Rolls Royce - The Magazine Issue 141

the magazine ISSUE 141 JUNE 2014

for customers

Marine machine

F-35Bs are operational in Arizona

X-ray vision

Spot an atom in a femtosecond

Canada’s powerhouse Driving natural gas for TransCanada PipeLines

Blue Ocean thinking Marine’s best minds at work

Fans of the future

The next generation of aero engines

Rolls-Royce is a global company providing integrated power solutions for customers in aerospace, marine and industrial markets. We support our customers through a worldwide network of offices, manufacturing and service facilities.

Welcome to the June issue

If you want to see the future of defence aerospace, naval power, civil aero engines and materials research, then look no further, it’s all in the June issue. And don’t worry, to relax we’ll take you big game fishing.

For over 30 years the magazine has been highlighting how Rolls-Royce works closely with customers all over the world. Providing power systems for use on land, at sea and in the air. Seeking to be ‘trusted to deliver excellence’ in all we do.

We hope you find this latest issue both informative and entertaining.

David Howie Editor

rolls-royce.com

the magazine CONTENTS

inside the magazine

Editorial Board Tom Bell, Ian Craighead, Simon Goodson, Lawrie Haynes, Andrew Heath, Peter Morgan, Mark Morris, Colin Smith, Tony Wood Editor: David Howie david.howie@rolls-royce.com Design & Production: Hubert Burda Media UK LP Print: Pureprint Group Printed in England ISSN 0142-9469 © Rolls-Royce plc 2014 the magazine June 2014 Rolls-Royce plc 65 Buckingham Gate, London SW1E 6AT England www.rolls-royce.com

2 Marine machine

Now flying with the ‘Green Knights’ of the US Marine Corps, the F-35B is setting new standards in the close support of Marines on the ground.

7 X-ray vision

Scientists from Rolls-Royce are the first from industry to use a super-fast linear accelerator test facility at Stanford University in the US. They were studying on the behaviour of atoms in the alloys used by the aerospace industry.

10 Follow the leader

For 40 years now, the UT-Design of offshore vessels has been the benchmark for excellence. Today, the design remains the global market leader with 800 in service or on order.

13 Fans of the future

Rolls-Royce has given the aviation world a glimpse of the future by unveiling its technology programmes that could lead to ‘Advance’ and ‘UltraFanTM’ concepts beginning to enter service from 2020 onwards.

16 The thrill of the chase Front cover: UltraFanTM – the next generation of aero-engine technology.

If you are going after the big fish then you better have a boat that can cope. Viking Yachts in the US makes some of the best sport fishing boats in the world – powered by MTU engines.

20 Canada’s natural powerhouse When the first Rolls-Royce industrial Avon gas turbine fired-up in Canada, who would have thought it would be the start of a 50-year relationship on pipelines that power North America?

23 Blue Ocean thinking

Thinking deep thoughts about the marine market is the job of Esa Jokioinen. He and his team look to innovate in marine research in terms of technologies and vessels that can deliver radical benefits for customers.

27 Star ship Zumwalt

Due to enter service in 2016, the destroyer USS Zumwalt has looks and capabilities that seem to come from another world. This DDG 1000 vessel is powered by Rolls-Royce MT30 gas turbines and is the future of naval warfare.

30 Merlin magic to dawn of Derwent For 100 years Rolls-Royce has been making aero engines. This article takes the story from the company’s most successful piston engine that powered the Spitfire among others, to the dawn of the jet age.

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Marine machine

The Marine Corps’ Green Knights of VMFA-121 are the first operational unit flying F-35B Lightning II jets, and are setting the stage for deployment of this revolutionary vertical-lift aircraft.

F

or the United States Marine Corps, tactical aviation exists for one primary reason – to support Marines on the ground.

Often first to the scene of a conflict, the expeditionary Marine Corps must travel light, travel fast and travel wherever they are needed. There may be no runway nearby for their combat jets, nor the time to deploy an aircraft carrier. For many years it has been the Harrier AV-8B powered by its Rolls-Royce Pegasus engine that has ensured close air support for the Marines on the ground.

This explains the Marine Corps’ keen interest in the F-35B Lightning II aircraft. Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121, based at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona, is the first operational unit equipped with the advanced, stealthy,

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vertical lift jets. The F-35B will ultimately replace the AV-8Bs in this role. It will also replace the Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornet aircraft so that eventually the F-35 will be the only aircraft in the Marine’s inventory.

“The reason the F-35B is so important is we can base almost anywhere,” says Lt Col Steve Gillette, Commanding Officer of the squadron, known as VMFA-121 or the Green Knights. “You don’t need the infrastructure of a long runway to operate.”

All three variants of F-35 jets – including conventional take-off and carrier versions – will feature stealth, supersonic speed and advanced electronic sensors and networking. It’s a combination of capabilities unmatched in the world of fighter aircraft.

the magazine DEFENCE

But only the “B” variant adds operational mission flexibility with its innovative Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) technology, enabling the aircraft to take-off and land in austere forward-deployed environments, as well as amphibious ships and US Navy carriers.

“You can put these aeroplanes in many places and that puts your adversaries in a very difficult position,” explains Gillette.

Stabilisation

The STOVL capability comes thanks to the unique Rolls-Royce LiftSystem®, which makes short take-off and vertical landings possible. The LiftSystem includes a centre-mounted LiftFan™ and downward swivelling rear

nozzle, with flight stabilisation via a ducted roll post under each wing. The LiftFan is connected to the Pratt & Whitney F135 engine via a shaft and high-speed clutch developed

by Rolls-Royce.

Together, the LiftSystem components provide more than 40,000lbs of downward thrust, and are activated by one-button operation in the cockpit.

The system is very different from the technology in the Marines’ Harrier AV-8B aircraft. That propulsion system was also designed by Rolls-Royce, the only company in the world producing STOVL technology for fighter jets.

“The Harrier does a very good job at providing close air support. It has morphed into a very effective aircraft,” explains Gillette. “The F-35B will be able to do that mission

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better, with better sensors, more ‘on station’ time, while communicating better with other assets. “and in a high-threat environment, it does the mission much better,” he adds. “Your understanding of the environment you are operating in is much higher in an F-35 than in any other aircraft. Very quickly, you see the F-35 out-pace other aircraft.” in the air, Gillette says the aircraft is user friendly, reducing pilots’ workload to enable them to focus on the mission at hand. The aircraft’s computerised flight controls, as well as data fusion from on-board sensors, ease demands on the pilot.

“The aeroplane is incredibly easy to fly. it was designed that way on purpose. The thing that makes the difference is the amount and quality of data available to the pilot. it’s hugely different than prior aircraft.”

Your understanding of the environment you are operating in is much higher in an F-35 than in any other aircraft.

F-35B aircraft housed at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona.

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in the F/a-18 aircraft he used to fly, the pilot would manually flip through available computer screens to learn about threats and the operational environment. The pilot would then mentally collect, review and analyse all the various data, and respond accordingly – all while flying the aircraft.

The new aircraft takes on those roles of data collection, review and analysis via its computer systems. “in the F-35, all those sensors are active all the time and fusion puts them together. i just tell it what’s important to me, and it goes and does it. That frees up a lot of brain power and thought processes for mission execution. That’s what F-35 fusion gives you,” he says.

The result: the best situational awareness available, which is the number one priority for any fighter pilot. he also credits the LiftSystem for its ease of operation, reliability and predictable flight characteristics.

“The propulsion system has worked without a glitch. We have not

Left Rolls-Royce technical representatives are working closely with the Marines of VMFA-121 Squadron.

had one problem with it while airborne. From a reliability and predictability standpoint, we have had great success so far. From a pilot’s perspective, it’s very stable in the hover, very predictable. The LiftSystem, and all the software that drives the system; all of that works very well.”

Preparation

The marine corps aircraft maintainers say the F-35B’s propulsion system is ‘way easier’ to work on compared to the harrier’s technology.

“The engine and LiftFan work like a gem,” says Staff Sgt Joshua Lemaster. “We haven’t had any maintenance issues.

