anita Frew (since October 2021) * Chief Executive: Tufan Erginbilgic (since January 2023)


List of former chairmen

# Sir Simon Robertson (2011–2013) # Sir Ian Davis (2013–2021)


List of former chief executives

# John Rishton (2011–2015) # Warren East (2013–2022)


Facilities


Testing

Rolls-Royce's £90 million Testbed 80 in Derby is the largest of its kind, sized for engines of up to of thrust. Design started in 2017, construction began in 2018 and it should be commissioned by mid-2020. The facility is long, has a tall intake tower and a tall exhaust stack. Built from 3,450 tons of steel and of concrete, it has a tall and wide enclosed space and it can handle a 66 tons engine including its carrier. The company completed its first engine run on the new test bed in July 2024.
X-ray An X-ray (also known in many languages as Röntgen radiation) is a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than those of ultraviolet rays and longer than those of gamma rays. Roughly, X-rays have a wavelength ran ...
imaging allows to visualize the position of seals and clearances in real time while an engine is running. While it was retrofitted on Rolls' test bed 57, test bed 80 is the first to be purpose-designed for
industrial radiography Industrial radiography is a modality of non-destructive testing that uses ionizing radiation to inspect materials and components with the objective of locating and quantifying defects and degradation in material properties that would lead to the ...
. To protect from external X-ray, 30 cm (11.8 in.) of
lead Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...
, double walls are up to 8.9 ft. (2.7 m) thick (a 5.6-ft. interior wall and 3.3-ft. exterior wall) and provide acoustic insulation. Canadian prime contractor MDS Aero Support is responsible for design and management, test systems supply, engine adapters, support systems and data acquisition and control while construction is done by Buckingham Group Contracting.


