Ruffles pushes Whittle's dream to the limit

Citation

(2002), "Ruffles pushes Whittle's dream to the limit", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 74 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2002.12774bab.056

Ruffles pushes Whittle's dream to the limit

Keywords: Rolls-Royce, Engineering, Aircraft

Philip Ruffles, the driving force behind Rolls- Royce's award-winning Trent engine, recently received the Royal Academy of Engineering's highest award – the Prince Philip Medal – in recognition of his exceptional contribution to engineering. HRH Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh, as The Academy's Senior Fellow, presented Philip with the solid gold medal at Buckingham Palace. The award is unique it is not made every year, but only to honour the greatest engineering advances.

Philip has recently retired as Engineering and Technology director of Rolls-Royce plc, having served over 40 years with the company. This award comes exactly ten years after jet engine pioneer Sir Frank Whittle won the Academy's first ever Prince Philip medal for his lifetime achievements in jet development. Rolls-Royce has since developed Frank Whittle's concepts to build some of the world's most powerful jet engines. The latest Trent engine turbines generate 200,000 horsepower, enough to power 3,000 family cars – one engine could suck all the air out of the Albert Hall in 30 seconds. Philip has played a key role throughout his career in the development of Rolls-Royce engines, notably the Trent family of engines, which have captured over half the global markets with variants powering the Airbus A330, A340 and the Boeing 777. He and his team won the Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Award in 1996 for their innovation and commercial success.

So what future does Philip Ruffles see for civil aircraft? "It will be driven by environmental concerns, " he says "by the need to reduce fuel consumption, noise and- emission levels. New regulations will demand a 50 per cent noise reduction over the next 20 years – we can achieve that. We'll also have to reduce carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides emissions in the upper atmosphere. But as well as improving engine design and aircraft architecture'' we could save fuel through better air traffic management – planes currently travel a lot further than they need to because of complex routing arrangements."

He does not rule out developing a supersonic business jet, although a new supersonic transport is very unlikely. "We could see a small supersonic jet for 8-14 passengers" he says. "Business people are prepared to pay a premium for faster travel and fractional ownership has really taken off in the executive jet class. But the economics won't support a second generation supersonic aircraft to succeed Concorde – you'd need to triple the capacity and double the range to carry 300 people over 6,000 miles. There are huge technical problems and not enough passengers prepared to pay the premium fare."

Philip does look forward to some exciting new aircraft concepts to save weight and improve fuel efficiency. "Take the 'flying wing' – that's very exciting – you could radically redesign the engine and even have the fan at the back instead of the front. We can also experiment with things like all-electric transmission instead of gearboxes and hydraulics to reduce the weight."