The Rolls-Royce Olympus (originally the Bristol B.E.10 Olympus) was the world's second two- spool

axial-flow An axial compressor is a gas compressor that can continuously pressurize gases. It is a rotating, airfoil-based compressor in which the gas or working fluid principally flows parallel to the axis of rotation, or axially. This differs from other ...

turbojet The turbojet is an airbreathing jet engine which is typically used in aircraft. It consists of a gas turbine with a propelling nozzle. The gas turbine has an air inlet which includes inlet guide vanes, a compressor, a combustion chamber, an ...

aircraft engine design, first run in May 1950 and preceded only by the

Pratt & Whitney J57 The Pratt & Whitney J57 (company designation: JT3C) is an axial-flow turbojet engine developed by Pratt & Whitney in the early 1950s. The J57 (first run January 1950) was the first 10,000 lbf (45 kN) thrust class engine in the United State ...

, first-run in January 1950. It is best known as the powerplant of the

Avro Vulcan The Avro Vulcan (later Hawker Siddeley Vulcan from July 1963) is a jet-powered, tailless, delta-wing, high-altitude, strategic bomber, which was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF) from 1956 until 1984. Aircraft manufacturer A.V. Roe an ...

and later models in the

Concorde The Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde () is a retired Franco-British supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation (later Aérospatiale) and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Studies started in 1954, and France an ...

SST. The design dates to a November 1946 proposal by Bristol Aeroplane Company for a jet-powered bomber, powered by four new engines which would be supplied by

Bristol Aero Engines The Bristol Aeroplane Company, originally the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company, was both one of the first and one of the most important British aviation companies, designing and manufacturing both airframes and aircraft engines. Notable a ...

. Although their bomber design was ultimately cancelled in favour of the other V bombers, the engine design's use of twin-spool layout led to continued interest from the

Air Ministry The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the Secretary of State ...

and continued development funding. The engine first ran in 1950 and quickly outperformed its design goals. Initially used in the Vulcan, later versions added

reheat An afterburner (or reheat in British English) is an additional combustion component used on some jet engines, mostly those on military supersonic aircraft. Its purpose is to increase thrust, usually for supersonic flight, takeoff, and combat ...

for use in the supersonic

BAC TSR-2 The British Aircraft Corporation TSR-2 is a cancelled Cold War strike and reconnaissance aircraft developed by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC), for the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The TSR-2 was designed ...

. Bristol Aero Engines merged with

Armstrong Siddeley Armstrong Siddeley was a British engineering group that operated during the first half of the 20th century. It was formed in 1919 and is best known for the production of luxury vehicles and aircraft engines. The company was created following t ...

Motors in 1959 to form

Bristol Siddeley Bristol Siddeley Engines Ltd (BSEL) was a British aero engine manufacturer. The company was formed in 1959 by a merger of Bristol Aero-Engines Limited and Armstrong Siddeley Motors Limited. In 1961 the company was expanded by the purchase of t ...

Engines Limited (BSEL), which in turn was taken over by

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

in 1966. Through this period the engine was further developed as the Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593 for Concorde. Versions of the engine were licensed to

Curtiss-Wright The Curtiss-Wright Corporation is a manufacturer and services provider headquartered in Davidson, North Carolina, with factories and operations in and outside the United States. Created in 1929 from the consolidation of Curtiss, Wright, and v ...

in the US as the TJ-32 or J67 (military designation) and the TJ-38 'Zephyr', although none saw use. The Olympus was also developed with success as marine and industrial

gas turbine A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas generator or core) and are, in the directio ...

s, which were highly successful. As of 2018, the Olympus remains in service as both a marine and industrial gas turbine.

