World Water Speed Record boats don't have propellers any more! Modern-era record holders have all been powered by jet engines, which are much more efficient. Quicksilver has the biggest and most powerful engine ever installed in a World Water Speed Record challenger; its Rolls-Royce Spey Mk.101 turbofan develops 10,000 horsepower – more than a dozen Formula 1 racing cars running at full throttle. – A jet engine works by harnessing the forces of nature. It draws air through a series of rapidly rotating compressor blades, compacting it densely. Vapourised kerosene is injected into the compacted air, creating a combustible fuel/air mixture that is ignited, causing it to expand and accelerate rapidly through a further set of spinning blades as it exits the exhaust nozzle in a continuous column of thrust. The Rolls-Royce Spey was selected for Quicksilver by then-chief designer Ken Norris, who felt that high-speed stability would be enhanced if the craft was physically longer than previous water-speed contenders. The resulting larger, heavier craft would need more thrust than a Bluebird-sized craft to challenge record speeds in excess of 300 mph. Thus, Quicksilver has over twice the thrust of Donald Campbell’s boat; its Spey turbofan delivers 11,030 pounds (5,008 kilograms) of thrust, compared to Campbell's Bristol Siddeley Orpheus turbojet which generated 4,750 pounds (2,156 kilograms).
This cycle is self-sustaining, so the faster the engine goes, the more thrust is created.
The Mk. 101 version of the Spey was developed for the Buccaneer bomber – a sleek, swept-wing aircraft renowned for its scintillating low-level performance and immortalised as "The last all-British strike aircraft."
Roar power! ...
The Quicksilver team acquired this Buccaneer aircraft, complete with two Spey engines, as part of the project's development phase – underscoring our commitment to the Spey. This aircraft served in a unique role as an engine test-bed and support crew proficiency trainer, based at Bournemouth International Airport. In the capable hands of Quicksilver team members, it was carefully maintained and ground-run routinely to keep both engines in perfect working order. The maintenance regime included full-power engine tests, high-speed taxy runs and numerous systems checks.
SPEY: A PACE-SETTER ENGINE ON WATER, LAND AND AIR
After the Mk.101, produced for the Buccaneer, later versions of the Spey powered – and in many cases continue to power – a bewildering variety of aircraft and ships ... not to mention one very special car! Diversity of use and longevity of service are the hallmarks of a true classic – a great and versatile engine.
Nimrod MR2 and Nimrod R1 reconnaissance aircraft currently in service with the Royal Air Force have Spey engines. The Spey also powers the AMX Ghibli strike/trainer aircraft serving with the air arms of Italy and Brazil. Spey engines formerly powered BAC 1-11, Hawker Siddeley Trident and Fokker F28 Fellowship aircraft operated by airlines around the world, as well as McDonnell Douglas Phantom multi-role combat aircraft serving with the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy, and Grumman Gulfstream executive jets operating in the corporate sector.
In America, the Alison company built the Spey engine under licence as the TF-41-A, to power the Ling-Tempco-Vought Corsair II strike aircraft. And a licenced version built by the Chinese and known as the WS-9 Qin Ling powers the Xian JH-7 fighter-bomber (also known as the FBC-1 Flying Leopard).
Richard Noble's ThrustSSC car, in which Squadron Leader Andy Green set the current World Land Speed Record of 763mph in 1997 – and, in doing so, became the first to exceed the speed of sound on land – was, lest we forget, powered by a brace of Spey engines.
On water, too, the Spey has excelled. The Marine Spey, a turboshaft engine, is still produced today by Rolls-Royce and powers no fewer than seven ship classes, including the Royal Navy's Type 23 frigates, providing a power output of 19.5 MW. The Marine Spey incorporates technology from two other Rolls-Royce engines – the Tay and the RB211.
This picture shows a Quicksilver engine-test under way at Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground, Leicestershire, in April 2008. At that stage in the development programme, the Spey engine was installed on temporary mounting structures within the hull. It has since been fully installed.
Preparations for a series of full-power engine tests are now well advanced.
One of many unconventional features of Quicksilver is the way the engine is tilted, nose-up, within the hull. The angle of tilt is four degrees. This arrangement confers several important performance advantages. The lift force resulting from the engine tilt is negligible by comparison with the boat's 3.5 tonne weight. A compensatory four-degree kink in the jetpipe ensures that the thrust-line is restored to the horizontal.
A key part of optimising the Spey for ultra-high-speed marine use has been removing unnecessary weight from the 1.2-tonne engine. Several hundred kilograms have been pared away. Among the many modifications made to Quicksilver’s Spey in the interests of weight-saving was the removal of external ducting which diverted air to flow over the flight control surfaces when the engine was installed in an aircraft (to improve low-speed flight performance). In addition, most of the anti-icing system hardware has been deleted.
Many other small but important modifications to Quicksilver’s engine have been made to protect the environment and to aid ease-of-operation. These adaptations have included fitting a system of drain-pipes and catch-tanks beneath the engine to retain fluids discharged from the engine, so that these fluids do not enter the lake and cause pollution.
Another notable modification has been the re-routing of the oil replenishment system so that it can be accessed from above, rather than from underneath. The original oil filler-valve which was in use when the engine was installed in an aircraft becomes impossible to access once the engine is ensconced within the hull of the boat. Quicksilver's Graham Pool is seen using the revised system in the picture below.
Profile … propulsion specialist Graham Pool
Quicksilver’s propulsion system specialist is Graham Pool; a modest, self-effacing man with the quiet assurance of one with a lifetime’s experience in his chosen field. Graham served in senior engineering positions with Rolls-Royce for almost 40 years. He was the deputy service manager for the military Spey engine installed in Buccaneers and the British-built version of the Phantom, then was promoted to service manager for the Anglo-French Adour engine installed in Jaguar strike aircraft and Hawk trainer/strike aircraft, including the aircraft of the Red Arrows display team.
Graham's work in these two posts often took him beyond British shores, to America, Africa, the Middle East and the Far East.
When the military version of Spey was selected to power the United States Navy's Ling-Tempco-Vought A-7 Corsair II strike aircraft, Graham was a key member of the Rolls-Royce technical team which successfully brought this about.
Subsequently, Graham transferred to the civil-engine side of Rolls-Royce, to the sales department, with responsibility for Africa initially, then the Middle East, and then finally the Far East, where he played an important role in successful bids which led to several of China's major airlines placing large orders for airliners with British-built engines, rather than American. During this period, Graham and his wife Diana resided in Tokyo, Japan, for four years.
In the main, Graham's successes in China revolved around the equipping of Boeing 757s with the RB.211-535 turbofan. But Hong Kong proved fertile ground, too, with Cathay Pacific selecting the RB.211-524 for its Boeing 747s and Dragon Air purchasing the Trent turbofan for its Airbus fleet. There were also sales of the Tay turbofan to operators of the Fokker 100 medium-range airliner during this time, and Graham renewed his long relationship with the Spey with sales of those to owners of Gulfstream 2s, Gulfstream 3s and Gulfstream 4s.
In spite of his enduring relationship with aviation, Graham is no stranger to things nautical. After serving his apprenticeship at the outset of his career with Rolls-Royce, he chose a two-year stint as a ship's engineer in the Merchant Navy to the other obligatory alternative, National Service.
Graham lives close to the Quicksilver team’s HQ, in the village of Newton Solney, near Burton-upon-Trent. He joined the team in 2007.