Acquisitions

;Northern Engineering Industries / broken up and sold In 1988, Rolls-Royce acquired Northern Engineering Industries (NEI), based in the North East of England, a group of heavy engineering companies mainly associated with electrical generation and power management. The group included Clarke Chapman (cranes), Reyrolle (now part of
Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...
) and Parsons (now part of Siemens steam turbines). The company was renamed Rolls-Royce Industrial Power Group. It was sold off piecemeal over the next decade as the company re-focused on its core aero-engine operations following the recession of the early 1990s. ;Allison Engine Company/Rolls-Royce Corporation On 21 November 1994, Rolls-Royce announced its intention to acquire the Allison Engine Company, an American manufacturer of gas turbines and components for aviation, industrial and marine engines.Lazonick, William & Prencipe, Andrea.
Sustaining the Innovation Process: The Case of Rolls-Royce plc
page 18. Retrieved 18 September 2010
Archive
/ref> The two companies had a technical association dating back to the Second World War. Rolls-Royce had previously tried to buy the company when
General Motors General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...
sold it in 1993, but GM opted for a management buyout instead for $370 million. Owing to Allison's involvement in classified and export restricted technology, the 1994 acquisition was subject to investigation to determine the national security implications.Ashbourne, Alex
Opening the US Defence Market
''Centre for European Reform'' page 6, October 2000. Retrieved 18 September 2010.
On 27 March 1995, the US Department of Defense announced that the ''"deal between Allison Engine Co. and Rolls-Royce does not endanger national security."''DoD is satisfied that deal between Allison Engine Co. and Rolls Royce does not endanger national security
''
United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and superv ...
'', 27 March 1995. Retrieved 3 October 2012
Archived
on 14 October 2013.
Rolls-Royce was, however, obliged to set up a proxy board to manage Allison and had also to set up a separate company, Allison Advanced Development Company, Inc., to manage classified programmes ''"that involve leading-edge technologies"'' such as the Joint Strike Fighter programme. In 2000, this restriction was replaced by a more flexible Special Security Arrangement.Lorell et a
Going Global?
page 175, ''
RAND Corporation The RAND Corporation, doing business as RAND, is an American nonprofit global policy think tank, research institute, and public sector consulting firm. RAND engages in research and development (R&D) in several fields and industries. Since the ...
'', 2002. Retrieved 18 September 2010
Archive
/ref> In 2001, Rolls-Royce and its LiftSystem was among the group that won the JSF contract for the F-35.Bolkcom, Christopher
JSF: Background, Status, and Issues
page CRS-4, ''dtic.mil'', 16 June 2003. Retrieved 18 September 2010
Archive
/ref> The Allison acquisition, at $525 million (equivalent to £328 million), brought four new engine types into the Rolls-Royce civil engine portfolio on seven platforms and several light aircraft applications. Allison is now known as Rolls-Royce Corporation, part of
Rolls-Royce North America Rolls-Royce North America, Inc. is a subsidiary of multinational corporation Rolls-Royce plc. The American unit operates under a Special Security Arrangement which allows it to work independently on some of the most sensitive United States de ...
. ;Vickers/Vinters In 1999 Rolls-Royce acquired Vickers plc for its marine businesses. The portion retained is now Vinters Engineering Limited. Rolls-Royce sold Vickers Defence Systems (the other major Vickers area of business) to
Alvis plc Alvis PLC was a British motor vehicle manufacturer. It was created when United Scientific Holdings plc acquired the Alvis Car and Engineering Company, Alvis division of the nationalisation, nationalised vehicle manufacturer British Leyland in ...
in 2002. ;BMW joint venture / Rolls-Royce Deutschland Rolls-Royce has established a leading position in the corporate and regional airline sector through the development of the Tay engine, the Allison acquisition and the consolidation of the BMW Rolls-Royce joint venture. In 1999, BMW Rolls-Royce was renamed Rolls-Royce Deutschland and became a 100% owned subsidiary of Rolls-Royce plc. ;SAIC joint venture / Optimized Systems and Solutions Optimized Systems and Solutions Limited (formerly known as Data Systems & Solutions) was founded in 1999 as a joint venture between Rolls-Royce plc and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). In early 2006, SAIC exited the joint venture agreement, making Rolls-Royce plc the sole owner. ;Tognum joint venture with Daimler / Rolls-Royce Power Systems Holding GmbH In March 2011, Rolls-Royce and
Daimler AG Mercedes-Benz Group AG (formerly Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler, and Daimler) is a German multinational automotive company headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is one of the world's leading car manufacturers. Daimler-B ...
launched a $4.2 billion public tender offer for 100 per cent of the share capital of Tognum AG, the owner of MTU Friedrichshafen – a leading high-speed industrial and marine diesel engine manufacturer, which was completed using a 50:50 joint venture company. Rolls-Royce and Daimler AG intend that the joint venture company, which also now incorporates Rolls-Royce's existing Bergen engine business, is listed on the
Frankfurt Stock Exchange The Frankfurt Stock Exchange (, former German name: , ''FWB'') is the world's 3rd oldest and 12th largest stock exchange by market capitalization. It has operations from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm ( German time). Organisation Located in Frankfurt, ...
. ;Aero Engine Controls / Rolls-Royce Controls and Data Services Following the acquisition of Goodrich by
United Technologies Corporation United Technologies Corporation (UTC) was an American multinational corporation, multinational list of conglomerates, conglomerate headquartered in Farmington, Connecticut. It researched, developed, and manufactured products in numerous are ...
in July 2012, Rolls-Royce announced it would purchase Goodrich's 50% share of Aero Engine Controls to become wholly owned by Rolls-Royce. At the June 2019
Paris Air Show The Paris Air Show (, ''Salon du Bourget'') is a trade fair and air show held in odd years at Paris–Le Bourget Airport in France. Organized by the French aerospace industry's primary representative body, the ''Groupement des industries frança ...
, Rolls-Royce announced its acquisition of Siemens' electric propulsion branch (while they are partners on the E-Fan X demonstrator), to be completed in late 2019, employing 180 in Germany and Hungary.


Divestment


Energy gas turbine and compressor business

In May 2014, Rolls-Royce sold its energy gas turbine and compressor business to Siemens for £785 million.


Commercial marine business

In July 2018, Rolls-Royce sold its commercial marine business to
Kongsberg Kongsberg () is a historical mining town and municipality in Buskerud county, Norway. The city is located on the river Numedalslågen at the entrance to the valley of Numedal. Kongsberg has been a centre of silver mining, arms production and fo ...
for £500 million.