Background

Origins

At the end of World War II, the Bristol Engine Company's major effort was the development of the

Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the ...

and

Centaurus Centaurus is a bright constellation in the southern sky. One of the largest constellations, Centaurus was included among the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy, and it remains one of the 88 modern constellations. ...

radial Radial is a geometric term of location which may refer to: Mathematics and Direction * Vector (geometric), a line * Radius, adjective form of * Radial distance, a directional coordinate in a polar coordinate system * Radial set * A bearing f ...

piston engines. By the end of 1946, the company had only 10 hours of

experience with a small experimental engine called the

Phoebus Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

which was the

gas generator A gas generator is a device for generating gas. A gas generator may create gas by a chemical reaction or from a solid or liquid source, when storing a pressurized gas is undesirable or impractical. The term often refers to a device that uses a ...

or core of the

Proteus In Greek mythology, Proteus (; Ancient Greek: Πρωτεύς, ''Prōteus'') is an early prophetic sea-god or god of rivers and oceanic bodies of water, one of several deities whom Homer calls the "Old Man of the Sea" ''(hálios gérôn)''. ...

turboprop A turboprop is a turbine engine that drives an aircraft propeller. A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction gearbox, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propelling nozzle. Air enters the intake and is compressed by the compressor. ...

then in development. In early 1947, the parent Bristol Aeroplane Company submitted a proposal for a medium-range bomber to the same

specification A specification often refers to a set of documented requirements to be satisfied by a material, design, product, or service. A specification is often a type of technical standard. There are different types of technical or engineering specificati ...

B.35/46 which led to the

and

Handley Page Victor The Handley Page Victor is a British jet-powered strategic bomber developed and produced by Handley Page during the Cold War. It was the third and final '' V bomber'' to be operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF), the other two being the Avr ...

. The Bristol design was the Type 172 and was to be powered by four or six Bristol engines of thrust to the Ministry engine specification TE.1/46. The thrust required of the new engine, then designated B.E.10 (later Olympus), would initially be with growth potential to . The pressure ratio would be an unheard of 9:1. To achieve this, the initial design used a low-pressure (LP) axial compressor and a high-pressure (HP)

centrifugal compressor Centrifugal compressors, sometimes called impeller compressors or radial compressors, are a sub-class of dynamic axisymmetric work-absorbing turbomachinery. They achieve pressure rise by adding energy to the continuous flow of fluid through t ...

, each being driven by its own single-stage

turbine A turbine ( or ) (from the Greek , ''tyrbē'', or Latin ''turbo'', meaning vortex) is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work. The work produced by a turbine can be used for generating ...

. This two-spool design eliminated the need for features such as variable inlet guide vanes (Avon, J79), inlet ramps (J65), variable stators (J79) or compressor bleed (Avon) which were required on single spool compressors with pressure ratios above about 6:1. Without these features an engine could not be started nor run at low speeds without destructive blade vibrations. Nor could they accelerate to high speeds with fast acceleration times (" spool up") without

surge Surge means a sudden transient rush or flood, and may refer to: Science * Storm surge, the onshore gush of water associated with a low-pressure weather system * Surge (glacier), a short-lived event where a glacier can move up to velocities 100 ...

. The design was progressively modified and the centrifugal HP compressor was replaced by an axial HP compressor. This reduced the diameter of the new engine to the design specification of . The Bristol Type 172 was cancelled though development continued for the Avro Vulcan and other projects.

Initial development

The first engine, its development designation being BOl.1 (Bristol Olympus 1), had six LP compressor stages and eight HP stages, each driven by a single-stage turbine. The combustion system was novel in that ten connected flame tubes were housed within a cannular system: a hybrid of separate flame cans and a true

annular Annulus (or anulus) or annular indicates a ring- or donut-shaped area or structure. It may refer to: Human anatomy * '' Anulus fibrosus disci intervertebralis'', spinal structure * Annulus of Zinn, a.k.a. annular tendon or ''anulus tendineus co ...

system. Separate combustion cans would have exceeded the diameter beyond the design limit, and a true annular system was considered too advanced.Baxter 1990, p. 18 In 1950, Dr (later Sir)

