Customer Reviews

The Rolls-Royce Crecy (Historical)

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England was the country which used the sleeve-valve concept to its full extent during WW2, developing famous and reliable aero engines such as the Bristol Hercules and some mechanicaly challenging as the Napier Sabre. Rolls-Royce also tried to build sleeve-valve engines, but their development never reached production stage, and we only know well their great poppet valve engines, like the Merlin and the Griffon. Actually, the Crecy project went much further than the other engine builders ever tried to go: it's a two-stroke, blower scavenged, stratified charge, petrol (gasoline) directly injected, open-ended sleeve-valve V12 engine. Just this short description shows how far they were experimenting when the turbine came to the scene.
This book contains some very interesting challenges that british engineers faced, and some promises that were never fulfilled due to the dawn of the turbine era. This is a "must read" book for anyone interested in engine development, try it!

One of the best of the RR historical series, and continues in the vein of talking about the people, the ideas and the engine itself. This engine was either a lemon or a glimpse at an astonishing possibility that never came out into the light of day.
The book gives you a sense of the times, the urgency and the pressures.