688.00 GBX +18.00 ABOUT CUSTOMERS INVESTORS SUSTAINABILITY CAREERS NEWS About Home | About | Our story | The Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust | Articles | RM60 world first The Grey Goose powered by the Rolls-Royce RM60 RM60 world first Sixty years ago the world’s pioneering gas turbine-powered ship went to sea, launching a revolution in naval vessel capability. Fittingly, the world’s first fully jet-powered ship sported dashingly good looks. HMS Grey Goose may have started life as a humble steam gunboat during World War Two, but when she ushered in the naval jet age exactly 60 years ago, her sharply-raked bow, her graceful form – like a miniature destroyer – and the exceptionally high speeds she could now attain, all pointed purposefully to a revolution in warship performance. Her story begins back in the dark wartime days of 1941, when Grey Goose was laid down as an early member of an advanced new class of steam gunboats with steel hulls and high-efficiency 8,000hp steam turbines. Their mission was to outpace and counter the significant dangers to allied shipping brought by fast marauding Schnellboote, or S-boats, of the German Navy. Fear Wartime secrecy saw Grey Goose and her counterparts – only six of which were built – described as ‘light coastal craft’. In reality they packed a mighty punch with a three-inch gun, torpedoes and depth-charges, while their 35 knot speed struck fear in Schnellboote crews. Grey Goose and her flotilla served throughout the war with venom and valour, repeatedly and effectively attacking heavily-defended enemy shipping. However the powerplants of Grey Goose and other fast ships were approaching the end of the road in development terms. Officials began to probe the potential of gas turbine power, which in 1941 had begun to make promising progress in the world of aviation. Prime among naval warship propulsion requirements are minimum weight and space, good thermal efficiency over a wide power range and maximum reliability and manoeuvrability. Rolls-Royce, already the world leader in gas turbine technology for aviation, approached the Admiralty to suggest a gas turbine would prove a suitable main propulsion unit for coastal craft. Talks soon led to proposals and to a development contract for an experimental 6,000hp naval gas turbine, known as the RM60. Behind closed doors in Derby, designers formally began detailed designs of the new experimental marine gas turbine on 1 January, 1948. Their work was highly classified and their progress methodical and thorough, leading to the first run of the prototype engine in June 1951. The Admiralty recognised the importance – and the potential prestige for Britain and the Royal Navy – of seeing this project through successfully. Likewise, after its first run in June 1951, Rolls-Royce put the RM60 through an unprecedented two thousand hours of intensive test-bed running in an effort to minimise the risk of technical troubles at sea. This caution was well merited because the RM60 introduced a high degree of technical complexity and innovation, much of it backed by knowledge and experience Rolls-Royce had already gained in aero gas turbines. Naval requirements called for economical low-power cruising, so the RM60 employed an exceptionally high pressure-ratio for the era, with intercooling between each major stage of compression and a heat exchanger to boost turbine power output and reduce fuel consumption. Complex, advanced and technically risky, the RM60 left many senior Admiralty staff doubting if it would ever work effectively at sea. But doubts swiftly dispersed in 1953 when Grey Goose first took to the sea in the hands of the main naval contractors, Vospers, with her steam turbine machinery replaced by two RM60s. With her new powerplant 50 per cent lighter, generating 35 per cent more power and taking up 25 per cent less space than her former steam turbine, the performance of Grey Goose in her new role as a pioneer floating test bed proved phenomenal. The world’s first vessel to be powered solely by gas turbine engines emphatically demonstrated the potential of this new technology, sporting rapid acceleration, quick throttle response, high maximum speed and excellent manoeuvrability. With senior naval commanders on board, Grey Goose fairly flew during trials. A British Pathe cinema newsreel of the day, filmed from a speedboat struggling to keep pace with the ship as she carves across the calm waters of the Solent off the south coast of the UK, captures the spirit splendidly: “Here she is approaching 50 knots – and she’s still not flat out!” enthuses the commentator. “Only the Navy and the backroom boys know her full performance, and they aren’t saying!” Grey Goose’s two RM60s – purely experimental powerplants operating in an entirely novel environment – proved remarkably efficient and reliable during four years of trials at sea, both by contractors and the Royal Navy. Earlier doubts over the usefulness of lightweight marine gas turbines at sea (with ‘lightweight’ associated in the minds of many conservative marine engineers with ‘short life’) gave way to a high degree of confidence in the technology, reflecting the wisdom of the thorough component and whole-engine test programme Rolls-Royce had conducted from the start of the RM60 project. Contribution Perhaps the greatest contribution made by the flying Grey Goose was the realisation that lightweight gas turbines could serve well beyond their original intended remit, that of powering coastal craft that needed good efficiency for economical cruising at low speeds and a quick-response high-speed capability. The complex but highly capable RM60s in Grey Goose suggested this new technology could master a much broader role, including that of main propulsion in larger ships. Sure enough, within a decade of the end of Grey Goose trials in 1957 the Royal Navy converted the frigate HMS Exmouth to gas turbines of increased technical maturity, to trial the main powerplant selected for new Type 82 destroyers. With one Olympus TM1 of 24,000shp for main propulsion plus two 3,500shp Proteus units for fuel-efficient cruising, Exmouth became the world’s first front-line major warship to depend wholly on gas turbine power. The world soon followed suit. Today, navies and their warships worldwide rely on modern gas turbine technology. Rolls-Royce, 60 years after the pioneering RM60 began life at sea, has evolved into a global force in marine propulsion and equipment technologies for defence and commercial applications. But what of the dashing Grey Goose? Beautifully converted, carefully berthed and renamed Anserava, she spends her retirement as a houseboat in a quiet estuary in Kent, south-east UK. With history ringing in her rivets. Our strategy Who we are Where we operate Our technology Our story Our brand Rolls-Royce history timeline The Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust Membership of the Heritage Trust Branches Articles RM60 world first 100 years of building aero engines The transformational Dart 80 years of the Rolls-Royce Merlin The Rolls-Royce Spitfire XIX PS853 Publications Heritage Trust events Contact the Trust Would you like to Work for us? 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