Stanley Hooker Sir Stanley George Hooker, CBE, FRS, DPhil, BSc, FRAeS, MIMechE, FAAAS, (30 September 1907 – 24 May 1984) was a mathematician and jet engine engineer. He was employed first at Rolls-Royce where he worked on the earliest designs such as ...

was appointed as Chief Engineer of Bristol Aero Engines. The BOl.1 first ran on 16 May 1950 and was designed to produce thrust and to be free from destructive rotating stall on start up to idle speed and to be free from surging on fast accelerations to maximum thrust. The engine started without a problem and Hooker, supervising the first test run and displaying the confidence he had in the design, slammed the throttle to give a surge-free acceleration to maximum power. The thrustmeter showed . The next development was the BOl.1/2 which produced thrust in December 1950. Examples of the similar BOl.1/2A were constructed for US manufacturer Curtiss-Wright which had bought a licence for developing the engine as the TJ-32 or J67 for the projected

F-102 The Convair F-102 Delta Dagger was an American interceptor aircraft designed and manufactured by Convair. Built as part of the backbone of the United States Air Force's air defenses in the late 1950s, it entered service in 1956. Its main purpos ...

. The somewhat revised BOl.1/2B, ran in December 1951 producing thrust. The engine was by now ready for air testing and the first flight engines, designated Olympus Mk 99, were fitted into a Canberra '' WD952'' which first flew with these engines derated to thrust in August 1952. In May 1953, this aircraft reached a world record altitude of . Fitted with more powerful Mk 102 engines, the Canberra increased the record to in August 1955. The first production Olympus, the Mk 101, entered service in late 1952 at a rated thrust of 11,000 lb, a weight of 3,650 lb, and with a TBO of 250 hours.

Variants

The Olympus was developed extensively throughout its production run, and the many variants can be described as belonging to four main groups. Initial non-reheat variants were designed and produced by

and

and powered the

. These engines were further developed by Rolls-Royce Limited. The first reheat variant, the Bristol Siddeley Olympus Mk 320, powered the cancelled

strike aircraft. A further reheat variant was the Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593, developed to power

in the 1960s. The Olympus 593 is a prime example of "propulsion and airframe integration". A variable intake was developed, along with a variable throat and thrust reversing system, to optimise the performance of the engine when used on Concorde. Looking ahead to future supersonic transports, due to noise limits for supersonic transport category airplanes, studies were conducted on ejector suppressors, leading to the conclusion that "a new, low bypass ratio version of the 593 could be suitable for future generations of supersonic transport aircraft". The American

company tested a license-developed version known as the J67 and a

designated TJ-38 Zephyr. Neither design was produced. Further derivatives of the Olympus were produced for ship propulsion and land-based power generation.

Applications

Proposed aircraft applications

Over the years, the Olympus was proposed for numerous other applications including: * C104 which led to the C105

Avro Arrow The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow was a delta-winged interceptor aircraft designed and built by Avro Canada. The CF-105 held the promise of Mach 2 speeds at altitudes exceeding and was intended to serve as the Royal Canadian Air Force's (RCAF) p ...

: BOl.3" * Avro 718: BOl.3 Avro Type Lis

Avro Heritage The Type 718 was a military transport aircraft with up to 110 seats. * Avro 739 to OR339 (the requirement that culminated in TSR2): BOl.21R * Avro 740: 3 x Mk 551 * Avro 750: 2 x Mk 551 * Avro Vulcan Phase 6 (B3): BOl.23, a development of the Mk 301.Baxter 1990, p. 172 Different engine configurations, BOl.21, BOl.21/2 and BOl.23, with either reheat or an aft fan, were proposed for this aircraft to provide the required increase in take-off thrust.Fildes 2012, p. 407 * Bristol T172: B.E.10 * Bristol T177 * Bristol T180 * Bristol T198: Mk 591. Early supersonic airliner design (132 seats). The engine was a civilianised BOl.22R. * Bristol T201: Mk 551 * Bristol T202 * Bristol T204 to OR339: BOl.22SR (simplified reheat) * Bristol T205: Mark 551 * Bristol T213 * Bristol T223: Mk 593. Later supersonic airliner design (100 seats). Engine as Mk 591 with zero stage LP compressor and cooled HP turbine. * de Havilland design to OR339: BOl.14R, BOl.15R. Developed from BOl.6R. * Handley Page HP98: Pathfinder variant of Victor. * Handley Page Victor B1: Mk 104 * Handley Page Victor Phase 3 * Handley Page HP107 * Handley Page Pacific * Hawker P.1121: BOl.21R * Hawker P.1129 to OR339: BOl.15R *

