P.M. BRIEFING : Rolls Profit Soars on Jet Engines

British aircraft engine maker Rolls-Royce PLC, riding the crest of an unprecedented wave of new aircraft orders, said today that profits for the first half of 1989 soared by 60% over the same period last year.

In the first six months of 1989, Rolls-Royce reported pretax profits of $157.6 million compared with $98.3 million in the same period last year. Pretax profits for the whole of last year were $262 million.

Rolls-Royce Chairman Sir Francis Tombs said the company, whose engines power many of the world’s most popular commercial aircraft, has orders totaling more than $8.6 billion.