The LiftSystem is a pretty solid product.”

Thus far, nine VmFa-121 pilots, including Lt col Gillette, have been qualified for STOVL operations on the F-35B aircraft. The squadron now has a total of 16 pilots and a full complement of 17 aircraft, since the unit ‘stand up’ in 2013. in addition to flight training, the squadron has also demonstrated success in its planning and maintenance

activities, and documenting inspections, managing data and preparation of the jets for operations.

“We basically got 100 per cent on the test. That’s the first time i’ve ever heard of that happening on any unit,” says Gillette. now, the squadron is focused on the next big challenge – achieving initial Operational capability (iOc), which will prepare the way for field operations. The marine corps is on schedule for reaching iOc in July 2015, the first service to do so.

For the squadron, hitting the iOc milestone won’t change their daily activities too much. But for higher level commanders, it means another air combat capability is ready for use – “F-35 assets are available for real-world tasking,” explains Gillette. in the meantime, the pilots of VmFa-121 will train on F-35 operations, accumulate flight hours, qualify on vertical lift flights, and continue to lead the way for other marine corps squadrons.

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The Pegasus turbofan provided the power for the STOVL Harrier family of aircraft.

VErtiCal EVolutioN

Marine Corps pilot says the new F-35B simplifies vertical flight operations marine corps capt Jack “norm” cronan learned his vertical landing skills at the controls of a harrier aV-8B and says: “i will always have a soft spot for the old aV-8B, a fondness for the aircraft.”

But his new aircraft – an F-35B Lightning ii – is far superior, as he explains: “The capability you will have with the F-35, it’s an immeasurable difference between the two.” he recalls the pilot concentration and workload required for a vertical landing in the harrier aV-8B – hands manipulating the stick and throttle, feet working the rudders, full focus on nozzle direction and system performance, while seated in front of a roaring engine amid cockpit dials and warning lights. a vertical landing required intense pilot attention and constant control inputs. compare that to the F-35’s system for STOVL mode: “You press the conversion button, the jet converts, and you’re in STOVL mode.” a slight nudge of the throttle or the control stick is all that is required from that point. The aircraft’s computerised control system does most of the work.

“You’re still flying the jet but you’re monitoring what the jet is doing,” he says.

“Once you’re over the (landing) pad, you hit the TRc – Translation Rate control – button and the jet will lock that position into place. You could take your hands off the controls, and the jet will stay in that particular position. To land, all you do is push the stick forward and monitor the jet.

There are no attitude adjustments like you do on the harrier.”

cronan also noted the sophisticated electronic and radar systems in the F-35, which collect a variety of data for the pilot.

“That’s a great feature to have, being able to look at one display and see all the data the jet is collecting for you. You can concentrate on the tactical game plan versus concentrating on your data displays.” and that’s one of the main advantages of this new advanced jet, with its stealth, supersonic speed, superior electronics and STOVL capabilities: “The jet is doing a lot of the work for you.” author: George Mclaren is a Communications Manager for rolls-royce, based in indianapolis, uS. Following a lengthy career as a journalist, he joined rolls-royce in 2005 and manages communications for the company’s defence business in the uS and Canada.

You press the conversion button, the jet converts, and you’re in STOVL mode.

The F-35B takes STOVL into the new era with its Rolls-Royce LiftSystem.

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the magazine TECHNOLOGY

R

olls-Royce researchers came to the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) to perform a series of experiments to test titanium and zirconium alloys. Titanium and its alloys are used in the manufacture of aero engines due to their lightweight, super-strong properties, while zirconium alloys are used as pressure tubes in nuclear reactors due to their low neutron scattering cross section and corrosion resistance. The goal of this research was to investigate the real time behaviour of these two alloys under shock loading by a laser.

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is one of ten US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science laboratories and is operated by Stanford University on behalf of the DOE. Founded in 1962, the facility is located in Menlo Park, California – just west of the University’s main campus. The main accelerator is two miles long, the longest linear accelerator in the world.

Rolls-Royce was there to use SLAC’s Linac Coherent Light Source X-ray laser ( LCLS). It produces pulses of X-rays more than a billion times brighter than the most powerful existing sources, the so-called synchrotron sources which are also based on large electron accelerators.

The ultrafast LCLS X-ray flash captures images of events with a ‘shutter speed’ of less than 100 femtoseconds (100 femtoseconds = 1/10 of a trillionth of a second).

An aerial view of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC).

Below left Tom D Swinburne, PhD student, Imperial College London; Despina Milathianaki, LCLS staff scientist and Michael G Glavicic, materials specialist for Rolls-Royce Corporation.

X-RAy visiON

As part of a study on the properties of metals, scientists from Rolls-Royce are the first from industry to have used an extraordinary super-fast X-ray facility at Stanford University in the US. the magazine ISSUE 141 7

The LCLS will create 3-D holographic images of single molecules using ultrafast pulses of very intense hard X-rays.

Capturing the ultrafast

The atomic and molecular world is abuzz with frenetic motion. Because they are so small and light, molecules and atoms react incredibly quickly to forces that act on them. Chemical reactions, in which molecules join or split, can take place in mere quadrillionths of a second. The ultrafast LCLS X-ray flash captures images of these events.

Seeing the ultrasmall

The diameter of a human hair is about 1/1000 of an inch. The wavelength of visible light is about 50 times smaller than this, so ordinary microscopes can easily resolve a hair. But a molecule, about 10,000 times smaller than a hair, is too small to be resolved with visible light. X-rays, with wavelengths that are even smaller than a molecule, are ideal for imaging at the atomic scale.

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The X-ray pulses are then used much like flashes from a high-speed strobe light, enabling scientists to take stop-motion pictures of atoms and molecules in motion, shedding light on the fundamental processes of chemistry, technology, materials and, SLAC claims, life itself.

“We want to understand what happens to a material when it’s in an engine. The more we know about how an alloy behaves, the more we can be creative and figure out ways to take advantage of those properties,” says Michael G Glavicic, a materials specialist for Rolls-Royce in Indianapolis. He led the experiment with David Dye of Imperial College London.

“Understanding materials is what drives innovation in those materials,” adds Michael.

Rolls-Royce researchers often partner with laboratories and universities around the world to explore metals and alloys that could eventually find their way into products. The company has a network of 31

University Technology Centres that it funds to conduct advanced research across a range of engineering disciplines.

In the experiment at the Stanford facility, the team was seeking a deeper understanding of how titanium and zirconium alloys behave when pushed to extremes. The results could lead to a better understanding of how to make the alloys even tougher.

Creation

The LCLS experiment was designed to study the creation and growth of deformations in thin-foil samples of titanium/zirconium and their alloys.

Researchers hit the samples with powerful optical laser pulses, and then used the X-ray laser to study how the material responded to this shock. The ultrashort, ultrabright X-ray laser pulses can uniquely capture images of samples at the nanoscale, and in increments measured in quadrillionths of a second.

One type of stress-induced deformation that

capability of how materials work and how we could design better ones. Professor Adrian Sutton FRS at Imperial College, using his knowledge of quantum mechanics, is leading the efforts in this programme to predict what happens atom by atom.

“LCLS is uniquely suited to this type of experiment,” says Despina Milathianaki, an LCLS staff scientist involved in the research, “because of the trillionths-of-a-second time resolution required to capture the ultrafast deformations as it evolved in the samples – in this case caused by shock-induced twinning.”

Structure

How it works – technology insight LCLS produces ultrafast X-ray pulses that can capture images of atoms and molecules in motion. The pulses are much like flashes from a high-speed strobe light, enabling scientists to take stop-motion pictures. The roots of this at Stanford go back more than 100 years.

Around 1872, Eadweard Muybridge started making stop-motion photographs of people, animals and trains in motion on Leland Stanford’s farm. He is famous

for showing that all four of a horse’s feet leave the ground during a gallop. To be able to click a shutter fast enough to show each stride a horse makes when galloping required a tremendous amount of engineering ingenuity.

The LCLS provides X-rays of such shortness and precision that stroboscopic experiments can be done with materials on the nanoscale, and even with individual molecules and atoms.

