uring the later chapters of Palmer’s aviation story, Rolls-Royce established itself as a major manufacturer of airplane engines. Today, the company is leading the way and pushing the envelope.
When standing on the tee box, driver in hand, and the green of a short par four within reach, Arnold Palmer was always in his element. But Arnie was just as comfortable sitting in the pilot seat of a Cessna Citation X with his hand upon the aircraft’s thrust lever. Golf’s original King of Cool took his first flying lesson in 1956. Eight hours later he was piloting his own solo flight. That was the beginning of Palmer’s lifelong love affair with aviation, one that he shared with family and friends—some of whom also served as his biggest rivals on the course.
“In some ways Arnold approached his golf much like his flying,” Jack Nicklaus once said. “He was passionate, loved to go fast, and he had a fearlessness about him.”
Although outwardly cavalier, The King was serious about flying, so much so that in 1976, Palmer and two co-pilots maneuvered a Learjet 36 to a world record, flying it around the world in 57 hours, 25 minutes, and 42 seconds.
“I did it for the thrill, and it became a motivation to get a new airplane, which was promised when I finished it,” Palmer explained.
“I did it for the thrill, and it became a motivation to get a new airplane, which was promised when I finished it," Palmer explained.
New jets were a major thrill all their own for Arnie, and none provided more excitement than Palmer’s receipt of the first production Citation X, a plane that the late champion golfer actually had a hand in developing. According to Cessna’s President and COO, Charlie Johnson, Palmer influenced “the range of speed perimeters and the interior” of the X, which was equipped with a peerless Rolls-Royce AE 3007C engine.
Today, Rolls-Royce is continuing to elevate aviation, both with its Pearl family of engines (built at the company’s business aviation headquarters in Germany) and an upgraded iteration of the manufacturer’s comprehensive, fixed-cost engine maintenance plan for business aviation. At its core, that plan, CorporateCare Enhanced, offers consumers who own and/or fly their own planes peace of mind, in part through the transmission of engine data directly to the manufacturer. This means consumers can not only trust that their plane’s engines are operating as they should, they’ll know that the right information is shared anytime maintenance is needed. In fact, the latest Pearl engines are equipped with an engine vibration health monitoring unit (EVHMU), which provides instant access to more than 10,000 engine performance and health parameters with unprecedented levels of data quality.
“Business aircraft today operate in such a wide variety of conditions, and each condition impacts engine performance,” explains Andy Robinson, senior vice president of customers and services for Rolls-Royce Business Aviation. “We use that information to proactively identify potential engine issues so we can alert the operator—and solve those issues before they ground the aircraft.”
Such news would’ve been music to The King’s ears.
“If it had wings and an engine,” Russ Meyer, Cessna’s former CEO, once said, “Arnie would give it a try.”
If it had a Rolls-Royce Pearl engine equipped with an EVHMU, we’re certain Palmer would have loved it.
Produced in partnership with Rolls Royce Aviation
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