The Rolls-Royce Exe, or Boreas, was a 24-cylinder air-cooled X block sleeve valve

aircraft engine An aircraft engine, often referred to as an aero engine, is the power component of an aircraft propulsion system. Aircraft using power components are referred to as powered flight. Most aircraft engines are either piston engines or gas turbin ...

intended primarily for the new Fairey

Fleet Air Arm The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is the naval aviation component of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy (RN). The FAA is one of five :Fighting Arms of the Royal Navy, RN fighting arms. it is a primarily helicopter force, though also operating the Lockhee ...

aircraft, particularly the

Fairey Barracuda The Fairey Barracuda was a British carrier-borne torpedo and dive bomber designed by Fairey Aviation. It was the first aircraft of this type operated by the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy to be fabricated entirely from metal. The Barra ...

. The Exe was relatively powerful for its era, producing about . This is notable given the relatively small displacement, the

Merlin The Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) is an interferometer array of radio telescopes spread across England. The array is run from Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire by the University of Manchester on behalf of UK Re ...

requiring for approximately the same power level. The X-24 layout made this quite a compact engine. The Exe was named after the

River Exe The River Exe ( ) is a river in England that source (river), rises at Exe Head, near the village of Simonsbath, on Exmoor in Somerset, from the Bristol Channel coast, but flows more or less directly due south, so that most of its length lie ...

, although Rolls-Royce later transferred the use of river names to its

gas turbine A gas turbine or gas turbine engine is a type of Internal combustion engine#Continuous combustion, continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas gene ...

engines.

Design and development

The Exe was under development in 1939, having been started in the 1930s, along with the Peregrine and

Vulture A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on carrion. There are 23 extant species of vulture (including condors). Old World vultures include 16 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World vultures are restricted to Nort ...

. Work on the Exe was suspended in August 1939, and stopped about August 1940. Ernest Hives, head of the Rolls-Royce aero engine division, wanted to stop work on the Exe, Peregrine, and Vulture to concentrate on the Merlin and Griffon engines. An enlarged version, the Rolls-Royce Pennine, was built later in the war, but cancelled as

jet engine A jet engine is a type of reaction engine, discharging a fast-moving jet (fluid), jet of heated gas (usually air) that generates thrust by jet propulsion. While this broad definition may include Rocket engine, rocket, Pump-jet, water jet, and ...

s became the company's focus. Originally intended for the Supermarine Type 322 and

the Exe was only test flown in a

Fairey Battle The Fairey Battle is a British single-engine light bomber that was designed and manufactured by the Fairey Aviation Company. It was developed during the mid-1930s for the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a monoplane successor to the Hawker Hart and Ha ...

, the first flight taking place on 30 November 1938. This aircraft continued in use for some time as a communications aircraft where the Exe was noted to be quite reliable in service.Rubbra 1990, p.148.

Applications

(intended) *

(testbed) * Supermarine Type 322 (intended)

Specifications (Exe)

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Gunston, Bill. ''World Encyclopaedia of Aero Engines''. Cambridge, England. Patrick Stephens Limited, 1989. * Lloyd, Ian ''Rolls-Royce: The Merlin at War'' (1978, Macmillan London) * Lumsden, Alec. ''British Piston Engines and their Aircraft''. Marlborough, Wiltshire: Airlife Publishing, 2003. . * Pugh, Peter.''The Magic of a Name: The Rolls-Royce Story, The first 40 Years'' (2000, Icon Books Cambridge) * Rubbra, A.A. ''Rolls-Royce Piston Aero Engines - a designer remembers: Historical Series no 16'' :Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust, 1990.

External links

Photo of the Rolls-Royce Exe

in a 1948 issue of ''Flight'' {{RRaeroengines

Exe Exe or EXE may refer to: * .exe, a file extension * exe., abbreviation for Executive (disambiguation)#Role, title, or function, executive Places * River Exe, in England * Exe Estuary, in England * Exe Island, in Exeter, England Transportation a ...

1930s aircraft piston engines X engines