The tiny focus of LCLS, she says, also allows scientists to capture images within a single ‘crystallite’ or grain in the metal, which is an individual building block in a metal’s structure.

“We hope that this is the first of many collaborations with industry partners seeking to understand fundamental materials science while exploiting the unique capabilities of LCLS,” Milathianaki adds.

The research facilities at SLAC attract thousands of scientists from all over the world each year. Along with its own staff scientists, they’re working to discover new drugs for healing, new materials for electronics and new ways to produce clean energy.

SLAC’s revolutionary X-ray laser is revealing intimate details of atoms and chemical

We hope that this is the first of many collaborations with industry partners seeking to understand fundamental materials science while exploiting the unique capabilities of LCLS. researchers observed was the formation of ‘twins’ named for mirror-image patterns that appear in the metal’s microscopic structure. These twin regions are separated by thin boundaries that appear as lines. Like well-sewn seams across layers of fabric, the twin boundaries can actually strengthen the material.

Chemistry

“This is something that nobody has done before.

We were hoping to see ‘twins’ form and see the rate at which they form, to understand what role chemistry plays in causing things to twin,” Glavicic says. “It could potentially confirm, or build on, current theories.”

A second type of stress-induced deformity that the researchers observed was the solid state phase transformation of the meta-stable (omega)-phase in both titanium and zirconium alloys.

Researchers hope to use a knowledge of deformation and solid state phase transformation to improve how materials withstand stress. While commercial applications from such an experiment may be decades away, Glavicic said the goal is to gain fundamental insights about material properties that can be shared with the scientific community.

Experimental results are coupled with computer models to improve our predictive

reactions and making stop-motion movies of this tiny realm, with the goal of doing the same for living cells.

Scientists there are also exploring the cosmos, from the origin of the universe to the nature of dark energy, and developing the smaller, more efficient particle accelerators of the future.

Six scientists have been awarded Nobel prizes for work done at SLAC, and more than 1,000 scientific papers are published each year based on research at the laboratory.

Author: David Howie is Director of Brand for Rolls-Royce. He joined the company from a marketing consultancy and prior to that was a press officer.

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Follow the

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the magazine MARINE

leader

From its beginnings on the drawing board of Sigmund Borgundvåg (right) in a shipyard in north-west Norway at the dawn of the North Sea oil industry in 1974 – the UT (Ulstein Trading) vessel design this year celebrates its 40th anniversary with over 800 vessels in service, or on order.

“T

he design concept has been adapted by other companies over the years,” says Yrjar Garshol, Rolls-Royce Vice President Marketing – Offshore, “so we can easily say thousands of vessels operating today have followed in Sigmund’s footsteps.”

In the early 1970s, the boats supplying Norwegian oil fields were based on designs used in the Gulf of Mexico, then the only source of oil industry expertise. Sea conditions around Norway are much rougher and more robust vessels which could handle these conditions safely were urgently needed.

Borgundvåg fused generations of experience fishing these waters with the technology needed to operate in a new type of deepwater oil field. The first generation of UT vessels had their decks much higher above the waterline than other offshore vessels to cope with the rougher conditions. They also had more space for deck cargo to carry equipment out to the rigs and excellent towing and anchor handling capabilities.

Farstad Shipping placed the first order. The first vessels to be delivered were the UT 705 platform support vessel (PSV) Tender Carrier, designed for and with Wilhelmsen Offshore Services, and the UT 704 anchor handler vessel,

the Stad Scotsman. They entered service in 1974 and 1975 respectively.

According to Vegard Grimstad, a designer on the latest Rolls-Royce UT vessels, the design has stood the test of time. “It has improved continuously but we still sell vessels looking like the first UT vessel. The hull form is basically the same – slender and fast for a vessel with a large payload – making it both efficient and effective.”

UT vessels have developed to undertake a number of roles including, platform supply, anchor handling and towing, seismic surveying and subsea construction. The UT-Design continues to evolve in response to changing needs and operating conditions.

Workhorses

Platform supply vessels, like Island Offshore’s Island Crusader, are the workhorses of the offshore oil and gas industry. They transport everything necessary to keep rigs and platforms working. Supplies range from fresh water, food and diesel oil, to items used in drilling, such as cement and drill pipes. The need to maintain speed efficiently in rough seas has led to the incorporation of wave-piercing bows, low resistance hull forms and diesel-electric propulsion.

Many drill rigs require towing to their

location and fixing to the seabed. Anchor Handling Tug Supply vessels (AHTS) manipulate long, heavy wires and chains in waters up to 2,000m deep. This requires stability and power to maximise the vessel’s pulling power – the ‘bollard pull.’ The UT 761, Farstad’s Far Samson, set a world record for a continuous bollard pull of 423 tonnes. The UT 790 WP design embodies Rolls-Royce latest design thinking to combine power with efficiency for vessels of this type.

Offshore

Advanced seismic survey vessels, like the UT 830, are an important tool for locating and defining offshore oil and gas reservoirs. They tow an array of streamers that gather sound pulses bounced off sub-seabed strata allowing a 3-D picture of geology and oil and gas reservoirs to be formed. The 110m long UT 833 WP can deploy 18 streamers each 10km long plus the air gun array. The ship has a range of about 10,000 nautical miles at a 14 knot cruising speed and an endurance of up to 80 days.

Offshore oil and gas activities are moving in the direction of placing more major systems on the seabed, connected by pipes and umbilicals, rather than installing platforms. This is particularly attractive in deep water. Subsea construction calls for vessels with offshore

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Just a few of the UT offshore vessels that have led the market for 40 years.

cranes and other equipment that enable them to accurately position heavy modules on the seabed far below.

The growing distance between new offshore fields and supply bases will call for larger vessels with a longer operational range, as well as landing platforms for helicopters. All of which needs to be taken into consideration when designing a modern offshore vessel.

Stability

The new UT 777 drill ship designed with Island Offshore and scheduled for delivery in 2017 is one such. It can undertake a variety of subsea tasks, including top-hole drilling, subsea construction and inspection, and maintenance and repair work in deep waters. Major design features are larger and more precise crane capacity, efficient hull design and maximum stability.

The 168m long ICE1B-class vessel has a beam of 28m and incorporates wave-piercing technology, a large open deck allowing more volume fore and aft and a more centrally located helideck for stability, DP3 dynamic positioning and a tailor made unit that features an enclosed handling tower to give the crew a safe and comfortable working environment in

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harsh and cold conditions.

According to Garshol: “The direction for the next generation of UT vessels is very much heading towards deeper, further and harsher environments. New field developments are often in areas with huge swell and ice conditions eight to ten months per year.”

Vegard Grimstad, a designer on the latest Rolls-Royce UT vessels.

Working in such conditions creates two challenges; dealing with the ice in the water and on the ship. Ice in the water requires the hull and the propeller to be strengthened and more thrust is needed to push through the water. The ice on the ship adds weight and can reduce stability. External fittings need to be sheltered to minimise ice formation whilst ice on gangways and deckhouses is reduced through electrical heating.

“The secret of the UT vessels 40 years of success is,” according to Grimstad, “a combination of listening to the customer, many of whom live and work nearby and who know which designs have been most successful and why, and a very dedicated and enthusiastic technical team with a lot of experience of what works at sea.”

It’s a combination which has influenced thousands of vessels to date and will continue to do so far into the future.

Author: Simon Kirby consults and lectures in marketing communications with a particular interest in technology. He has worked in communications roles extensively in both the public and private sector.

For more information on the history of the UT vessels visit utstories.rolls-royce.com

the magazine AVIATION

Fans of the future When Rolls-Royce recently announced two new engine designs for the future – Advance and UltraFan™ – it was crystallising technology programmes that have been in development for a number of years and will continue for years to come.

P

Carbon and titanium wide-chord fan blades feature in the programmes.

rogrammes that cover advances in engine architecture, propulsive and thermal efficiency, and new materials – all already designed, tested, refined, and now being proven on a comprehensive set of test engines and demonstrator

programmes.