Nuclear services businesses

In September 2019, Rolls-Royce agreed to sell its civil nuclear services businesses in the U.S., Canada, Mondragon France, and Gateshead UK to the
Westinghouse Electric Company Westinghouse Electric Company LLC is an American nuclear power company formed in 1999 from the nuclear power division of the original Westinghouse Electric Corporation. It offers nuclear products and services to utilities internationally, includ ...
for an undisclosed sum. These businesses had a revenue of $70 million and about 500 employees in 2018. Rolls-Royce is keeping its nuclear new build and
small modular reactor The small modular reactor (SMR) is a class of small nuclear fission reactor, designed to be built in a factory, shipped to operational sites for installation, and then used to power buildings or other commercial operations. The term SMR refers t ...
(SMR) business in the UK. In November 2020, the company announced plans to build up to 16 Rolls-Royce SMR nuclear plants across the UK, continuing its nuclear division operations. In December 2020 Rolls-Royce announced it would sell other foreign parts of its civil nuclear instrumentation and control business to Framatome as part of its post-COVID recovery plan, completing the deal involving over 550 employees in November 2021.


Major sales

;Airbus A380 In 1996, Rolls-Royce and
Airbus Airbus SE ( ; ; ; ) is a Pan-European aerospace corporation. The company's primary business is the design and manufacturing of commercial aircraft but it also has separate Airbus Defence and Space, defence and space and Airbus Helicopters, he ...
signed a memorandum of understanding, specifying the Trent 900 as the engine of choice for the then A3XX, now the
Airbus A380 The Airbus A380 is a very large wide-body airliner, developed and produced by Airbus until 2021. It is the world's largest passenger airliner and the only full-length double-deck jet airliner. Airbus studies started in 1988, and the pr ...
. However, the Engine Alliance GP7000 would ultimately also be offered as an option on the A380. In October 2006, Rolls-Royce suspended production of its Trent 900 engine because of delays by Airbus on the delivery of the A380 superjumbo. Rolls-Royce announced in October 2007 that production of the Trent 900 had been restarted after a twelve-month suspension caused by delays to the A380. In 2011, Rolls-Royce faced scrutiny after high profile incidents involving the Trent 900. One of the engines suffered a partial power loss during a
Qantas Qantas ( ), formally Qantas Airways Limited, is the flag carrier of Australia, and the largest airline by fleet size, international flights, and international destinations in Australia and List of largest airlines in Oceania, Oceania. A foundi ...
flight in February 2011. This followed an incident in November 2010 in which an engine disintegrated in flight causing Qantas Flight 32 to make an emergency landing in Singapore. The aircraft was extensively damaged and the airline grounded its fleet of A380s. The problem was traced to a fatigue crack in an oil pipe requiring the replacement of some engines and modifications to the design. Trent-powered A380s operated by
Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), trading as the Lufthansa Group, is a German aviation group. Its major and founding subsidiary airline Lufthansa German Airlines, branded as Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. It ranks List of largest airlin ...
and
Singapore Airlines Singapore Airlines (abbreviation: SIA or SQ) is the flag carrier of Singapore with its Airline hub, hub located at Changi Airport. Considered to be one of the world's best carriers, the airline is ranked as a 5-star airline as well as ranked ...
were also affected. Qantas gradually returned its A380s to service over several months. In June 2011 the airline announced it had agreed to compensation of AU$95m (US$100m) from Rolls-Royce. On 17 April 2015, it was announced that Rolls-Royce had received its largest order to date worth £6.1bn ($9.2bn) to supply engines for 50 Emirates A380 planes. ;Boeing 787 On 6 April 2004,
Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...
announced that it had selected both Rolls-Royce and General Electric to power its new 787. Rolls-Royce submitted the Trent 1000, a further development of that series. ;Airbus A350XWB In July 2006, Rolls-Royce reached an agreement to supply a new version of the Trent 1000 for the revised Airbus A350XWB jetliner. As of July 2015, over 1,500 engines of this type have been supplied to 40 customers. ;Panavia Tornado, Eurofighter Typhoon and Lightning II On the military side, Rolls-Royce, in co-operation with other European manufacturers, has been a major contractor for the RB199 which in several variants powers the
Panavia Tornado The Panavia Tornado is a family of twin-engine, variable-sweep wing multi-role combat aircraft, jointly developed and manufactured by Italy, the United Kingdom and Germany. There are three primary #Variants, Tornado variants: the Tornado IDS ...
, and also for the EJ200 engine for the Eurofighter Typhoon. Rolls-Royce has matured the
Rolls-Royce LiftSystem The Rolls-Royce LiftSystem, together with the Pratt & Whitney F135, F135 engine, is an aircraft propulsion system designed for use in the STOVL variant of the F-35 Lightning II. The complete system, known as the Integrated Lift Fan Propulsion ...
invented by
Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American Arms industry, defense and aerospace manufacturer with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta on March 15, 1995. It is headquartered in North ...
for the F-35 Lightning II to production level; The F-35 is planned to be produced in significant numbers. ;Air China At the 2005
Paris Air Show The Paris Air Show (, ''Salon du Bourget'') is a trade fair and air show held in odd years at Paris–Le Bourget Airport in France. Organized by the French aerospace industry's primary representative body, the ''Groupement des industries frança ...
, Rolls-Royce secured in excess of $1 billion worth of orders. The firm received $800m worth of orders from
Air China Air China, officially Air China Limited, ( zh, s=中国国际航空公司, labels=no, ''Zhōngguó guójì hángkōng gōngsī'') is a major Chinese airline and the flag carrier of the People's Republic of China. It is headquartered in Shunyi ...
to supply its 20
Airbus A330 The Airbus A330 is a wide-body airliner developed and produced by Airbus. Airbus began developing larger A300 derivatives in the mid–1970s, giving rise to the A330 twinjet as well as the Airbus A340 quadjet, and launched both designs along ...
jets. ;Qatar Airways On 18 June 2007, Rolls-Royce announced at the 2007 Paris Air Show that it had signed a large contract with Qatar Airways for the Trent XWB to power 80 A350s on order from Airbus worth $5.6 billion at list prices. ;Emirates airlines On 11 November 2007, Rolls-Royce announced at the Dubai Airshow that it had signed its largest ever contract with Emirates for Trent XWBs to power 50 A350-900 and 20 A350-1000 aircraft with 50 option rights. Due to be delivered from 2014, the order is potentially worth up to 8.4 billion US Dollars at list prices. On 20 November 2007, Rolls-Royce announced plans to build its first Asian aero engine facility in the Seletar Aerospace Park, Singapore. The $562m (£355m) plant complements its existing facility at Derby by concentrating on the assembly and testing of large civil engines, including Trent 1000 and Trent XWB. Productivity will be higher than at Derby, as the plant is fully integrated, as opposed to manufacturing occurring across five sites in the UK: a Trent 900 will take only 14 days to manufacture, as opposed to 20 in the UK. Originally expected to provide employment for 330 people, by the start of production in 2012, 1,600 employees were based in Singapore. ;Nuclear submarines In May 2012, Rolls-Royce Marine Power Operations won a Ministry of Defence contract worth more than £400 million for the integration of the reactor design, the PWR3, for UK's next generation nuclear-armed submarines. In March 2023, Rolls-Royce announced that Rolls-Royce Submarines Limited will provide nuclear reactors for the SSN-AUKUS class of submarines for both the Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy. To support the SSN-AUKUS programme, Rolls-Royce announced it would double the size of the Rolls-Royce Submarines LTD site in Raynesway, Derby creating 1,170 jobs in the process


