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Rolls-Royce Conway 508

The Rolls-Royce RB.80 Conway was the first by-pass engine (or turbofan) to go into service in the world. The jet found only limited applications in the Handley Page Victor, the Vickers VC-10, the Boeing 707-420 and the Douglas DC-8-40. It started its flight development at Hucknall, Nottinghamshire. The Conway was developed and manufactured by Rolls-Royce. The name "Conway" is an Anglo-Saxon permutation of River Conwy, in Wales.

The Victor was also tested at Hucknall, together with the aircraft intake on one of the test beds. An Avro Vulcan was used to continue the development of the engine and also another new Rolls Royce engine, the Spey. The engines were located in the wing root of the Victor and in twin pods on either side of the rear fuselage of the VC-10.

The largest Conways built were the RCo.42 and 43 which powered the Super-VC10.

The Victor bomber was the only military application of the Conway engine. The contemporaneous V-bombers, the Valiant and Vulcan used the Rolls-Royce Avon and Bristol-Siddeley Olympus turbojet engines, and the infamous defence reviews under Duncan Sandys curtailed development of manned military aircraft in favour of ground-launched guided missiles. The engine also found few civilian applications, as most airlines (especially US airlines) preferred to use US-built engines, and the Americans later developed a counter to the Conway, the Pratt & Whitney JT3D, which was less noisy and had a lower fuel consumption.

For future civilian aircraft a completely new design of fuel efficient and low noise capability was required and so Rolls-Royce designed its first "big (high bypass) fan" engine, the Rolls-Royce RB211 - the development costs of which would force RR to the brink of collapse. Ironically it was a VC-10 that was used as the flying testbed for the RB211, No. 10 Squadron RAF VC10, XR809.