The announcement gave a clear roadmap of how the company will deliver the designs in distinct timeframes – Advance by 2020 and UltraFan by 2025 – and how they will evolve from each other.

Rolls-Royce can approach the future from a position of strength. Its technology baseline, based on engines recently in service or just about to enter service, is the best in the industry.

The Trent XWB, which will power the Airbus A350 XWB into service later this year, has already confirmed itself during flight tests as the most efficient aero engine flying in the world today. At the same time, the Trent 1000 powering the Boeing 787 Dreamliner has delivered the world’s best entry into service performance with better than 99.9 per cent despatch reliability and a flawless performance in the air. In addition, it offers the best lifetime fuel burn on the aircraft.

But even as these engines were being built, new technologies were under development – ready for the complex process of integration that ultimately brings together more than 18,000 parts into a unified whole.

At the same time, Rolls-Royce continued to discuss the aerospace market with airlines, airframers and other interested parties to assess when best to bring those technologies forward.

“We’ve always understood that the aviation industry would continue to move on, driven by some pretty fundamental economics, and that as innovators we can never stand still and need new solutions for a new era,” says Simon Carlisle, Rolls-Royce Executive Vice President – Strategy and Future Technology, Civil Large Engines.

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Latest wide-chord blades when installed on an engine.

Those economic factors include a rise in kerosene costs from 60 cents a gallon in 1995, when the Trent family first entered service, to three dollars today – fuel now accounting for 50 per cent of a long haul flight. At the same time, generations of travellers have come to see reliable flight schedules as the norm even as timetables and aircraft turnaround times become ever tighter – requiring an absolute commitment to engine reliability and availability.

The Rolls-Royce response to that scenario is Advance, delivering a 20 per cent fuel burn improvement over the first generation of Trent engine, and ready for service from 2020 and UltraFan, which takes fuel burn performance a further five per cent by 2025.

Advance may look a little like a Trent at first glance, but it has significant changes both inside and out to achieve its performance goals.

Rolls-Royce has always been famed within the industry for its threeshaft large engine design which has been applied to the entire RB211 and Trent family of engines and which offers better performance retention – and that has been further evolved in Advance with a new core architecture.

Effectively, this means redistributing the workload between the intermediate and high-pressure shafts to achieve the highest ever commercial turbofan overall pressure ratio of more than 60:1 and a bypass ratio of more than 11:1 while also reducing parts and weight.

At the same time, Advance will incorporate a lean burn low NOx combustor and advanced heat-tolerant materials, such as ceramic matrix composites, to further improve thermal efficiency, improve component life and reduce weight.

The most visually striking element is a new CTi (carbon and titanium) fan blade and associated composite engine casings – replacing the hollow titanium blade – to deliver a weight saving of around 1,500lb on a twin engine aircraft, the equivalent of seven or eight passengers travelling ‘weight free’. The casings, with electrical connections built into the composite panels that fit together, also simplify maintenance.

The development of the CTi composite blade reflects one key aspect of new aero-engine design – it is not always a matter of being first, but it is a matter of delivering the right technology at the right time to be best.

Rolls-Royce refused to bring this technology onto the engine until it could prove itself to be world leading, and the company knew that benchmark as its hollow titanium fan was still the world’s best even when measured against competitors’ composite efforts.

And so research into the technology patiently continued and manufacturing methods were honed and improved at the CTAL facility at the Isle of Wight, UK – once a partnership with GKN, but now wholly owned by Rolls-Royce. As ways of weaving the compound improved, so did abilities to deliver a thinner, lighter fan blade. With Advance, Rolls-Royce is now ready to bring the technology to market – as world leader.

“Every new technology follows a development curve where it is continually improved before it begins to deliver a performance benefit and then ultimately matures. We only incorporate new technologies into designs until we can see a real performance improvement for customers and understanding the optimum time to introduce technology to the market is a key consideration,” says Simon.

“That is why we have had a whole series of technology demonstrator programmes running for a number of years with names such as EFE, E3E, ALPS, ADVENT, ALECSYS, SILOET, SAMULET, NEWAC, and HEETE, each proving specific technologies, which is part of a continuous investment in innovation that ultimately results in these new designs.”

UltraFan features all the technologies in Advance but addresses new challenges in a trend Rolls-Royce has identified towards greater engine pressures, and larger engine fans and smaller cores to deliver higher engine bypass ratios.

“Extrapolating those trends into the future we could see a point, at around a bypass ratio of 15:1, where the low pressure turbine system driving the fan

We are a company that takes pride in being a technology leader.

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Designers working on the technology programmes.

gets disproportionately large and heavy and weight and drag become an issue, and in addition, you have to manage temperatures, pressures and aerodynamics between the fan and the smaller core,” says Alan Newby, Rolls-Royce Chief Engineer, Future Programmes and Technology, Civil Large Engines.

“So our solution with UltraFan is to eliminate the LP turbine in its current form and drive the larger fan through an enhanced intermediate pressure turbine. To enable the IP turbine to do that without running too fast for what will be a low-speed fan, we will introduce a power gearbox between the fan and the IP compressor.

“By doing this, we can continue to ensure our three-shaft architecture ensures our compressors and turbines run at optimum speed and deliver optimum performance. It also enables us to remove the need for a thrust reverser and introduce an integrated, slimline, nacelle.”

Maturity

Just as the technologies behind Advance and UltraFan were underway prior to the engine designs being announced, so the demonstrator programmes will continue to bring them to full maturity.

For Advance, the fan blade and casing system has been on test in Derby, UK, with a Trent 1000 as the ‘donor’ engine, and will soon be in flight on a Boeing 747 flying test bed in Tucson, Arizona. In addition, further lean burn system tests and endurance runs will take place this year and next, while the combustion system will start flight tests in 2015, when the engine’s core architecture will start functional tests.

UltraFan will incorporate all those programmes and engineers are now finalising plans for a demonstrator engine. The programme took a further step forward in March when work started on a new test bed for power gearboxes at the company’s Dahlewitz facility in Germany.

“The work at this centre will build on the heritage we already have in geared designs from our turboshaft, turboprop in the civil sector and

ADVANCE

•• ••

technology readiness: 2020 Bypass ratio: 11+ overall pressure ratio: 60+ efficiency relative to trent 700: 20 per cent+

most recently the LiftFan™ system we have developed in the defence field,” says Alan.

“One element of the programme that was critical to its success was informing the industry well in advance,” says Simon.

“We are a company that takes pride in being a technology leader and we thought it important to share our roadmap for the future with the rest of the industry so they could fully engage with our plans, the technologies and the timescales for their availability for service.

“Following the announcement, we have had tremendous interest from airlines, airframers and engineering bodies and it has triggered a series of further discussions, which is a great benefit as we want to involve and collaborate with our customers all the way through Advance and UltraFan development.”

ULTRAFAN

•• ••

technology readiness: 2025 Bypass ratio: 15+ overall pressure ratio: 70+ efficiency relative to trent 700: 25 per cent+

Author: Bill O’Sullivan is a former industrial editor of the Newcastle Evening Chronicle and worked for several years on other regional newspapers. He is now a member of the civil aerospace communications team for Rolls-Royce.

the magazine ISSue 141 15

The thrill of

the chase

Sport fishing is one of life’s great escapes and at Viking Yachts they know exactly what it takes to design and build a great boat to land a big game fish. And they aim to build a better boat every day.

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asting off from shore and watching the mainland slowly disappear from view does wonders for one’s constitution.

And once the boating lifestyle is in your blood, there’s no turning back. Dave Anderson Jr knows all about it. An avid sport fisher for 25 years, he competes in tournaments from New Jersey to the Bahamas. Hunting primarily for sailfish and marlin, he has landed fish weighing nearly 500 pounds. “On one memorable trip, my boat caught 41 white marlin in just two days,” he says.

