Rolls-Royce Conway

The Rolls-Royce Conway was the first by-pass engine to go into service in the world. The jet found only limited applications, the Handley-Page Victor, the Vickers VC-10 and several Boeing 707s and Douglas DC-8s. It started its flight development at Hucknall, Nottinghamshire.

The Victor was also tested at Hucknall, together with the aircraft intake on one of the test beds. An Avro Vulcan was used to continue the development of the engine and also another new Rolls Royce engine, the Spey. The engines were located in the wing root of the Victor and in twin pods on either side of the rear fuselage of the VC-10.

The largest Conways built were the RCo.42 and 43 which powered the Super-VC10.

An engine of this size had very high fuel consumption (not fitting neatly with airline economics.) Noise levels were also a problem for the civil aircraft powered by Conway so a compete new design of fuel efficient and low noise capability was required and so the first "fan" engine was designed, the Rolls-Royce RB211. Ironically it was a VC-10 that was used as the flying testbed for the RB211, RAF 10 Squadron VC10, XR809.

Engine Variants

  Variant          Rel.Thrust     Aircraft

  RCo.11           1.00         Victor B.2

  RCo.12 Mk 508    1.01                707   With thrust reverser

  RCo.12 Mk 508A   1.04                707   Uprated Mk 508

  RCo.12 Mk 509    1.01               DC-8

  RCo.12 Mk 509A   1.04               DC-8   Uprated Mk 509

  RCo.17           1.19         Victor B.2

  RCo.42 Mk 540    1.18              VC-10

  RCo.43 Mk 301    1.26              VC-10   Military VC-10

RCo.43 Mk 550 1.26 Super VC-10 8-stage LPC

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