TheRolls-Royce Spey (company designationsRB.163 andRB.168 andRB.183) is a low-bypassturbofan engine originally designed and manufactured byRolls-Royce that has been in widespread service for over 40 years. A co-development version of the Spey between Rolls-Royce andAllison in the 1960s is theAllison TF41.

Spey
An RB.168 Mk 202 Spey as fitted to theF-4K Phantom
Type	Turbofan
Manufacturer	Rolls-Royce Limited
First run	1964
Major applications	AMX International AMX BAC One-Eleven Fokker F28 Fellowship Blackburn Buccaneer McDonnell Douglas F-4K/M Phantom Xi'an JH-7
Number built	2,768
Variants	Allison TF41
Developed into	Rolls-Royce RB.183 Tay Rolls-Royce Marine Spey

Intended for the smaller civilianjet airliner market when it was being designed in the late 1950s, the Spey concept was also used in various military engines, and later as aturboshaft engine for ships known as theMarine Spey, and even as the basis for a new civilian line, theRolls-Royce RB.183 Tay.

Aviation versions of the base model Spey have accumulated over 50 million hours of flight time.^[1] In keeping with Rolls-Royce naming practices, the engine is named after theRiver Spey.

In 1954 Rolls-Royce introduced the first commercial bypass engine, theRolls-Royce Conway, with 17,500lbf (78 kN) of thrust aimed at what was then the "large end" of the market. This was far too large for smaller aircraft such as theSud Caravelle,BAC One-Eleven orHawker Siddeley Trident which were then under design. Rolls-Royce then started work on a smaller engine otherwise identical in design derived from the largerRB.140/141 Medway - which itself had been cancelled afterBritish European Airways (BEA) had demanded the downsizing of the Trident,^[2] theRB.163, using the same two-spool compressor arrangement and a smaller fan deliveringbypass ratios of about 0.64:1. Designed by a team under Frederick Morley,^[2] the first versions of what had become the 'Spey' entered service in 1964, powering both the 1-11 and Trident. Several versions with higher power ratings were delivered through the 1960s, but development was ended nearing the 1970s due to the introduction of engines with much higher bypass ratios, and thus better fuel economy.

In 1980, TurbomecanicaBucharest acquired the license for the Spey 512-14 DW version, which propelled the Romanian builtBAC One-Eleven aircraft (Rombac One-Eleven).^[3]

Spey-powered airliners remained in widespread service until the 1980s, when noise limitations in European airports forced them out of service.

In the late 1950s theSoviet Union started the development of theSverdlov-class cruisers that would put theRoyal Navy at serious risk. The Naval Air Warfare Division^[4] decided to counter this threat with a strike aircraft which would fly at very high speed at very low level. The winning design was theBlackburn Buccaneer.

The first version of the Buccaneer, the S.1 powered by thede Havilland Gyron Junior, was underpowered in certain scenarios, although not in maximum speed, and the engine was unreliable.^[5] The Spey was chosen in 1960 as a re-engining option to give more thrust for a Buccaneer Mk.2. It was also predicted to increase range by 80%.^[6] The engine was a militarized version of the BAC 1-11 Spey, and called theRB.168-1. The Buccaneer S.2 served into the 1990s.

A Spey derivative, designed and developed jointly by Rolls-Royce and Allison for theLTV A-7 Corsair II, was produced under licence in the United States as theTF41.

TheBritish versions of theMcDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II (designated Phantom FG.Mk.1 and FGR.Mk.2) replaced the 16,000 lb wet thrustJ79 turbojets with a pair of 20,515 lb wet thrust Spey 201 turbofans. These provided extra thrust for operation from smaller British aircraft carriers, and provided additional bleed air for the boundary layer control system for slower landing speeds. The air intake area was increased by twenty per cent, while the aft fuselage under the engines had to be redesigned. Compared to the original turbojets, the afterburning turbofans produced a ten and fifteen per cent improvement in combat radius and ferry range, respectively, and improved take-off, initial climb, and acceleration, but at the cost of a reduction in top speed because compressor outlet temperatures would be exceeded in an essentially subsonic civil design.^[7][8]

During its lifetime the Spey has achieved an impressive safety record. Its relatively low maintenance costs provide one of the major reasons it remained in service even when newer designs were available. With the need for a 10,000 to 15,000 lbf (44 to 67 kN) thrust class engine, with better specific fuel consumption and lower noise and emission levels, Rolls-Royce used Spey turbomachinery with a much larger fan to produce theRolls-Royce Tay.

