Rolls-Royce returns to roots
LONDON, England (CNN) -- The carmaker Rolls-Royce is celebrating its centenary at the very spot where the company was founded.
On May 4, 1904, Charles Rolls met Henry Royce at the Midland Hotel in Manchester, northern England, and the two men formed the world-famous company.
A hundred years on, the name Rolls-Royce is still a byword for luxury, elegance and innovation.
The first Rolls-Royce, a 10hp model, sold for £395 ($700). Today it is worth more than £250,000.
The impressive list of owners has included Muhammad Ali, John Lennon, Frank Sinatra, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling, Richard Burton, Cary Grant and Brigitte Bardot.
Even politicians as unlikely as Russia's Leonid Brezhnev and Lenin owned Rolls-Royces.
But the core market for the cars has always been the world's ruling families, from the British royal family to the Shah of Iran.
The Phantom IV, of which only 18 models were produced between 1950 and 1955, was sold only to royalty or heads of state.
To celebrate its centenary, the company is producing a new, exclusive model of which only 35 will be made.
The famous Spirit of Ecstasy mascot or hood (bonnet) ornament -- a young woman with arms stretched behind her and floating robe -- will be in solid silver and removable to avoid theft.
Power on land, water or air
Charles Stewart Rolls was the son of a wealthy British peer, with a Cambridge University degree in engineering and a passion for cars and flying.
He became Britain's first aircraft fatality in 1910, aged 32, when his biplane broke up and crashed during an air show in Bournemouth.
Frederick Henry Royce was of humbler birth, the son of a miller, a onetime railway apprentice who had built up his own business as a manufacturer of cranes and dynamos. He died aged 70 in 1933.
Beginning as a motor car manufacturer, the company developed its engineering capabilities to include engines for air and marine propulsion, as well as for energy applications.
 Jordanian Bedouin guards on camels beside vintage Rolls-Royce. |  |
The company's memorandum of association in 1906 referred to its aim to provide engines and vehicles "for use on land, or water, or in the air."
Rolls-Royce engines powered the fighter aircraft -- Spitfires and Hurricanes -- which won the Battle of Britain in 1940, and World War II bombers such as the Lancaster.
After merging in 1966 with Bristol Siddeley, the firm produced the Olympus, which powered Concorde and the Pegasus for the vertical take off and landing Harrier military aircraft.
Rolls-Royce engines equip many Airbus and Boeing planes, and its Trent motors will be used on the Airbus A380 jet and Boeing's planned 7E7 Dreamliner.
Engines bearing the famous RR logo also power the world's costliest, largest and heaviest cruise liner, the French-built Queen Mary 2.
Sir John Rose, Chief Executive of Rolls-Royce, said: "For 100 years we have powered the world's most advanced machines on land, at sea, and in the air, creating value for our customers over the lifetime of every engine.
"Today, gas turbine technology lies at the heart of the company; our engines are now so powerful that just one 10 centimeter turbine blade is capable of delivering the same power as a Formula 1 racing car."
Tuesday's celebrations are being jointly hosted by Rolls-Royce plc, which builds gas turbines for civil aerospace, defense, marine and energy systems, and Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Limited, now owned by the BMW Group.