His boat is the 70-foot Viking yacht Krazy Salt’s. “The best Viking yacht I’ve ever owned,” he marvelled and explained why: It is nimble, fast and comfortable. And big enough to provide a smooth ride and hold plenty of fuel. Refuelling stops would only get in the way of hunting for big fish. But for Anderson, the allure of sport fishing is more than catching the most – or the biggest – fish. “There’s nothing better than the open water, the camaraderie with other fishermen, visiting great spots all over the world,” he enthuses.

This passion for yachts is shared by Bob and Bill Healey. They founded the Viking Yacht Company in 1964 when purchasing a small, struggling wooden sport fishing boat company.

Their philosophy: “Building a better boat every day.” And they transferred their passion for boat

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Viking Yachts use MTU engines to deliver high speed and manoeuvrability.

the magazine MARINE

the magazine ISSUE 141 17

rines assaulting a heavily defended beach,

Engine model: 16V 2000 M94 Rated power to DIN ISO 3046 ICFN Rated power max kW (bhp): 1,939 (2,600) Speed max rpm: 2,450 Exhaust emission: 8,15,18,34 Dimensions and masses without gearbox Length (L) mm (in): 2,310 (90) Width (W) mm (in): 1,295 (51) Height (H) mm (in): 1,390 (54.7) Mass (dry) kg (lbs): 3,380.00 (7,452.00)

building to their staff and never forgot the personal touch. Not only did they know the first names of all their employees, but they also shook their hands every night when they left work. This enthusiasm turned a small shipyard on the Bass River in New Jersey into one of the world’s leaders in semi-custom fibreglass yacht production. More than 4,000 Vikings have already been delivered and the number keeps rising.

Today, the two brothers no longer visit the shipyard every day. But Bill Healey, now 85, can still often be seen near his boats. His son Patrick Healey now serves as Executive Vice President and oversees day-to-day operations at Viking.

The premises near the Bass River in New Jersey have expanded but the company’s philosophy of building a better boat every day remains unchanged. “If we come up with a great idea for a redesign, we can get it done fast. No corporate runaround. As a family of boat builders, we’re focused on making a better boat, perfecting it and making it evolve,” says Patrick Healey.

Loyal

Other than a few major components, such as engines, propellers and appliances, 90 per cent of every Viking boat is designed and manufactured on the premises. Whether it is a fibreglass fuel tank, custom engine beds or a wiring harness, virtually every part is built at the plant. And Viking’s loyal customer base proves that quality pays off. Once a yacht fan has purchased a Viking yacht, he generally remains loyal to the brand for life – as does Dave Anderson Jr. In the past ten years he owned three Viking yachts – each longer than the previous one. Starting with a 55-foot yacht, he moved up to a 62-foot one before buying the

18 rolls-royce.com

70-foot Krazy Salt’s. “But I like my new Viking best,” he enthuses. And his success speaks for itself. This year, the Krazy Salt’s team has already won eight tournaments – before the end of the season, that is.

Since the 1970s, Viking has worked with Johnson & Towers, the largest MTU pleasure craft distributor in North America. Back then, the distributor pioneered the industry by

customising 2-cycle Detroit Diesel engines for marine use. This was the only way to produce enough horsepower to reach the Healeys’ performance objectives.

While the technology has changed – most Viking yachts are now propelled by MTU 4-cycle engines – the partnership continues to this day.

Engines are key when it comes to sport fishing – especially during tournaments

when the fastest boats get to the best fishing grounds first. “Once we find out where the fish are, every minute counts. Then you need to run there and put your lines in while the fish are still feeding near the surface,” Dave Anderson Jr explains. “When the area gets crowded, noise from other boats causes fish to become reluctant and swim deeper for safety.” Moving quickly can mean the difference between holding up a trophy at tournament’s end, or shaking hands with the winner. Powered by twin MTU 16V 2000 M94 engines, Anderson‘s Krazy Salt’s reaches more than 40 knots at full throttle. “Our customers want speed and reliability, and MTU engines do a great job. The 70-footer is very fast for a boat that weighs 130,000 pounds. It really gives the owner of the boat a charge to be able to pass people,” says Peter Frederiksen, from Viking Yacht Company.

Far left Many of the Viking yachts are powered by MTU. The company’s latest 92-foot yacht is equipped with twin 16V 2000 engines.

Right A hull is readied to receive the engine room bulkhead.

Below Patrick Healey is responsible for operations at Viking.

Marvel

He enthusiastically detailed some of the many amenities Vikings are equipped with. The bridge is a technological marvel, featuring radar, chart plotter and engine monitor display screens, along with hydraulic steering to make manoeuvring effortless and electronic engine It does not get more thrilling than landing a blue marlin.

Our customers want speed and reliability, and MTU engines do a great job.

controls for instant response. The cockpit at the stern of the boat is equipped with built-in tackle centres, rod holders, fish boxes, and even a stepbox cooler so the angler can get a cool drink without leaving the area. Offering protection from sun, spray and rain, the mezzanine arrangement and flying bridge overhang ensures that when a fish takes the bait, the angler is ready, rested and able to get the job done. A state-of-the-art tuna tower rises 20 feet above the bridge, allowing a crew member to track a fish’s movement with a bird’s-eye view.

Once a fish has taken the bait, the yacht must accelerate fast. Because reversing direction is often necessary for the angler to gain line on a fish, a Viking backs down with a vengeance, sometimes as much as eight or nine knots. The

distinctive crowned stern pushes the water away, preventing it from coming on deck. This allows the angler to focus on reeling in and keeping his fish under control. “To win the battle with a big game fish, the boat, engine package, skipper, crew and angler must work together seamlessly,” explains Anderson.

While Anderson thinks about the next tournament, the Viking Yacht Company continues to look toward the horizon. The design group is putting the finishing touches to the plans and drawings for its biggest vessel yet – the new 92-foot convertible, equipped with twin MTU 16V 2000 engines. Viking still continue to build a better boat every day.

Author: Chuck Mahnken

the magazine ISSUE 141 19

Canada’s nATuRAL

PoWERhouSE SE

When the first Rolls-Royce industrial Avon gas turbine fired up in Canada it marked the lift-off of a 50-year marriage, one that continues to spawn technological advancement.

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algary-based TransCanada PipeLines (TCPL) blazed a trail in 1964 in the oil and gas sector when it put the first industrial Avon into action – a gas turbine originally developed to power military and commercial jets.

Five decades later, that engine is still providing the power to drive natural gas through underground pipes, having run 203,887 hours since new while 83 more have been added to TransCanada’s roster because of their reliability and efficiency.

Today, TransCanada boasts the biggest fleet of Rolls-Royce industrial gas turbines in the world and together the two companies remain energy innovation pioneers, constantly proving up new technologies in an industry with ever changing demands.

“TransCanada and Rolls-Royce have a long relationship

20 rolls-royce.com

that’s grown over the years — not only in terms of the amount of equipment they have but also in the power range within their fleet,” says Steve Robinson, Customer Business Manager for oil and gas, Rolls-Royce. “It has been a very fruitful relationship.”

The seeds of the industrial Avon were first planted in the 1940s, when jet propulsion was still an engineering marvel.

Jet aircraft were the stars of black and white movies touting fiery power and sonic-barrier-breaking abilities.

The Avon first entered service on the wing of the English Electric Canberra B.2 light bomber — a tactical aircraft whose stealth and performance surpassed all others through the 1950s. It proved popular for its advanced performance over other bombers and was bought by many nations. In later years, it powered supersonic fighter jets like the Lightning.

It achieved fame when a single engine with 17,100lbs of

Above Industrial RB211 (DLE) gas turbines are a mainstay of the network.

Right TransCanada PipeLines power North America with natural gas.

the magazine ENERGY

thrust in the Saab Draken, a Swedish fighter aircraft, achieved Mach 2 – travelling twice the speed of sound. But perhaps the ultimate tribute to the Avon came in 1983, when the Thrust II, a British-designed and built jetpropelled car, broke land-speed records. The car driven by Richard noble clocked in at 1019.47km/h averaged over two runs.

As the Avon was making its mark in the aviation industry, Rolls-Royce engineers were already looking at how to take this then-advanced technology and produce a package that could be used on land — providing the drive to compress gas, pump oil, or produce electricity.