Corruption allegations

Rolls-Royce has been accused numerous times of corrupt practices and
bribery Bribery is the corrupt solicitation, payment, or Offer and acceptance, acceptance of a private favor (a bribe) in exchange for official action. The purpose of a bribe is to influence the actions of the recipient, a person in charge of an official ...
. In 2014, facing allegations of bribery in the aftermath of the Sudhir Choudhrie affair, Rolls-Royce offered to return money to the Indian government. The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) also investigated allegations of bribery in Indonesia and China. In February 2015 Rolls-Royce was accused of bribing an employee of Brazil's state-controlled oil company to win a $100 million contract to provide gas turbines for oil platforms. In October 2016 a joint ''Guardian'' and BBC investigation alleged widespread corruption by Rolls-Royce through middlemen in foreign countries including Brazil, India, China, Indonesia, South Africa, Angola, Iraq, Iran, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia. Rolls-Royce became subject to a major SFO investigation.


Alleged defects

In 2013 media reported allegations from two American ex-employees that thousands of the company's new
jet engines A jet engine is a type of reaction engine, discharging a fast-moving jet (fluid), jet of heated gas (usually air) that generates thrust by jet propulsion. While this broad definition may include Rocket engine, rocket, Pump-jet, water jet, and ...
were assembled with used parts.


