>>1248618The Bristol Aero Engine Corporation and later the Bristol Siddeley Engine Limited designed the Olympus engine to be the powerplant for strategic nuclear bombers. It was used first on the Avro Vulcan and later on the ill-fated BAC TSR-2. The TSR-2 was a supersonic design and used 2 Olympus engines to make it to Mach 2.
After the Labour victory in 1964, however, the overly bloated military budget was a key target for cuts, and the delayed and cost overrun TSR-2 was axed, with all aspects of the R&D ordered to be destroyed. Only 2 prototypes survived the cancellation, while the 1st prototype which flew was destroyed and burned. All the tooling was destroyed, all the plans and schematics were ordered to be burned as well.
This was apparently because the US government has persuaded the Labour government to buy the F-111 instead.
Later, Rolls Royce took over the engine industry in the UK, and they got all the patents to the Olympus as well, which was why BAC was interested in using the Olympus for Concorde, because they already had the experience of using it.
The big issue is that as ICBMs took over the nuclear age, strategic bombers stopped looking at supersonic performance and started looking at stealth. The development of large supersonic turbofans ceased and instead smaller ones for jet fighers were the popular choice. The big issue with "Boom" is that they're going to use civilianised jet fighter engines, which while they are turbofans, they're far less powerful than the Olympus engines were.
No one in their right mind will develop a supersonic capable turbofan that's large and powerful enough for a Concorde like aircraft, and the main reason is because there won't ever be the profitability from it. Even if the military suddenly needs that kind of engine again, civilianising it will be difficult, especially if it's made in the US (thanks to very strict export bans on many US military designs).