That was achieved when the first industrial Avon roared to life at Station 70 on the northern shore of Lake Superior, ontario, five decades ago this June. It

was one of ten installed that year in ontario and Saskatchewan. Those stations formed the backbone of TransCanada’s 14,114-kilometre gas Mainline, which stretches from the Alberta/Saskatchewan border east to the Quebec/Vermont border, connecting with other natural gas pipelines across Canada and the united States.

In the ensuing years, TransCanada’s network has more than quadrupled to include 68,500 kilometres of wholly and partially owned natural gas pipelines tapping into virtually every supply basin in north America. An incredible amount of customers across the continent rely on the company every day to deliver natural gas, from individual homeowners to large industrial customers using it to power electrical plants.

The industrial Avon is key to that mission, proving its reliability through its longevity. TransCanada’s fleet of 84 Avons has collectively logged 11.1 million hours of operation during the past five decades.

“You turn them on and let them run and they are happy to do so,” says Chris Murphy, TransCanada’s fleet manager, noting that an engine used in the oil and gas industry in the Middle East boasts the longest known continuous run at 476 days (11,424) hours.

“That’s pretty incredible. They just keep on running.” over the course of its production, the industrial Avon has seen its power increase 44 per cent while its efficiency has

the magazine ISSUE 141 21

UPDATE: SIEmENS AgREEmENT

Last month, Rolls-Royce confirmed it had agreed the sale of its Energy gas turbine and compressor business to Siemens. This comprises the aero-derivative gas turbines, compressor systems and related services to customers in the oil and gas, and power generation sectors. The transition is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

improved by about 14 per cent.

The Avon 200, introduced in 2007, was a significant upgrade providing a life extension for the original engine.

A demonstrator version was installed and operated at TransCanada’s Clarkson Valley gas compressor station for testing. however, industry demands for bigger blocks of power drove the development of a new design, leading to the second-generation gas turbine RB211. It was first trialled

by TransCanada, which now has 88 in its fleet. The first industrial RB211, number 1700-003 with a rating of 26,400hp was installed at the company’s station 2F in Burstall, Saskatchewan, 40 years ago in 1974, replacing an older Avon unit. Later, in the 1990s, TransCanada installed dry low emissions (DLE) RB211s at various locations.

Aside from the environmental benefits through lowering emissions, the new DLE gas turbines are also boosting the bottom line. on one of the more important strands of the web-like natural gas transportation infrastructure spread through north America, is that the exhaust is being recovered and converted into electrical power. A relatively new system enhancement in natural gas pipeline operations was added to four of the RB211-powered compressor stations on the northern Border Pipeline (in which TransCanada is a co-owner), to produce up to 22MW of low-cost power without the consumption of additional fuel or increased pollutants.

“We are constantly testing promising new technologies to minimise natural gas consumption of pipeline compressors and associated emissions of greenhouse gases (GhGs) linked to climate change,” says Murphy.

To advance the new technologies, TransCanada tested an even lower emission RB211 in Alberta. That unique pilot project co-managed by Rolls-Royce and TransCanada from

22 rolls-royce.com

2003 to 2006 in the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains produced impressive results and proved the commercial viability of a new engine design.

The RB211 6761, the first to be utilised in mechanical drive installed at TransCanada’s nordegg Compressor Station – a remote, unmanned station with harsh weather conditions in the winter – delivered a nine per cent reduction in fuel consumption and GhG emissions. The unit achieved 39 per cent efficiency and slightly better than 95 per cent operational availability, setting a new standard for future projects.

Above A TransCanada station housing a Rolls-Royce gas turbine.

We have every intention of using these engines for another 25 years. now, Rolls-Royce and TransCanada are poised to lead the world in yet another first. They have entered into an agreement to test and trial another new version of the RB211 combustor, which takes existing technology on the engine and combines it with new technology.

“It may well lead to millions of dollars in fuel savings annually,” says Steve Robinson. In looking forward, however, it remains important to look back because the technology of the past – the Avon – still proves critical in meeting the needs of tomorrow. “We have every intention of using these engines for another 25 years,” says Chris Murphy.

“These units are not going away. I’m pretty sure they will outlast me.”

Author: Suzanne Wilton is an award-winning journalist who spent more than 20 years in newspapers, television and radio. She is now principal of Calgary-based Corporate Content.

the magazine PROFILE

Blue Ocean thinking Esa Jokioinen has a challenging job forecasting a future for which “there is no crystal ball.”

BIOgRaPhy

Esa Jokioinen joined Rolls-Royce in •2013 following a career spent designing prototype ships.

He was Head of Concept Design and R&D at Deltamarin in Finland having joined the company’s R&D department in 2003.

He has an MSc Mechanical Engineering from Tampere University of Technology in Finland.

He describes his current role as a “dream job; bringing new technology and customers together in a leading global company. There is so much expertise in this company and people here have an exceptional mindset for innovation throughout the organisation.”

• •

•

the magazine ISSUE 141 23

Above ForOcean lightly-armed The Blue team marines assaulting a at work in Rolls-Royce. heavily defended beach,

J

okioinen heads up the Rolls-Royce Blue Ocean team. The name is deliberate referring to a strategy which ‘looks to create new markets in uncontested marketspace where companies can add value through differentiation and innovation.’

“Innovation,” according to Jokioinen, “is an invention that creates value for customers or competitive advantage for the company.” He and his team look beyond the traditional technology development timeframe – at what technologies existing and potential customers will need in up to ten years.

“The ultimate aim is radical innovation. Something completely new to the market and beyond customer expectations. In reality this is only ten per cent of what we do. Ninety per cent is more incremental innovation where we use existing products to create ship concepts, customer cases and applications for these products and highlight the benefits to customers worldwide.”

This approach brings customers and

Above Unmanned cargo vessels could be a solution for the future.

24 rolls-royce.com

the wider marine industry into contact with the Rolls-Royce research community – the Strategic Research Centre, Marine Research Centres as well as the University Technology Centres and in-house expertise in product sectors.

“From a customer point of view, we always start with the business case and payload. What are their ships carrying and how can we help the customer get the best possible return on their investment.”

Benefits

“When you put new technology on a vessel it is very rare that it alone will give you benefits on a big scale.” The challenge is to think about how that technology enables the vessel to be further improved. For example, can more cargo be carried and if so how will that influence the hull lines, the centre of gravity and ultimately the performance? Starting with the ship’s purpose and not separating the concept, the machinery and the propulsion will result in the most effective optimisation.

Jokioinen and his team recently explored this approach in

the ferry market. They designed two efficient ferry concepts (shown right) for the exact same service with the same design criteria but entirely different design approaches. The first, Dynamic Blue, incorporates the latest technology to deliver the lowest operating cost. The second concept, Clear Blue, minimises build costs. This meant simplifying things, removing the non-essentials, focusing on the core functions and doing them really well.

Perspective

Understanding the benchmark the customer uses to measure the efficiency, cost and ultimately profitability of a new technological approach against their current option is vital.

Overall, Clear Blue was demonstrably better than a low-cost second hand vessel (the usual alternative for a ship owner who cannot afford a new build) due to low investment cost and superior fuel economy.

The ultimate aim is radical innovation. Something completely new to the market and beyond customer expectations.

“Very often we are fascinated with the new technologies but forget what the reality is from an investment cost perspective.

This exercise showed that it is possible simultaneously to have a lean design concept but to be environmentally clean and effective from a fuel economy point of view.” Of course, if the ship owner wants to invest for the long term, the latest technology will enable lowest life-cycle costs and emissions, but it comes with a higher construction cost as was the case for Dynamic Blue.

Implement

The challenge according to Jokioinen is “finding the right time and the right market for all the possible technologies. It’s not finding new ways of doing things or new technologies that could be applied, it’s choosing where and when to implement things that benefit the customers and the company.

Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), which Rolls-Royce is well placed to exploit with long experience in LNG engines and related system engineering, is one such.

