Originally Posted by
ImbracableCrunk
Britain sold the USSR Nene engines with the promise that they wouldn't use them for military aircraft. Then sold them the blueprints.
Stalin: "What fool will sell us his secrets?"
And now we have Kim Jong Un and his nukes.
They also gave the Russians a guided tour of the Rolls Royce production facilities and the with the instructions to walk through the metal swarf to collect samples to be analysed later enabling Russia to learn the material recipes.
This history is correct but omits an important item. The British did indeed sell Rolls-Royce Nene engines to the Soviets in 1947, around which the USSR built the very successful Mig15 and -17. It is also true that the Soviet Union switched to their own version of the RR Nene engine in 1950. How they did it is not disclosed in this report.
They stole it. Although the British were willing to sell RR jet engines, the most advanced in the world at that time, they did not want to lose control over the technology to Russia by licensing the manufacture to them. So Stalin sent technicians to tour the RR factory at the invitation of the British.
The key to the engine, in addition to the design (which the Soviets could, as they so often did, disassemble items from the west and copy each part exactly), was the specification of the metal in the stator, rotor blades, case, etc. These were critical so that the engine did not destroy itself from the heat and extreme temperature it generated.
The Soviet guests wore soft rubber soled shoes when they toured the factory, and showed special interest in each workstation that made the critical parts, allowing the machinist's metal shavings to become embedded in their soft sole shoes. Each 'guest' collected samples from each workstation related to a specific part, and no others, so when they returned to their hotel, they collected the samples for analysis of the metal in Russia.
That is how they were able to replace the British engine with a 'Soviet developed model of the RR engine'. The UK would never had continued to sell Russia engines or parts if they ever became engaged in battle with the US, France or a former close ally.
This is only one of hundreds of stories of how Soviet industrial espionage keep them (nearly) up with the West...but in the end they could not sustain it. Star Wars overwhelmed them before it even got to the early development stages. God bless Ronald Reagan.
http://www.aviastar.org/air/russia/mig-15.php
..