Rolls-Royce helps to boost science education know-how

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology

ISSN: 0002-2667

Article publication date: 1 February 2001

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Citation

(2001), "Rolls-Royce helps to boost science education know-how", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 73 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2001.12773aab.024

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2001, MCB UP Limited


Rolls-Royce helps to boost science education know-how

Rolls-Royce helps to boost science education know-how

Keywords: Rolls-Royce, Materials, Engineering, Education

Rolls-Royce plc informs us that it has sponsored two initiatives aimed at heightening the profile of materials technology in education.

The company supported raising standards in science education with a Materials Master Class for science teachers, the first part of which was held over two days recently in the School of Metallurgy and Materials at the University of Birmingham.

A total of 14 secondary school teachers from the UK's Midlands and South-West attended. They took part in workshops and demonstrations on various aspects of materials supported by specialists from both the University and Rolls-Royce. The group also discussed suggestions and plans for a Key Stage 4 course to be run in the subject later this year, as well as exploring the potential for careers in materials.

The teachers also attend the second part of the Master Class – a visit to Rolls-Royce in Derby. There they saw the headquarters of the company's large civil engines business and studied the role that materials technology plays in the highly-competitive world of commercial aviation.

The course was run in conjunction with the Worshipful Company of Armourers and Braziers, and is supported by the Institute of Materials and Institute of Physics.

Rolls-Royce also provided one of the prizes in the annual Science, Engineering and Technology Student of the Year awards, staged recently at the Guildhall in London.

Winner of the Rolls-Royce Award for the Best Materials Student was Nicola Cowan of Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. Joining a panel of three judges from the Institute of Materials was Rolls-Royce Director of Technology, Dr Steve Garwood, who also presented the awards.

These are two examples of the many activities Rolls-Royce undertakes in the area of educational liaison and academic support – for all ages. The company has just sponsored the British Association National Festival of Science, an annual series of lectures on scientific topics, and the broader festival for science and the arts, creating SPARKS.

Rolls-Royce also informs us that two of its apprentices have assembled two replicas of the world's first engine-driven aeroplane – the "Stringfellow's aircraft", which flew 66 feet inside a silk mill in Chard, Somerset, UK, in 1848.

One of the models flew at the end of 2000, while the other made its first public appearance in London in September, when it was displayed in Imperial College as part of the creating SPARKS festival.

All Rolls-Royce trainees, we are told, undertake a practical project during their training, but few have taken on such an unusual and challenging task as the Bristol-based Stringfellow group. Joining them in this endeavour were trainees from Electronic Data Systems, IT service provider to Rolls-Royce, who designed the dedicated Web site for the project.

One of the replica aircraft flew after testing in a hangar on the airfield adjacent to the Rolls-Royce factory in Filton, Bristol. The other is now serving as a permanent display on the same site at which the original aircraft flew.

The Rolls-Royce apprentices group visited the Science Museum in London, where facsimiles of both the aircraft and engine are on display. Here, they were able to check precise dimensions and materials before launching their project. The material woven between the wing struts had to be of a particular type of silk, and the small steam engine that powers the flying machine had to be replicated exactly.

The suggestion for the project came from Oliver Fisk, a Chard businessman who is developing the original site into a shopping arcade. He sent a letter to Rolls-Royce chairman Sir Ralph Robins in 1999, and the project has gathered momentum over several months as apprentices were selected to work on it.

The original aircraft, which was built by John Stringfellow, had a wing-span of ten feet. The historic flight in Chard 152 years ago – launched from a sloping wire – was followed by a later demonstration in a tent in Cremorne Gardens in London, when the ultra-light craft travelled 120 feet.

Rolls-Royce also reports that it marked the tenth anniversary of starting its University Technology Centre (UTC) with London's Imperial College with a special presentation by the company's most senior engineer, Director of Engineering and Technology Phil Ruffles, to Imperial College's Rolls-Royce UTC director Professor David Ewins.

This UTC, which specialises in vibration, receives substantial funding from Rolls-Royce to undertake specialist research into technologies that have a direct impact on future engine designs and improvements to the current engine range.

Led by Professor Ewins, the UTC comprises around ten full-time research staff and postgraduate research students working to the direction of Rolls-Royce. The company's coordinator is vibration specialist Jeff Green, who told us that: "The Centre also attracts typically a further ten to 12 researchers funded from other sources such as European technology programmes – carrying out research in similar engineering disciplines".

Research links with Professor Ewins' group at Imperial College date back to 1967, but it was 1990 before the formal agreement for the UTC was signed. It was the second Rolls-Royce UTC to be created. A total of 20 centres have now been established, undertaking a wide range of fundamental engineering research.

Phil Ruffles said, "University Technology Centres are a fundamental part of our research action. They not only provide us with well-equipped facilities and high calibre people to move our understanding forward in key engineering areas, but also offer meaningful research to top graduate and post-graduate engineering students, which ensures high quality within the pool of future engineers we ourselves will draw from."

There are four main strands of Rolls-Royce gas turbine research activity undertaken at the Imperial College UT – aero-elasticity, blade "mistuning", whole-engine dynamic, and model validation for rotor dynamics.

The UTC has provided a range of much-needed information in the area of vibration, and its work has made some significant breakthroughs. The major impact has been in influencing turbo-machinery blading design, particularly for fans and high-pressure turbines.

Details available from: Rolls-Royce plc. Tel: +44 (0) 1332 248389; Fax: +44 (0) 1332 248972; Web site: www.rolls-royce.com

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