REmOtE OPERatEd ShIPS

Remote Operated Vehicles (ROVs) are emerging in the automotive (Google Car) and Aviation (ASTREA) sectors and there are limited applications in the maritime sector, in submarines.

Demand is expected to grow. question is notmarines if this will happen, it’s when this will Above “The top For lightly-armed assaulting a heavily defended beach.

For lightly-armed marines happen” saysMiddle Jokioinen. assaulting a heavily defended beach Bottom For lightlytake the away,” according armed“When marinesyou assaulting a crew heavily defended beach. to Jokioinen, “you can design the ship in a totally different way and get considerable savings in other areas as well as crew costs.” More cargo can be carried distributed along the total length of the vessel and many of the systems that support the crew can also be removed. This could deliver savings between a ten to 30 per cent depending on ship type.

“We will not start with fully unmanned craft but by moving some of the non-critical functions ashore whilst a crew on board supervise the vessel operating remotely. Autonomy will increase as crews move to shore based control centres.

“This is real thought leadership. We want to encourage people to start talking about this now. If we want to make this happen in some years’ time we will need to start influencing the regulatory bodies such as the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to have this considered in the development of rules and regulations. We need ship owners, satellite companies, ports, classification societies, lawyers, flag authorities, all sorts of people to engage to bring this about.”

the magazine ISSUE 141 25

An innovative cruise ship of the future.

We want to challenge the industry – the whole maritime community – by providing fresh thinking.

In the US, falling LNG prices, as a consequence of shale gas, together with tightening environmental regulations, represent a significant opportunity. This has given Rolls-Royce a chance to rethink the cruise ship.

Feature

An innovative design targets the gap between small luxury vessels and the more familiar large cruise ship. It combines different LNG propulsion and machinery arrangements with an unconventional vessel layout. A wide hull, shallow draft and a narrow superstructure creates the opportunity to incorporate cabins with views on both sides and sun decks close to sea level. The concept ship gives owners an opportunity to differentiate their product offering giving a more intimate cruising experience and visiting smaller, novel, ports. The most important feature, however, is the LNG machinery and the four alternative novel propulsion arrangements which can cut yearly operating costs by between US$1.7 – US$6.7m and give considerable environmental benefits.

According to Jokioinen: “We want to challenge the industry – the whole maritime community – by providing fresh thinking in a whole range of areas. So we hope to be seen as a forerunner in innovation and development – a thought leader.” This requires technology and market knowledge to work with customers to take new concepts to market.

“The best way to predict the future is to create the future.” author: Simon Kirby consults and lectures in marketing communications with a particular interest in technology. he has worked in communications roles extensively in both the public and private sector.

26 rolls-royce.com

the magazine MARINE

Star Ship

Zumwalt Once the stuff of science fiction, now courtesy of the US Navy, high-energy laser weapons and electromagnetic railguns are poised to enter service for real on warships.

F

Above The distinctive lines of the first DDG 1000, USS Zumwalt.

or lightly-armed marines assaulting a heavily defended beach, the knowledge that they have the support of a highly advanced warship lurking over the horizon comes as great comfort.

And for those same marines, the entry into service in 2016 of the destroyer USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000 multi-mission destroyer class of ship) – the successor to the great battleships of the 20th Century – won’t come a moment too soon.

Christened at General Dynamics’ Bath Iron Works shipyard on 12 April 2014, the futuristic-looking US$3.34 billion destroyer – with its stealthy ‘tumblehome’ hull, wave-piercing bow and towering prism-like superstructure dotted with conformal radar antennae and other sensors – holds the key to US naval battle support for the future.

Zumwalt is already sporting the two 155mm

(6.1in) guns that will fire rocket-assisted projectiles at land targets up to 100km away, and once in service it will carry scores of cruise missiles and surface-to-air missiles, as well as two helicopters for anti-submarine warfare and other missions.

In the words of the Department of Defense, the three-ship DDG 1000 programme “will take the fight to the enemy with unprecedented striking power, sustainability, survivability and information dominance.” The new vessels will immediately provide an increase in surface fire coverage and air defence capability.

By the mid-2020s, however, Zumwalt and its two sister ships could be given even more clout, with the potential introduction of railguns designed to launch hyper-velocity kinetic rounds with pin-point accuracy at ranges approaching 200km.

Generating the immense amount of electrical

the magazine ISSUE 141 27

power that will be required to operate these future weapon systems and highly sensitive new radar and guidance systems that are also under development, will be the rolls-royce Mt30 and Mt5S gas turbines that lie at the heart of the new destroyers’ integrated power System (ipS). the innovative all-electric ipS consists of two main turbine generators and two auxiliary gas turbine generator sets producing up to 78MW of electrical power for propulsion, combat system and hotel services loads.

Each of the two main turbine generator (MtG) sets are driven by an advanced Mt30 powerplant, derived from the trent aero engine and with a maximum output of 36MW. it is one of five high-profile sales successes chalked up to date for the Mt30, which has also been selected for the Freedom-class Littoral Combat Ships in the US, the UK’s two Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers and South Korea’s incheon-class frigate programme. in addition, the innovative royal Navy’s type 26 propulsion system will be designed around the Mt30. this is the fifth naval platform to feature the Mt30 which seems to have become the engine of choice for future naval programmes.

PROPULSION

the balance of the DDG 1000 power requirement is delivered by two 4MW auxiliary turbine generator (atG) sets, based on the compact Mt5S engine and developed (along with the genset control system) at the indianapolis facility of rolls-royce in the US. When propulsion is required, electrical current is switched to the advanced induction Motors that drive the two fixed-pitch propellers. Measuring 5.6m in diameter and weighing 26.3 tonnes, the propellers were designed by the US Navy and manufactured at the rolls-royce foundry in pascagoula, Mississippi. the ipS – or, more accurately, one half of the complete system – has already been put through its paces at the navy’s Land Based test Site in philadelphia, which is currently home to an MtG and an atG destined for the third ship, USS Lyndon B Johnson. a fuller picture of the system’s performance in the water will emerge after Zumwalt’s gensets are fired up for the first

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USS ZUMWALT (DDG 1000) : 610 fEET •LENGth : BEaM 80.7 fEET •DiSpLaCEMENt •(LoNg) ToNS : 15,610 : 30 kNoTS •SpEED •CrEW: 148

time on board in summer 2014. Sea trials will commence in 2015, with several rolls-royce specialists (including a gas turbine engineer, software engineer and propeller/ propulsion engineer) embarked in the ship. the navy’s decision to opt for an all-electric ipS (instead of a conventional power scheme with turbines and/or diesel engines driving the shafts mechanically via a gearbox) will pay off with efficiency savings over the long term, according to rolls-royce North america programme Executive, Neil pickard.

“Low-speed manoeuvring can be powered by just the atGs so it has the ability to be flexible across a broad power range,” he says. “higher speed operations can be conducted by the MtGs, while at full speed with weapons and systems

Above The daughters of Admiral Elmo Zumwalt christen the vessel.

Below left The Rolls-Royce MT30 gas turbine is the main power source.

Below centre and right DDG 1000 in dock and at sea.

operational you may need max output from atGs and MtGs. “it (the combined power system) provides much more flexibility to support any given operating mode compared to diesels, which require constant running and fairly constant power output with separate units needed for propulsion and ship services.” testing to date has been successful, although the ipS research and development is exposing the advanced nature of the systems. “this is a cutting-edge programme. there’s much more emphasis on software and computer control systems than we’ve ever seen in the past, and it’s presented us with some unique challenges.” the DDG 1000 programme is effectively a prototype for a variety of technologies, including, a total Ship Computing

Environment, a new vertical launch system for missiles, an integrated Undersea Warfare suite and an automated damage control system, as well as the 155mm advanced Gun System with its guided rocket-propelled munitions. “the things this ship can do are mind-blowing,” says Neil. “it’s a bridge between the traditional destroyer of the past and a new world of networked warfare. in some ways it’s a test platform for systems that will be incorporated into future classes of ship.

