Rolls Royce was founded in 1906 as a car producer but soon got into aeroengine production in 1915. In 1940 RR were impressed by the work of Frank Whittle and Power Jets and offered the use of RR facilities to Power Jets for the manufacture of some components.

Rolls Royce had realised that jet propulsion was the way forward and it also knew that Rover, who had the contract to mass produce the Power Jets W2B engine, had an acrimonious relationship with Frank Whittle. In 1942, Rolls Royce boss Ernest Hives and engineer Stanley Hooker met with Spencer Wilkes of Rover in a pub near the Rover factory at Barnoldswick. Wilkes expressed his frustration over the situation with Frank Whittle. Hives proposed that if he wanted to get out of that situation, RR would take over the Jet Engine factory at Barnoldswick and in exchange Rover could have RR's tank factory at Nottingham. The deal was sealed on a handshake and RR found themselves in the jet engine business.

Rolls Royce took over production of the W2B/23 which was renamed as the Welland and which flew in the Gloster Meteor. The W2B/26 which Rover had produced was developed further and configured with straight through combustion chambers and became known as the B37 Derwent I at 2000lbs thrust. The Derwent II, III and IV appeared in due course with thrust rising to 2450lbs. In October 1944 the 5000lb thrust Nene was first run and was still a direct descendant from the Derwent/Welland/W2B family. The Nene did not find a market in the UK but it was sold to Russia where it was built under licence. Later in a strange retrograde step, the Nene which was larger than the Derwent, was scaled down to fit in the Meteor and in this form was designated the Derwent V. In a separate development, a Dervent II was mated to a gearbox which drove a five bladed propeller to become the worlds first turboprop engine. This engine was know as the Trent, a name that was to grace a RR engine again some forty years later.

In 1945 the RB39 Clyde was produced. It was the first engine specifically designed as a turboprop and it was the first engine to feature both an axial flow and centrifugal compressor. It was also the first "twin spool" engine. 1945 also saw the start of the AJ 65 Avon series of engines which culminated in the Avon 300 series at 17,110lbs thrust.

In 1946 the RD53 Dart turboprop was launched and although this was a successful design which remained in production for many years and is still in service with some operators today, Rolls Royce failed to develop a replacement for this engine and eventually lost the market sector to other engine manufacturers.

The Conway engine was produced in 1954. This was a turbofan engine with a very low bypass ratio and it found limited applications in the Victor bomber, VC10 passenger aircraft as well as a small amount of Boeing 707 and McDonnell Douglas DC8 aircraft. The successful Spey family of engines which had both civil and military applications. The final development of the Spey was the re-fanned and higher bypass Tay engine with thrusts of up to 15,000lbs.

In 1966, the final stage of the consolidation of the British aeroengine industry took place when Rolls Royce and Bristol Siddely merged. Following the merger, Rolls Royce continued to produce the engine range from both companies. Integration was not total with both Derby and Bristol workers still maintaining old loyalties and this was to remain the case for some considerable time, albeit not to the same extent.

In 1961, studies had begun which would lead to the production of the mighty RB211 engine. The RB211 was to be an important engine for Rolls Royce but initially it came close to ruining the company. Problems with the "wide chord" fan design and other technical difficulties meant that the RB211 failed to gain certification for fitment to the new Lockheed L-1011 Tristar passenger aircraft. This led to Rolls Royce filing for bankruptcy in 1971 and being taken into public ownership.

Stanley Hooker came out of retirement to sort out the RB211's problems and it did finally gain certification, much to the relief of Rolls Royce and to Lockheed who also found themselves in difficulties as a result of the RB211's woes. Hooker them embarked on a total redesign of the RB211 for future versions and it was these variants which made the RB211 the class leading engine that it is today

By 1987 the RB211 had been developed to such an extent that it bore little resemblance to the original engine, save for the three spool layout which has remained throughout. When work began on the RB211-524L, a decision was taken to revert to the practice of naming Rolls Royce engines after rivers and the Rolls Royce Trent was born. The Trent is available in several versions, the biggest at the time of writing producing 102,000 lbs of thrust.

In the last thirty years, the cost of developing new engines has become prohibitively expensive and engine manufacturers have been forced to collaborate on joint projects. In the 60's Rolls Royce developed the Adour engine jointly with the French company, Turbomeca. The RB199 engine for the Tornado was developed jointly by RR, MTU and Fiat under the umbrella company "Turbo-Union". In the passenger engine market, RR teamed up with BMW and also formed the International Aero Engines consortium with Pratt & Whitney, JAEC (Japan), MTU (Germany), and Fiat to produce the V2500 engine series.

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