Rolls-Royce Limited increase its own production rates. By the late 1920s, aero engines made up most of Rolls-Royce's business. Henry Royce's last design was the Merlin aero engine, which was first flown in prototype form in 1935, although he had died in 1933. This was developed from the R engine, which had powered a record-breaking Supermarine S.6B seaplane to almost in the 1931 Schneider Trophy. The Merlin was a powerful supercharged V12 engine and was fitted into many World War II aircraft: the British Hawker Hurricane, Supermarine Spitfire, de Havilland Mosquito (twin-engine), Avro Lancaster (four-engine) (a development of the Avro Manchester with
Rolls-Royce Derwent Rolls-Royce Derwent The Rolls-Royce RB.37 Derwent is a 1940s British centrifugal compressor turbojet engine, the second Rolls-Royce jet engine to enter production. Essentially an improved version of the Rolls-Royce Welland, itself a renamed version of Frank Whittle's Power Jets W.2B, Rolls inherited the Derwent design from Rover when they took over their jet engine development in 1943. Performance over the Welland was somewhat increased and reliability dramatically improved, making the Derwent the chosen engine for the Gloster Meteor and many other post-World War II British jet designs. When Rover was selected for production of Whittle's designs in 1941 they set