“Given the nature of what we’re doing, the relationship we’ve had with NaVSEa has been phenomenal. it feels like we’re all part of the same team. “i’ve been with rolls-royce for 25 years and for me personally, as an aerospace guy, i never thought ships could be anywhere near as exciting as planes. But working on DDG 1000 is a huge honour; nothing else has given me such a buzz.”

Author: Jon Rosamond is a defence journalist specialising in maritime topics, having edited Jane’s Navy International magazine and served as defence correspondent on The News, southern England’s biggest regional newspaper. * Railgun – a railgun is an electrically powered projectile launcher comprising a pair of parallel conducting rails. it can achieve much greater velocities than guns powered by conventional chemical propellants. * Hyper-velocity kinetic rounds – railguns can use kinetic energy rounds in place of explosive shells. the result is that railguns are long-range, high-energy weapons able to fire high-velocity projectiles three times as far as conventional guns.

the magazine ISSUE 141 29

Merlin magic TO DAWn OF DeRWenT

This is the second article in our series of ‘100 years of building aero engines at Rolls-Royce.’

I

nspired engineering during World War Two gave allied aircraft superior engine power and then helped deliver the biggest boost for aviation since the Wright brothers – jet propulsion.

In 1940, during some of the UK’s darkest days of the Second World War, two deeply significant developments in aero-engine technology began to make their mark on history. One created vital extra power while the other launched into service an entirely new type of power.

Since the declaration of war in 1939, Britain’s Royal Air Force had relied heavily on the Merlin engine, designed by Rolls-Royce primarily for air defence fighters. This V12 unit, exploiting

knowledge and experience gained with the Schneider Cup-winning Rolls-Royce R-engine, was developed as a private venture (designated PV12) and it gained lasting renown by powering both the Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire fighters to victory in the aerial Battle of Britain in 1940.

What made the Merlin special was the integrity of its design, resulting not only in a sturdy and reliable engine that could run continuously at high power and survive the harsh rigours of combat, but also that could handle significant enhancement and up-rating throughout the war

years without the need for major re-design. These initiatives delivered ever-increasing levels of power and enabled crucial gains in warplane payload, range and speed.

Rewards

At the outbreak of war, Merlin IIs and IIIs in service produced slightly more than 745KW (or 1,000 horsepower [hp]). Improvements in fuel and an intensive programme of mechanical development brought vital performance rewards and by 1945 Merlins were developing more than 1,490KW (2,000hp) and passing an endurance test at 1,953KW (2,620hp) – all with the same bore and stroke dimensions as the earliest PV12s.

But the biggest boost, literally, for the Merlin and its effect on the

Supermarine Spitfire

allies’ war efforts came in 1940, when technologies developed by a small team led by brilliant mathematician Dr (later Sir) Stanley Hooker began to deliver major improvements to the Merlin’s supercharger performance. Hooker and his team recognised the enormous potential of supercharger development and calculated Merlin power at 9,140m (30,000ft) could be doubled from 373KW (500hp) to 746KW

The Merlin was the power for many aircraft...

North American P-51 Mustang

30 rolls-royce.com

the magazine HISTORICAL

under licence by the Packard company in the United States.

“The Merlin was remarkable because no other engine type has approached its production run in numbers or operational scope,” states former Rolls-Royce engineer Alec Harvey-Bailey in his book The Merlin in perspective*.

By 1945, he adds, “the Merlin was instrumental in converting Rolls-Royce from what has been described as a brilliant sprat in the ocean of technology into a world contender in aero-engine manufacture.”

The Merlin was remarkable because no other engine type has approached its production run in numbers or operational scope.

(1,000hp) by going a step further and developing an innovative two-speed, two-stage supercharger that would force a significantly heavier charge of air-fuel mixture into the engine’s cylinders.

Initial air tests in 1940 in a modified Wellington bomber soon confirmed their forecast – and at once ernest Hives, the charismatic and far-sighted general manager of Rolls-Royce, decreed the new engine would be installed in a

Spitfire flying test bed.

And so, in 1941, the first Spitfire to be fitted with this new 954KW (1,280hp) Merlin 61 made its maiden flight, its performance transformed by the effects of the new supercharger. Soon the Spitfire IX, as it was called, entered RAF service, its fighting attitude upped by 3,048m (10,000ft) and its maximum speed by 113kph (70mph). This meant it could more than counter the threat of the

Hawker Hurricane

formidable new Focke-Wulf 190 to gain outright air superiority.

The new engine went into mass production, with many thousands built that also gave enormous performance boosts to P-51 Mustang fighters, Mosquito fighter-bombers and Lancaster heavy bombers throughout the course of the war. By the time Merlin production finally ceased in 1951, 170,000 Merlins of all marks had been built, 55,000 of them

Crucially, the Merlin also created within Rolls-Royce an unsurpassed storehouse of knowledge and service experience with high-performance superchargers. And when in 1940 Merlin supercharger guru Stanley Hooker met for the first time a young and intensely dedicated engineer named Frank Whittle, that knowledge and experience quickly began to establish an entirely new flight-path for

Avro Lancaster

the magazine ISSUE 141 31

The Derwent-powered Gloster Meteor was the first jet fighter to go into service with the RAF.

Rolls-Royce supercharger technology.

By 1940 Whittle, working with a tiny team, minimal facilities and scant financial, technical and official support, had achieved wonders by developing a working test-bench prototype of an entirely new form of aero engine – a gas turbine. At its heart was a centrifugal compressor, a design chosen and developed by Whittle as the least risky technology, partly because it drew on considerable experience with centrifugal compressors on piston engines.

with his work and soon urged his boss, Hives, to see it for himself.

The result is history: after a hesitant, uncertain early development phase, in 1943 Rolls-Royce took over responsibility for the Whittle jet engine, energising its transformation from the experimental stage to service-readiness in the shape of the W2B, destined to be installed in the first allied operational jet fighter (later named the Meteor).

Hooker, who had served as the liaison link between Rolls-Royce and

Impressed

Whittle’s company Power Jets since 1940, took charge of jet engine development from the start of 1943 and launched an ambitious technical drive to uprate the W2B from 1,600lb of thrust to 2,000lb.

Their efforts proved successful and this futuristic power unit entered production with a new name – the Derwent, which became the engine for virtually all the early Meteors entering service from 1944.

Striving for ever more power, Rolls-Royce began development of a 5,000lb thrust Whittle engine in 1943. named the nene, it ran successfully at

no compressor had ever been as big and powerful as that required for Whittle’s new engine. So Whittle, drawing on deep scientific understanding, had developed his own compressor.

Hooker, visiting Whittle’s basic workshop, was instantly impressed

The Avro Canadair C102, powered by the Derwent, brought the jet age to air travel.

32 rolls-royce.com

full thrust in late 1944. no application yet existed for the nene, then the most powerful jet engine in the world, but Hooker realised an exactly scaled-down version, sized to fit the Meteor engine nacelle, would easily surpass the Derwent 1 in power at 3,500lb of thrust. named the Derwent V, the newcomer quickly made the Meteor the most potent warplane in existence – and gained headlines worldwide when an RAF officer, Group Captain H J Watson,

set a new official world speed record at 975kph (606mph) in november 1945. Derwent Vs claimed another record the following year with 991kph (616mph), strengthening the belief held by many Rolls-Royce gas turbine pioneers since early in the war that the jet engine would empower the future of aviation.

Derwent V, like the Merlin before it, proved a great success in service and the Meteor was produced in its thousands to fly with the RAF and other air forces. The engine’s efficient and reliable centrifugal compressor, exploiting proven technologies from the Merlin’s two-stage, two-speed supercharger, reflected the broader success of the Rolls-Royce transition from piston to jet power.

From today’s perspective, the Derwent represents a historic ‘first’ for Rolls-Royce, linking back as it does to the early Whittle designs from the dawn of the jet age. The Derwent put Rolls-Royce firmly on the world gas turbine map and, like the Merlin before it, enhanced a reputation for matchless engineering excellence that maintains today, seven decades on. * Published by Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust

Author: John Hutchinson is an independent writer on a range of topics including technology.

He has worked in various corporate and media communication roles, never far from the leading-edge industry of aerospace.

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