ROVER IN BARLICK

[Stanley]

ROVER IN BARLICK

19 Feb 2005

(One of the useful research functions of the BET articles is the feedback I get. Here's some from a man called Harry Shuttleworth who took the time to write to me and gave new information.)
'Although I've seen a copy of the Vikings At Waterloo, I haven't a copy to check if this is a new view, but it may interest you, possibly being different to the official story on the Rover-Rolls transfer. History is written by the victors. 
My grandfather, Joe Drinkwater, was a senior Rover engine designer who came up to [Barlick to] work on the jet, and this is family version of the story, from memory of what he and my mum said. Rover had already been working on the jet in the ballroom the Chesford Grange Hotel, just outside Coventry. After the first big Coventry blitz it was decided to send them further afield. The facts are well known so I will mention the opinions of Joe and others from the Rover team. 
1. Rover were initially given the job because designing luxury cars was not needed in wartime and they were deemed to be a class engine company, while Rolls Royce were flat out making and improving the Merlins. 
2. Rover and Whittle did not get on, mainly because Whittle was impatient and a complete snob. Imagine him as an upper crust RAF Officer, sponsored through Cambridge at its most elitist, who was expected to work with these car engineers, they didn't even have degrees! How could they be trusted with anything! Rover did have many brilliant engineers though, and they had experience of making things that worked, unlike Frank who resented each development and success they had. (ie change from his specification) 
3. The engine as presented to Rover simply was not complete as the metallurgy was unknown (and failing), and there were design flaws. I remember my Mum saying that there was something about the layout which required the gases to double back which was causing a massive headache, and it was a drawing checker, the lowest of the low in a drawing office hierarchy, who suggested to put all the parts in line, finally achieving reliability and sufficient power. 
4. The Rover men’s version is that they had just redesigned this bit, solved other metallurgy problems, and made the thing work when Rolls took over and took all the credit. 
Whilst they resented carrying on as junior partners, they probably knew they would never succeed with Whittle. I might suggest they saw they would also be better off after the war without having had their design talent working on aero engines rather than automobile engines, though they stayed at Clitheroe until 1945. 
I hope this is of interest. Harry Shuttleworth'.

 Harry,  
It certainly is because it expands and confirms what is hinted at in Vikings from Waterloo. I have little doubt that everything you report is true. I have always been struck by the fact that it was Rover as part of British Leyland that tried to develop the gas turbine for automotive use. It wasn't successful in either cars or wagons but was a brave attempt. Perhaps they had never quite given up the idea of the purely rotary engine. Wankel got there in the end of course. Thanks for the info.  Can I post it on the site?
Best, S.

Stanley, Please feel free to use it in memory of the Rover men who did not quite get the credit. I always felt it was a typical British heroic failure (at least RR did make a success of it). I imagine it as potentially the most exciting engine design project of the century, done under adverse conditions, and if that was not enough, there was always the possibility that if there was a second Battle of Britain the jet could have been the winning technological edge that the Spitfire (and Radar) were in 1941. If success had arrived sooner Waterloo Mill [at Clitheroe] might now have the same reverence as Bletchley Park.
Enough for most engineers careers. Best regards, Harry.
PS. The Rover jet is not completely dead: Noel Penny Turbines are I believe still making small plane jets in Coventry. Noel was a Rover development engineer in the Jet Car era. Rover got their V8 design from Buick (part of GM) in a swap for Rover's Jet truck technology. Were they the precedent which made the US want to put jet turbines in their Abrams tanks? I don’t know if anyone else was doing jet powered trucks in the US, but if GM bought their technology, possibly not.

Thanks for that. It will go up today Harry. Best, S.
19 Feb 2005