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 to M. Olley discussing the production of a 40mm gun versus aviation engines, and the potential loss of associated prints.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 170\4\ img070 | |
| Date | 31th October 1940 | |
| Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}2/ML. 31.10.40. M.Olley,Esq., Rolls Royce Incorporated., 2-261, General Motors Building, DETROIT. Dear Olley, Guns. (Your serial 224) The real story of the 40 mm. gun is that we should have been in quite big production over here now had not Lord Beaverbrook taken exception to Rolls Royce doing anything else but make aviation engines. I think he was quite justified insofar that we might have become distracted from the real job, on the other hand, I do believe that we could have got a lot of guns made without affecting our effort on the aviation engine output. In any case, the 40 mm. is not yet a fully developed automatic gun. When we have it functioning reliably as an automatic weapon and the Navy have proved that the rest of the parts stay put in service (they will have two or three hundred in operation by the middle of next year) somebody may decide that it is worthwhile going into big production with it, in which case they will possibly revive the idea of getting some bits made in the States. The prints listed in Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}/CTS.{C. Trot Salt - Carburation}10/JMS.24.7.40. and 27.40 were definitely despatched and must therefore have been torpedoed or censored. Yours sincerely, c. Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}/FJH.{Fred J. Hardy - Chief Dev. Engineer} | ||