Settlement with SFO

In January 2017 Rolls-Royce came to an agreement with the SFO to pay £671 million under a deferred prosecution agreement to avoid prosecution for bribery to obtain export contracts. As part of this agreement, a $170 million fine was paid to US authorities to end a bribery investigation, and $25 million to the Brazilian authorities. Subsequent to the settlement, '' Private Eye'' reported that some of Rolls-Royce's contracts under the scope of the SFO investigation had been supported by the British government's UK Export Finance department, using taxpayers' money. The government department underwrote multimillion-pound liabilities under Rolls-Royce contracts secured with the help of bribes and "facilitation" commissions. It has also been highlighted in the press that Rolls-Royce's auditor since 1995,
KPMG KPMG is a multinational professional services network, based in London, United Kingdom. As one of the Big Four accounting firms, along with Ernst & Young (EY), Deloitte, and PwC. KPMG is a network of firms in 145 countries with 275,288 emplo ...
, had failed to identify any corrupt practices throughout the 1990s and 2000s. This is notable considering judge Brian Leveson's statement that Rolls-Royce's offending was "multi-jurisdictional, numerous", "persistent and spanned from 1989 until 2013", and it "involved substantial funds being made available to fund bribe payments".


Governance

the
board of directors A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulatio ...
consists of: * Sir Ian Davis, Chairman * Warren East, Chief Executive * Panos Kakoullis, Chief Financial Officer * Paul Adams, Independent Non-Executive Director * George Culmer, Independent Non-Executive Director * Irene Dorner, Independent Non-Executive Director * Anita Frew, Independent Non-Executive Director and Chair Designate * Beverly Goulet, Independent Non-Executive Director * Lee Hsien Yang, Independent Non-Executive Director * Nick Luff, Independent Non-Executive Director * Sir Kevin Smith, Senior Independent Director * Dame Angela Strank, Independent Non-Executive Director * Pamela Coles, Company Secretary and Chief Governance Officer


Products

Rolls-Royce's aerospace business makes commercial and military
gas turbine A gas turbine or gas turbine engine is a type of Internal combustion engine#Continuous combustion, continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas gene ...
engines for military, civil, and corporate aircraft customers worldwide. In the United States, the company makes engines for regional and corporate jets,
helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...
s, and
turboprop A turboprop is a Gas turbine, gas turbine engine that drives an aircraft Propeller (aeronautics), propeller. A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction drive, reduction gearbox, gas compressor, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propellin ...
aircraft. Rolls-Royce also constructs and installs power
generation A generation is all of the people born and living at about the same time, regarded collectively. It also is "the average period, generally considered to be about 20–⁠30 years, during which children are born and grow up, become adults, and b ...
systems. Its core gas turbine technology has created one of the broadest product ranges of aero-engines in the world, with 50,000 engines in service with 500 airlines, 2,400 corporate and utility operators and more than 100 armed forces, powering both fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft. Rolls-Royce Marine Power Operations (a subsidiary company) manufactures and tests
nuclear reactor A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a Nuclear fission, fission nuclear chain reaction. They are used for Nuclear power, commercial electricity, nuclear marine propulsion, marine propulsion, Weapons-grade plutonium, weapons ...
s for Royal Naval
submarines A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or info ...
.


Aerospace

In 2019, Rolls-Royce delivered 510 Trent powerplants, while 5,029 large engines were installed, including 32% Trent 700s. For
business jet A business jet, private jet, or bizjet is a jet aircraft designed for transporting small groups of people, typically business executives and high-ranking coworker, associates. Business jets are generally designed for faster air travel and more ...
s,
research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in some countries as OKB, experiment and design, is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products. R&D constitutes the first stage ...
in the market niches is a $2 billion annual investment, for a predicted market of 8,500 to 9,000 aircraft over the 2020 decade.


Turbojets

* Rolls-Royce Avon * Rolls-Royce Viper *
Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593 The Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593 was an France–United Kingdom relations, Anglo-French turbojet with reheat, which powered the Supersonic transport, supersonic airliner Concorde. It was initially a joint project between Bristol Siddeley, Br ...
* Rolls-Royce RB162


