Rolls-Royce to Sponsor Opening of the United
States' New National Air Museum
Rolls-Royce is sponsoring the gala opening of the United States'
new national air museum, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, on December
10. A companion facility to Washington's National Air & Space
Museum, the Udvar-Hazy Center is located on the edge of Dulles
Airport and will eventually house more than 330 aircraft and spacecraft,
including the Rolls-Royce-powered Concorde and the Boeing 367-80,
ancestor of all modern commercial jets. Other artifacts from Rolls-Royce
and its associated companies include a Napier Nomad, the most
fuel-efficient aircraft engine ever built. The opening takes place
a week before the centenary of the Wright brothers' first flight.
Rolls-Royce notes that the partnership of Sir Henry Royce and
Charles Rolls started in the following year-but tactfully refrains
from observing that it was a French-built Wright airplane which
ended their collaboration in 1910, when Rolls was killed in an
accident in Bournemouth.
