Testing Times

Methods for testing aircraft engines have changed dramatically over the years for Rolls-Royce - almost as much as the engines themselves. This is the last installment of a three-part series on aircraft engine testing.

One key phrase that described the development of early aircraft engines was “trial and error.” However, what should have been most prominent was the single word “test.” Often it was not, as test work was invariably minimal and crude. “Build it, run it, fly it,” was the running phrase of the time, hardly a basis for precise mechanical monitoring nor an understanding of what might be going wrong and certainly bad for the pilot's health.

Said Mike Tudbury, General Manager - Operations Strategy, Rolls-Royce Derby, who has more than three decades of experience of test work: “With the Rolls-Royce Merlin developed in the 1930s, the basic questions were: Does it go? Does it produce the right sort of power at the right engine revolutions? And does it leak? Some early testing of production Merlins would just see simple oil pressure and temperature measurements before the engine was installed in a Spitfire, Hurricane, or Lancaster and flown. That was it.”