Martin/General Dynamics RB-57F Canberra The Martin/General Dynamics RB-57F Canberra is a specialized strategic reconnaissance aircraft developed in the 1960s for the United States Air Force by General Dynamics from the Martin B-57 Canberra tactical bomber, which itself was a licen ...

: Mk 701 developed from Mk 301. * Gloster P492/3: Mk 591 *

Republic F-105 Thunderchief The Republic F-105 Thunderchief is an American supersonic fighter-bomber that served with the United States Air Force from 1958 to 1984. Capable of Mach 2, it conducted the majority of strike bombing missions during the early years of the Viet ...

: BOl.21 for possible sale to RAF. * Saab 36 *

Saab 37 Viggen The Saab 37 Viggen ( Swedish for ''"the Bolt"'' or ''"the Tufted Duck"'' ( see name)) is a retired Swedish single-seat, single-engine, short-medium range combat aircraft. Development work on the type was initiated at Saab in 1952 and, follow ...

Historien om Vigge

''Protec'' 2005 No 4 *

Vickers VC10 The Vickers VC10 is a mid-sized, narrow-body long-range British jet airliner designed and built by Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd and first flown at Brooklands, Surrey, in 1962. The airliner was designed to operate on long-distance route ...

: Development of Mk 555 with aft fan.

Engines on display

* Imperial War Museum North, Manchester – Mk 101 *

RAF Museum Cosford The Royal Air Force Museum Cosford, located in Cosford in Shropshire, is a free (currently, 2022) museum dedicated to the history of aviation and the Royal Air Force in particular. The museum is part of the Royal Air Force Museum, a non-departme ...

– Mk 320 *

Gatwick Aviation Museum The Gatwick Aviation Museum is located in the village of Charlwood, in Surrey, United Kingdom on the boundary of Gatwick Airport. History Originally started in 1987 as a private collection by local businessman Peter Vallance, the museum becam ...

Charlwood Surrey – Two Mk 320 *The

Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust The Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust is an organisation that was founded in 1981 to preserve the history of Rolls-Royce Limited, Rolls-Royce Holdings and all merged or acquired companies. Five volunteer led branches exist, three in England, one in Sco ...

Collection (Derby - UK) Mk 101 and Mk 593 and a Marine version. * Montrose Air Station Heritage Centre – Bristol B.E.10 * Museum of Science and Industry (Manchester) – Mk 202 (Engine is displayed as a Mk 201 but its ECU plate reveals it as a Mk 202) *

South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum The South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum (SYAM) is a Volunteer led museum located at Lakeside in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. It occupies the former site of the Royal Air Force Station, RAF Doncaster. The museum occupies the last remaining o ...

, Doncaster, England - Mk.104 on loan from the Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust.

Specifications (Olympus 101)

References

;Notes ;Citations ;Bibliography * Baxter, Alan. ''Olympus – the first forty years''. Derby, UK: Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust, 1990. * Blackman, Tony. ''Vulcan Test Pilot''. London, UK: Grub Street, 2009. * Bullman, Craig. ''The Vulcan B.Mk2 from a Different Angle''. Bishop-Auckland, UK: Pentland Books, 2001. * Fildes, David W. ''The Avro Type 698 Vulcan'' Barnsley, UK: Pen % Sword Aviation, 2012, * Hooker, Stanley. ''Not Much of an Engineer''. Marlsborough, UK: Airlife Publishing, 2002.