From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Letter discussing the design and manufacturing of the B-80 engine, with comparisons to other engines.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 124\2\ scan0220 | |
| Date | 10th August 1940 | |
| Copy of Oy9/D/Aug.10.40 - Serial No 199 1044 Copy No.14 Aero(GRIFFON) 2C Aero (Crankcase) 11 CARS (MISCELL:) Rolls-Royce Ltd, DERBY, England. August 10. 1940. Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}, Motor Cars. This acknowledges receipt of Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}2/ML.18.6.40 with attached wight analysis of B-80 engine and B-60 Continental chassis. This is the first opportunity I have had of looking at them. We have already written you a mass of stuff on the engine. It is a beautifully simplified design, but as I wrote you, needs more attention in getting continuous milled faces, without cutter obstructions, and in getting bores and faces mutually at right angles as far as possible. Walter Griswold has been in this morning, turning loose on the same sort of subject with regard to the Griffon drawings. For instance, reduction gear covers when plotted into the crankcase, have to be turned on a lathe, and the spigot does not want to stay round, or fit closely. Practice here is to slab-mill both cover and crankcase, set up cover on crankcase in a fixture with the bores in correct alignment, and then ream and insert two sizeable dowels through the flange. In case of replacement, use oversize dowels. The saving in machine cost is enormous. Also, increase in speed of production. The difference between a P.III and your B.80 engine, is the sort of difference I expect to see in liquid-cooled aero engines of 1940-41. We can see this tendency already in Ellor's pictures of the Griffon mock-up, but I bet Henry Ford's V-12 engine will go much further, and although it may be a failure at first, it will mark the beginning of a new chapter. OY. | ||