Rolls-Royce celebrates 116th year and re-opening of production

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars records another chapter in its long story in 2020, which on this day in 1904 that The Hon. Charles Rolls first met Henry Royce at the Midland Hotel, Manchester - an encounter after which the motor car, and the world of luxury, would never be the same again.

It is with a fitting sense of historical symmetry that production resumes at the Home of Rolls-Royce today, 4 May 2020, on the anniversary of Rolls first declaring of Royce that he has met the greatest engineer in the World.

Together, Rolls and Royce shared a vision to make the future of motoring extraordinary. His business partner, Claude Johnson, stepped into the role of Managing Director of Rolls and Royce's venture and expanded the fledgling company's reputation.

Though still in its infancy, Rolls-Royce endured in 1918 when the greatest pandemic of the 20^th Century, Spanish Flu, swept the world.

Over the years that followed, Rolls-Royce has withstood the shocks of economic and political crises at home and overseas, embodying calm and constancy in a tumultuous, uncertain world. The marque has always risen to every challenge with ingenuity, commitment, courage and solidarity, so while COVID-19 is possibly the biggest test Rolls-Royce has ever faced, it's certainly not the first. For the current generation of the Rolls-Royce family, working from home has been a new experience. For Sir Henry Royce, however, it was entirely normal.

Indeed, some of his most influential designs were produced in the private studio he maintained at his home, Elmstead, at West Wittering, just eight miles from the present-day manufacturing plant and global Head Office. Royce clearly found inspiration and creative energy in the peace, quiet and solitude that working away from the bustle of the office and factory provided.

Royce's home studio was also the birthplace of another, perhaps less storied engine that nevertheless occupies an important place in the annals of aviation achievement.

In 1919, his Eagle VIII provided the power for the first-ever transatlantic flight, from St John's, Newfoundland to County Galway in Ireland, by British adventurers Captain John Alcock and Lieutenant Arthur Brown. Rolls-Royce Motor Cars commemorated the centenary of their astonishing feat, and the engine that made it possible, in the spectacular Wraith Eagle VIII Collection Car, limited to just 50 examples, released in 2019.