Did Winston Churchill praise Rolls-Royce engines?

Question

In 1919, the world's first non-stop trans-Atlantic flight happened, and Rolls-Royce engines provided the power to make it happen. Marking the 100th anniversary of the 20th-century milestone, Rolls-Royce crafted a limited-edition line of Wraith luxury cars with jaw-dropping nods to the flight. (source)

100 years ago, Alcock and Brown "made the first non-stop transatlantic flight." Rolls-Royce is now capitalizing on this historic event by producing 50 "Wraith Eagle VIII" cars. Featuring very prominently in the marketing is a quote by Winston Churchill, for example in the linked Rolls-Royce press release and at 0:57 of this Rolls-Royce Youtube video (emphasis added):

"I do not know what we should most admire - their audacity, determination, skill, science, their aeroplane, their Rolls-Royce engines - or their good fortune." — Winston Churchill

I am interested in whether Churchill actually mentioned Rolls-Royce engines specifically or if Rolls-Royce marketing is inventing this. Performing a Google Search for results before March 1, 2019 gives just 4 relevant results (here, here, here, and here), none of them particularly credible. Noticeably, The Daily Mail omits Rolls-Royce in there version of the quote:

‘I don’t know what we should admire most in our guests,’ [Churchill] said at the Savoy Hotel reception, ‘their audacity, their determination, their skill or their good fortune.’

Performing an unrestricted search gives many pages with the quote and the Rolls-Royce car such as MSN, Motor Authority, and Drive Tribe. This supports that Rolls-Royce has popularized the quote.

Is this quote properly attributed to Winston Churchill? Did he specifically mention "Rolls-Royce," as is mentioned in the Rolls-Royce versions of the quote?

Answer 1

There is no reason to doubt that Churchill explicitly mentioned Rolls-Royce in the context of the quote.

A Google Books search limited to books published before 1960 returns at least four publications that feature the Churchill quote including the Rolls-Royce reference:

• Jackson, G. G. (1930). The world's aeroplanes and airships, p. 173.
• IPC Transport Press Limited (1944). Flight International, p. 639.
• BBC (1954) London Calling, p. 12.
• Wallace, G. (1955). The Flight of Alcock & Brown, p. 302.

[…] their science, their Vickers-Vimy aeroplane, their Rolls-Royce engines – or their good fortune. All these were necessary – and all of them contributed […] The world's aeroplanes and airships

When one considers all the factors I really do not know what we should admire the most in our guests – their audacity, their determination, their skill, their science, their Vimy-Vickers aeroplane, their Rolls-Royce engines, or their good fortune. All these were necessary, and all of them contributed to their achievements, and to the event which has brought us all together here this afternoon, to cheer the victors of the first non-stop Atlantic flight. Flight International

"I do not know what we should admire the most," he said, "their audacity, their determination, their science, their skill, their Vickers Vimy aeroplane, their Rolls Royce engines, or their good fortune; for whatever we should admire most we are celebrating their stupendous achievement which has done as much as anything in history to add to man's growing understanding of the air." London Calling

Google Books doesn't show me the 1955 quote, and there are some differences in wording. However, all three quotes that I could check agree in that according to them, Churchill explicitly mentioned "Rolls-Royce engines".

[EDIT] As the comments reveal, the OP is a skeptical mind indeed who is not easily convinced that the whole quote is not a fabrication even though it is cited for instance in a BBC publication. Thus, he asked for a 1919 source that confirms that Churchill really praised the contribution of Rolls Royce to the first transatlantic flight. Personally, I was already happy with the Google Books results, but I did go the extra mile and checked the Times Digital Archive for their coverage of the event.

And indeed, I found a transcript of the speech that Churchill gave on occasion of the ceremony that awarded the Daily Mail price for the first direct flight across the Atlantic. The speech was published on Saturday, June 21, 1919 on page 7 (link may be pay-walled). As it is, the transcript is word for word identical to the quote printed in Flight International reproduced above. So, all this confirms that yes, Churchill did indeed praise a British engine manufacturer for their contribution in the first transatlantic flight (unless we are so much of an skeptic that not even this quote from 1919 can convince us that it's not made up). [END EDIT]

Incidentally, the name of the aircraft "Vickers Vimy" is also explicitly mentioned in these quotes, but it is missing in the plaque that is shown in the Rolls-Royce promotional video that you've linked.