^* The first Rolls-Royce engine to employ this kind of blade cooling, in the late 1960s, was the RB211, which proved to be so costly to develop that it brought the company to insolvency, and to its nationalization for seven years by the British government. One of the early problems came about from the use of carbon fiber blades for the main external fan. By regulation, these had to be tested for resistance to bird strikes. A cannon fired a five-pound chicken at the spinning blades, which, to universal dismay, promptly shattered into thousands of pieces. These blades were replaced eventually with compressor blades made of titanium, but this took time and money and, for a while, cost the company its livelihood.

However, the RB211 did eventually outperform its main American competitor, the Pratt and Whitney JT9D, used in early jumbo jets. NASA statistics show that, in the 1970s, the JT9D had an average of one engine shutdown per transatlantic flight, whereas the RB211 had one shutdown every ten crossings. It was fortunate the aircraft had four engines, and that the passengers never came to know.