Rolls-Royce Medway

Design and development

Designed by a team led by Alan Arnold Griffith, the RB.141 was originally designed to meet a new propulsion requirement for the de Havilland DH.121 airliner project which later became the Hawker Siddeley Trident. The engine was later named after the River Medway in line with Rolls-Royce company tradition for jet engines. The DH.121 itself was being designed to a requirement and specification from British European Airways issued in February 1958, and when this requirement was altered to that of a smaller aircraft, the Medway in its initial form was no longer needed.

As a considerable amount of company funds had already been spent on development, the project was continued to rework the design for another future aircraft project, the Armstrong Whitworth AW.681 VTOL military transport aircraft. The rear section of the engine was modified to incorporate an internal thrust deflector to duct exhaust gases through swivelling nozzles; an idea similar to that used on the contemporary Bristol Siddeley Pegasus. Cancellation of the AW.681 project however also brought to an end further development work on the Medway with attention turning to the smaller, but very closely related, Spey turbofan, the Spey being basically a scaled-down Medway incorporating more recent technical developments.

Another possible application for the Medway was the Saab 37 Viggen, but a lack of British government funding was stated as the reason for the cancellation of this order.

By December 1963 the Medway had successfully completed over 1,700 hours of bench running.

Variants

;RB.140

• 8000 lbf thrust, early development engine ;RB.141 Medway
• Variant for DH.121 airliner use ;RB.142 Medway
• Vectored thrust development for the AW.681. ;RB.174 Medway
• Advanced civil development ;RB.177 Medway
• Advanced military development of ~15,000 lb st dry, proposed for the Saab 37 Viggen

Projected applications

• Armstrong Whitworth AW.681
• Bristol Type 200
• de Havilland DH.121
• Saab 37 Viggen
• Sud Aviation Super Caravelle
• Vickers VC10

Specifications (RB.141-3 Medway)

and start a new, fully-formatted line with --

::Take-off: 17300 lbf ::Max Continuous: 16000 lbf

• Oil Consumption: 1.2 lb/h |power/weight= |thrust/weight=4.94

References

Notes

Bibliography

• Gunston, Bill. World Encyclopedia of Aero Engines. Cambridge, England. Patrick Stephens Limited, 1989.

References

1. Gunston 1989, p.151.
2. "havilland dh {{!}} rolls-royce today {{!}} pdf archive {{!}} 1967 {{!}} 2210 {{!}} Flight Archive".
3. [http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1963/1963%20-%202232.html Flightglobal archive - ''Flight'', December 1963] Retrieved: 19 July 2009
4. [http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1962/1962%20-%201015.html Flightglobal archive - ''Flight'', June 1962] Retrieved: 5 December 2012
5. Wilkinson, Paul H.. (1964). "Aircraft engines of the World 1964/65". Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons Ltd..