Rolls-Royce Spey

The Rolls-Royce Spey is a low-bypass turbofan engine designed and built by Rolls-Royce that entered service in 1964, powering both the BAC One-Eleven and the Hawker Siddeley Trident. It was meant for the smaller end of the civil jet airliner market and was derived from the cancelled RB.141 Medway, using the same two-spool compressor arrangement as the larger Conway with a smaller fan that gave a bypass ratio of about 0.64 to 1. A militarised version, the RB.168, re-engined the Blackburn Buccaneer and went on to power the British Phantom FG1 and FGR2 and the Nimrod, while a version co-developed with Allison became the TF41 of the LTV A-7 Corsair II. The Spey also led to the Marine Spey shipboard turbine and, with a much larger fan, to the Tay. Spey-powered airliners stayed in widespread service until the 1980s, when noise limits at European airports forced them out, and the engine has accumulated over 50 million flight hours.