The Rolls-Royce Olympus (originally the Bristol B.E.10 Olympus) was the world's first two-spool axial-flow turbojet aircraft engine, originally developed and produced by Bristol Aero Engines. First running in 1950, its initial use was as the powerplant of the Avro Vulcan V bomber. The design was further developed for supersonic performance as part of the BAC TSR-2 programme. Later it saw production as the Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593, the powerplant for Concorde SST. Versions of the engine were licenced to Curtiss-Wright in the USA as the TJ-32 or J67 (military designation) and the TJ-38 'Zephyr'. The Olympus was also developed with success as a marine and industrial gas turbine.
Bristol Aero Engines (formerly Bristol Engine Company) merged with Armstrong Siddeley Motors in 1959 to form Bristol Siddeley Engines Limited (BSEL) which in turn was taken over by Rolls-Royce in 1966.
As of 2012, the Olympus remains in service as both a marine and industrial gas turbine. It also powers the restored Avro Vulcan XH558.
Read more about Rolls-Royce Olympus: Second-generation Engines, TSR-2 Olympus Mk 320, Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593, Curtiss-Wright Derivatives, Proposed Aircraft Applications, Marine Propulsion, Industrial Power Generation, Exhibits On Display, Specifications Olympus 101
Famous quotes containing the word olympus:
“Could truth perhaps be a woman who has reasons for not permitting her reasons to be seen? Could her name perhaps be—to speak Greek—Baubo?... Oh, those Greeks! They understood how to live: to do that it is necessary to stop bravely at the surface, the fold, the skin, to adore the appearance, to believe in forms, in tones, in words, in the whole Olympus of appearance! Those Greeks were superficial—out of profundity!”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)