Comments by "Keit Hammleter" (@keithammleter3824) on "The British fighter that could exceed Mach 1 in a vertical climb" video.

There are some errors in this video. For example, at 1:34 the presenter states that "AN (ie one) (Rolls Royce) engine was sold to the Russians who reverse engineered it.." In fact, a number of Nene engines were sold to the Russians, together with a full set of technical drawings and parts specifications. The Russians did not need to reverse engineer an engine, as it was a full technology transfer contract. Its worth noting that at the time it was reasonable deal to do - Britain was bankrupt and needed all the foreign cash it could get, and the Nene was already obsolete. The Mig-15 the Russian-made Nenes were fitted to was successful not because of having a very good engine, it was because the Mig-15 was a very good aircraft design.
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@Hattonbank : I gave the facts. Look it up, under the Russian designation RD-45. The British prime minister Atlee approved the sale, upon recommendation by Minister for Trade Stafford Cripps. The contract, negotiated by Soviet engine leader Vladimir Klimov with Rolls Royce, was a technology transfer contract, sample engines plus all technical drawings and parts specifications. You haven't realised that such drawings and specifications have in themselves considerable value and were part of the price the USSR agreed to. The contract also required the USSR to pay a royalty fee on each engine they made. All up it meant Rolls Royce stood to gain a LOT of money. It happened that the Russians had some initial trouble making some parts - it took them a while to master certain metallurgical specifications, and ended up buying a total of 40 Nenes in order to meet their aircraft deadlines. It was subsequently discovered that the Russians ended up making perfomance improvements to the Nene/RD-45 and claimed this was a new model (VK-1 and VK-1F with afterburner) and thus no royalty need be paid. Worse (in a commercial sense), they did a similar technology transfer of the Nene design to China, who also put it into volume production, paying royalties to the USSR. All up, Rolls Royce estimated they were cheated out of 207 million pounds and tried to sue for it. They never got the money, only the amount specified in the contract for the sample Nenes, the drawings and specifications, and the royalties on the production of the initial RD-45's. It was the higher thrust VK-1's that ended up in volume production for fighters, not the Nene copies. You also need to realise that, at the time at any rate, the British Government didn't think it was selling jewels at all, and that judgment is probably valid. The Nene was at that time obsolete, offering a not very good performance with excessive fuel consumption. The Soviets were working on their own jet engine design after acquiring WW2 German knowhow, but were having trouble with it. It was cheaper to buy British knowhow, and they held Rolls Royce in high regard. As far as Rolls Royce was concerned, it was money for jam - a large bag of money for an engine they were otherwise unlikely to sell much of. If the British Government had blocked the sale, the Russians would have pushed ahead with their own design anyway, solved the problems, and ended up with a better engine. Don't forget, too, the the USSR had in operation a vast covert operation to pinch as much American aerospace drawings and specs as they could. Without the Nenes, they might have leapfrogged ahead with stolen American designs.
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