A fully updated version of the military RB.168 was also built to power theAMX International AMX attack aircraft.

RB.141

RB.163-1

RB.163-2

RB.163-2W

RB.163 Mk.505-5

RB.163 Mk.505-14

RB.163 Mk.506-5

RB.163 Mk.506-14

RB.163 Mk.511-8

Gulfstream II andGulfstream III (USAF designationF113-RR-100 for the Gulfstream C-20)

RB.163 Mk.511-14

BAC One-Eleven

RB.163 Mk.512-14DW

BAC One-Eleven/Rombac One-Eleven

AR 963

(RB.163)Boeing 727 (proposed); it was to have been built under licence by Allison^[9][10]

RB.168-62

RB.168 Mk.101

(Military Spey)Blackburn Buccaneer S2

RB.168 Mk.202

(Military Spey)McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II modified F-4J for British service ("Phantom FG1"). (Surplus engines were purchased and used byRichard Noble for theThrust SSC land speed record car of 1997.)

RB.168 Mk.250

(Military Spey)Hawker Siddeley Nimrod MR1/MR2

RB.168 Mk.251

(Military Spey) Hawker Siddeley Nimrod R1 and AEW

RB.168 Mk.807

AMX International AMX, built under licence byFiatAvio

AR 168R

Joint development withAllison Engine Company for the TFX competition (won by thePratt & Whitney TF30^[11]

RB.183 Mk 555-15 Spey Junior

Fokker F28 Fellowship

WS-9 Qinling

Chinese license-produced version of the RB.168 Mk.202 manufactured by theXi'an Aero-Engine Corporation, which was exported in 1975 violating theCOCOM restrictions.^[12] It was used to power theXian JH-7 and JH-7A.^[13] An improvedWS-9A developing 97 kilonewtons (22,000 lb_f) of thrust is reportedly in development.^[13]

SM1A

Marinised Spey delivering 18,770 shp

SM1C

Marinised Spey delivering 26,150 shp

• AMX International AMX
• BAC One-Eleven/Rombac One-Eleven
• Blackburn Buccaneer
• Fokker F28 Fellowship
• Grumman Gulfstream II
• Gulfstream III
• Hawker Siddeley Nimrod MR1/R1/MR2/AEW3
• Hawker Siddeley Trident
• IML Addax
• McDonnell Douglas Phantom FG1/FGR2
• Xian JH-7
• ThrustSSC

Examples of the Rolls-Royce Spey are on public display at the:

• Beijing Air and Space Museum
• South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum
• Coventry Transport Museum
• Gatwick Aviation Museum
• Midland Air Museum
• Montrose Air Station Museum
• North East Land, Sea and Air Museums
• Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust
• Royal Air Force Museum Cosford
• Royal Air Force Museum London
• Yorkshire Air Museum
• East Midlands Aeropark

Data from^{[citation needed]}

• Type: Low bypass turbofan
• Length: 204.9 in (5204.4 mm)
• Diameter: 43.0 in (1092.2 mm)
• Dry weight: 4,093 lb (1856 kg)

• Compressor: axial flow, 5-stage LP, 12-stage HP
• Combustors: 10 can-annular combustion chambers
• Turbine: 2-stage LP, 2-stage HP

• Maximumthrust: Dry thrust: 12,140 lbf (54 kN);with reheat: 20,500 lbf (91.2 kN)
• Air mass flow: 204lb/sec (92.53 kg/s)
• Specific fuel consumption: 1.95 lb/(lbf·h) with afterburner, 0.63 lb/(lbf·h) at military thrust
• Thrust-to-weight ratio: 5:1

• ThrustSSC

Related development

• Allison TF41
• Rolls-Royce Marine Spey
• Rolls-Royce RB.183 Tay

Comparable engines

• Kuznetsov NK-8
• Pratt & Whitney JT8D
• Soloviev D-30

Related lists

• List of aircraft engines

• Gunston, Bill (2006).World Encyclopedia of Aero Engines, 5th Edition. Phoenix Mill, Gloucestershire, England, UK: Sutton Publishing Limited.ISBN 0-7509-4479-X.

• Rolls-Royce.com Spey page