Originally Posted by
widgeon
http://www.vc10.net/Files/BOAC_EngNews_3403_red.pdf
After watching the beeb doc on Rolls Royce I looked a little further into the Hyfil Blades that were one of the Major causes of the Bankruptcy . I had never realised that they had actually flown these blades on a smaller engine .I still find it hard to believe that such a great engineering company could not have foreseen that the anisotropic properties of unidirectional carbon might have been a problem .
The situation as I recall was a lot more complex. RR to that point had been reliant on military investment to fund the civil variations of its engines. That route was no longer available and to survive it had to take the gamble of capturing a good share of the American civil market. The 3 shaft hi-bypass engine with the light Hyfil blades offered a solution. The 3 shaft design only being possible with the computing power of an IBM360. Lockheed had no particularly good pedigree in civil aviation but needed to enter that arena for survival too.
The anisotropic properties of Hyfil meant that it could be layered as appropriate and as I recall there was a belief that issues would be resolved. Anyhow it is unlikely that any project would have got off the ground if the weight saving benefits could not be shown to be there.
Again from memory there was strong sense of belief that it suited a Conservative uk government to allow RR to go bankrupt and then rescue it rather than simply put finance into it because of the situation with the EU/Common Market.
It was all a long time ago, a job I loved but was only in for a short 3 years at the start of my working career before being put on the scrap heap - I still have the "Dear Sir or Madam" redundancy letter somewhere. But had the original decision to go ahead with Hyfil not been taken I doubt that RR would be the important player it now is.