Charles Stewart Rolls

British automobile manufacturer and aviator

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Charles Stewart Rolls, cofounder of Rolls-Royce Ltd.

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:: Aug. 28, 1877, London, Eng.

:: July 12, 1910, Bournemouth, Hampshire

Charles Stewart Rollswas a British motorist, aviator, and automobile manufacturer who was one of the founders of the Rolls-Royce Ltd. automobile company. He was the first aviator to fly across the English Channel and back nonstop (June 1910).

Charles Stewart Rolls.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Rolls drove a 12-horsepower Panhard car in the Thousand Miles Trial of 1900 and took part in many of the early long-distance European classic races. In 1902 he became a motor dealer and in 1906 merged his firm with that of Sir Henry Royce to form Rolls-Royce Ltd. Rolls died in a flying accident, the first British pilot to do so.