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).
Copy of a report from a visit to the U.S.A. discussing developments in aero engines.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 179b\3\ img139 | |
| Date | 22th January 1933 | |
| ORIGINAL COPY OF REPORT RECEIVED FROM HA/LOV.{Mr Lovesey} IN U.S.A. DATED 22.1.33 To R.{Sir Henry Royce} from Ha/Lov.{Mr Lovesey} c. SS.{S. Smith} WOr.{Arthur Wormald - General Works Manager} c. RS.{Sir Henry Royce's Secretary} c. EU. Fl. c. Lr.{Mr Ellor} Lp.{Mr Lappin} Ha/Lov.{Mr Lovesey}S/ACE.4.2.33. U.S.A. On Jan. 18th I visited Washington, where Group Capt. Fiennes got me fixed up with the necessary permits from the War Dept. to visit Langley & Wright fields. While there I also visited Mr. G.{Mr Griffiths - Chief Accountant / Mr Gnapp} W. Lewis - Director of Aeronautical Research at the N.A.C.A. - and had an interesting talk with him. He said they were not very enthusiastic about the C.I. engine in the States, since they had started work on the direct injection engine. He said far more development work was being put into direct injection than C.I. and was of the opinion that direct injection would be the engine of two years time. They have been flying the Pratt & Whitney scheme for over a year on one of the Western Air lines with excellent results. Apparently some of these air lines suffer a lot from carb. freezing troubles in the winter time, and sometimes the ground temp. reaches -40º. He said the commercial air lines afforded them a vast amount of information and considered them a sort of serial test plant for their Military Development. The air cooled engines have the whole field to themselves and nothing is being done with water cooled in sizes under 800 HP. They are, however, developing large liquid cooled engines of the 800 to 1000 HP. size for flying boats. This is probably the new Curtiss I mentioned with new design of cylinder construction. Fuel development he says is responsible for the great progress of air cooled engines. They are not yet satisfied and hope to get even better service fuels. They expect to have fuels of 93 octane, but are not relying upon ethyl lead alone to give this. I saw an interesting extract from a report on the Air Estimates. The following question was asked in Congress | ||