The Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust: Eagle - Henry Royce's first aero engine

'Eagle - Henry Royce's first aero engine' by Derek S Taulbut\n\nPrior to the outbreak of World War One, Rolls-Royce concentrated on motor car production and turned down Charles Rolls' proposal to make aero engines due to worries of over-diversification so soon after the formation of the Company. Once war was declared, however, the Board were then placed in a difficult position over continued car production and while initially refusing to consider aero-engines, they were soon persuaded that the skills associated with luxury car manufacture could be readily applied to war work. Henry Royce was approached to consider a tender for a 200 hp aero engine offered up by the Royal Naval Air Service. His answer would be the Eagle and within weeks of the start of hostilities the first drawings were already on the drawing board for a V12, water-cooled engine. By the war's end the Eagle had almost doubled in power output and along with its stablemates the Falcon and Hawk, it ha.