Secret Rolls Royce engine dossier

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Darwinanne

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Hello - please delete if this isn’t appropriate. My father recently passed away and this dossier of RR pull-out drawings is now mine. Most of the drawings are marked 1944. Is this of any interest to this group?

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If you are offering it for sale, perhaps mention a price so you can judge interest level.
 
Looks right up our street. Have you considered approaching the IWM at Duxford? It may be of museum grade interest.
 
Hi,

OliverSedlacek said:
Have you considered approaching the IWM at Duxford? It may be of museum grade interest.
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There's also the Rolls Royce Heritage Trust: https://www.rolls-royce.com/about/heritage-trust.aspx

Maybe someone who has already dealt with historic "Secret" material might be able to clarify if under UK law, there's still some legal risk involved if the document has never been formally de-classified?

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)
 
HoHun said:
Hi,



There's also the Rolls Royce Heritage Trust: https://www.rolls-royce.com/about/heritage-trust.aspx

Maybe someone who has already dealt with historic "Secret" material might be able to clarify if under UK law, there's still some legal risk involved if the document has never been formally de-classified?

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)
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I would recommend quite strongly against giving it to either RRHT or IWM, with both organizations as they currently are there is a very good chance it will never be seen again by anyone. RRHT archives are closed with reopening happening at some totally unspecified point in the future which appears to be always six months from whenever I ask, and IWM duxford archives have been closed to the public for about 3 years, where its entirely possible the booklet would be sent.
 
Calum Douglas said:
I would recommend quite strongly against giving it to either RRHT or IWM, with both organizations as they currently are there is a very good chance it will never be seen again by anyone. RRHT archives are closed with reopening happening at some totally unspecified point in the future which appears to be always six months from whenever I ask, and IWM duxford archives have been closed to the public for about 3 years, where its entirely possible the booklet would be sent.
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I could not agree more with your comments.
 
Secret documents might still be secret? So long after the war? It amazes me that some think that such things were all released shortly after the war because more advanced everything suddenly became available. In some cases, apparently out of thin air. A significant portion of T-Force documents are still classified.
 
Foo Fighter said:
If you are offering it for sale, perhaps mention a price so you can judge interest level.
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Hello - no not looking to sell (now or future). Just curious whether the contents are of interest to anyone. Given its stamped ‘secret’ and the drawings are superb, I’m willing to share/scan/photo - purely curiosity it might be something of value contents wise.
 
I am pretty sure the contents would be of interest to many people here, depending on exactly what drawings and of which engines.

With any document marked 'Secret', no matter the age, you may find yourself in trouble if you tried to sell it, on Ebay for example. Eric Morgan got a police raid on his house after selling some WW2 photos marked as secret at an Aviation Fair. Better to keep it as a family memento.

Sad to hear about RRHT, the Bristol branch were super helpful when I was writing my P.1121 book.
 
overscan (PaulMM) said:
I am pretty sure the contents would be of interest to many people here, depending on exactly what drawings and of which engines.

With any document marked 'Secret', no matter the age, you may find yourself in trouble if you tried to sell it, on Ebay for example. Eric Morgan got a police raid on his house after selling some WW2 photos marked as secret at an Aviation Fair. Better to keep it as a family memento.

Sad to hear about RRHT, the Bristol branch were super helpful when I was writing my P.1121 book.
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I hope you don't mind my asking, but what were the Secret photos of?
 
edwest4 said:
I hope you don't mind my asking, but what were the Secret photos of?
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Didn't matter what the photos were of, all Mr Plod was interested in was the SECRET stamp on them.

Chris

PS Probably a Vickers Venom.
 
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Secret, Restricted, Confidential etc. etc. are essentially meaningless when taken out of context and they have/had different meanings dependant on who and which organisation used them. They are found commonly on a great many documents. I would consider it highly unlikely that the sale or copying of GA drawings from 1944 could be seen in any way as sensitive, so no need to expect a visit by Special Branch. Government papers, however, right or wrong, may still be protected.
 
The full deal on the Eric Morgan raid from Tony Buttler:

"In about 2000 the late Eric Morgan sold a small part of his archive, with the result that some WW2 flight test reports from Boscombe Down appeared on a book stall at an air show. These still had 'secret' written on them, plus also Eric's own name stamp. Despite having been declassified and freely available at Kew for some years, Special Branch visited Eric and took away his entire collection. I understand that they also gave the book seller a rough time. Eric never got his stuff back, and never really got over it (today most of it is in the BAE Systems Heritage Archive at Farnborough). I would urge all caution about passing on items that have 'secret' written on them, though giving them to an accredited archive like the National Aerospace Library should be OK.'
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Hi Paul,

overscan (PaulMM) said:
The full deal on the Eric Morgan raid from Tony Buttler:
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot! Do you happen to know if it was really only a simple "Secret" stamp in Eric's case, or was it something more official? I know WW2 German are often stamped "State Secret", probably to differentiate themselves from company classifications that might state "Secret" to, but only indicate trade secrets.

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)
 

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