Turbofans

* Eurojet EJ200 * General Electric/Rolls-Royce F136 (not developed) * International Aero Engines V2500 * Rolls-Royce AE 3007 *
Rolls-Royce BR700 The Rolls-Royce BR700 is a family of turbofan engines for regional jets and corporate jets. It is manufactured in Dahlewitz, Germany, by Rolls-Royce Deutschland: this was initially a joint venture of BMW and Rolls-Royce plc established in 1990 t ...
** BR710 ** BR715 ** BR725 ** F130 ** Pearl 15 ** Pearl 700 ** Pearl 10X * Rolls-Royce Conway * Rolls-Royce RB211 * Rolls-Royce RB282 (not developed) * Rolls-Royce Spey * Rolls-Royce Tay * Rolls-Royce Pegasus *
Rolls-Royce Trent The Rolls-Royce Trent is a family of high-bypass turbofans produced by Rolls-Royce Holdings, Rolls-Royce. It continues the Turbofan#Three-spool, three spool architecture of the Rolls-Royce RB211, RB211 with a maximum thrust ranging from . Lau ...
** First Trent 600 ** Trent 700 ** Trent 800 ** Trent 8100 ** Trent 500 ** Trent 900 ** Second Trent 600 ** Trent 1000 ** Trent 1500 ** Trent XWB ** Trent 7000 ** UltraFan * Rolls-Royce/Turbomeca Adour * Turbo-Union RB199


Turboshafts

* LHTEC T800 (with
Honeywell Honeywell International Inc. is an American publicly traded, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building automation, industrial automa ...
) * MTR390 (with MTU and Turbomeca) * Rolls-Royce Gem * Rolls-Royce Model 250 * Rolls-Royce RR300 * Rolls-Royce RR500 * Rolls-Royce T406/AE 1107C-Liberty * Rolls-Royce/Turbomeca RTM322


Turboprops

* Europrop TP400-D6 (as part of Europrop International) * Rolls-Royce AE 2100 * Rolls-Royce T56


Rocket engines

* Larch * RB545 ( HOTOL) * RZ.2


Marine


Gas turbines

* AG9140 * MT7 * MT30 * Rolls Royce RR4500 * Spey SM1A and improved SM1C * Olympus TM1, TM1A and improved TM3B * Tyne RM1A and improved RM1C * WR-21


Propulsion

* Kamewa and Bird-Johnson Waterjets * Kamewa Tunnel thruster * MerMaid pod propulsion * Ulstein Aquamaster Azimuth thruster * Rolls-Royce MTU Engines


Submarine

* Nato Submarine Rescue System * PWR1 reactor * PWR2 reactor * PWR3 reactor * Zebra (battery)


Stabilisers

* Brown Brothers Legacy Stabilizers * Brown Brothers Neptune or VM Stabilizers * Brown Brothers Aquarius Stabilizers


See also

* Aerospace industry in the United Kingdom * GE Aerospace, competing engine manufacturer *
Pratt & Whitney Pratt & Whitney is an American aerospace manufacturer with global service operations. It is a subsidiary of RTX Corporation (formerly Raytheon Technologies). Pratt & Whitney's aircraft engines are widely used in both civil aviation (especially ...
, competing engine manufacturer * Power by the Hour * Survivable Airborne Operations Center


References


Notes


Bibliography

* Gunston, Bill. ''Development of Piston Aero Engines''. Cambridge, UK. Patrick Stephens Limited, 2006. . * Newhouse, John. ''The Sporty Game: The High-Risk Competitive Business of Making and Selling Commercial Airliners.'' New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1982. . * Pugh, Peter. ''The Magic of a Name: The Rolls-Royce Story, The First 40 Years''. London: Icon Books, 2000. . * Pugh, Peter. ''The Magic of a Name: The Rolls-Royce Story, Part 2, The Power Behind the Jets''. London: Icon Books, 2001. . * Pugh, Peter. ''The Magic of a Name: The Rolls-Royce Story, Part 3, A Family of Engines''. London: Icon Books, 2002. .


Footnotes


External links

*
Rolls-Royce's annual report archive
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rolls-Royce Holdings Technology companies established in 1906 Manufacturing companies established in 1906 British companies established in 1906 1906 establishments in England Aerospace companies of England Aircraft engine manufacturers of the United Kingdom Gas turbine manufacturers Defence companies of the United Kingdom Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange Companies in the FTSE 100 Index Engineering companies of the United Kingdom Rolls-Royce British brands Manufacturing companies based in London Holding companies established in 2003 Holding companies of the United Kingdom Collier Trophy recipients Former nationalised industries of the United Kingdom Marine engine manufacturers Technology companies based in London Transport companies based in London