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92-506: TBF can refer to: Grumman TBF Avenger , a World War II torpedo bomber tert -Butyl formate , an organic chemical compound with molecular formula C 5 H 10 O 2 The Beat Fleet , Croatian rap group The Black Fish , an international marine conservation organisation Tingle's Balloon Fight , a game for the Nintendo DS To be fair, internet slang Token bucket filter ,

184-443: A gas turbine engine offered. Thus was born the idea to mate a turbine engine to a traditional propeller. Because gas turbines optimally spin at high speed, a turboprop features a gearbox to lower the speed of the shaft so that the propeller tips don't reach supersonic speeds. Often the turbines that drive the propeller are separate from the rest of the rotating components so that they can rotate at their own best speed (referred to as

276-524: A 30,000 ft (9,000 m) ceiling and a fully loaded range of 1,000 miles (1,600 km), it was better than any previous American torpedo bomber, and better than its Japanese counterpart, the obsolete Nakajima B5N "Kate". Later Avenger models carried radar equipment for the ASW and AEW roles. Escort carrier sailors referred to the TBF as the "turkey" because of its size and maneuverability in comparison to

368-769: A Fleet Air Arm Avenger shot down a Nakajima Ki-44 "Tojo" in low level combat over the jungle. Three Avengers were modified to carry the Highball "bouncing bomb" (given the new codename Tammany Hall), but when trials were unsuccessful, they were returned to standard configuration and passed to the Royal Navy. One hundred USN TBM-3Es were supplied to the Fleet Air Arm in 1953 under the US Mutual Defense Assistance Program . The aircraft were shipped from Norfolk , Virginia, many aboard

460-618: A better efficiency. A hybrid system as emergency back-up and for added power in take-off is offered for sale by Axter Aerospace, Madrid, Spain. Small multicopter UAVs are almost always powered by electric motors. Reaction engines generate the thrust to propel an aircraft by ejecting the exhaust gases at high velocity from the engine, the resultant reaction of forces driving the aircraft forwards. The most common reaction propulsion engines flown are turbojets, turbofans and rockets. Other types such as pulsejets , ramjets , scramjets and pulse detonation engines have also flown. In jet engines

552-419: A combustion section where fuel is added and ignited, one or more turbines that extract power from the expanding exhaust gases to drive the compressor, and an exhaust nozzle that accelerates the exhaust gases out the back of the engine to create thrust. When turbojets were introduced, the top speed of fighter aircraft equipped with them was at least 100 miles per hour faster than competing piston-driven aircraft. In

644-564: A common crankshaft. The vast majority of V engines are water-cooled. The V design provides a higher power-to-weight ratio than an inline engine, while still providing a small frontal area. Perhaps the most famous example of this design is the legendary Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, a 27-litre (1649 in ) 60° V12 engine used in, among others, the Spitfires that played a major role in the Battle of Britain . A horizontally opposed engine, also called

736-490: A cooling system into the air duct of a hydrogen jet engine permits greater fuel injection at high speed and obviates the need for the duct to be made of refractory or actively cooled materials. This greatly improves the thrust/weight ratio of the engine at high speed. It is thought that this design of engine could permit sufficient performance for antipodal flight at Mach 5, or even permit a single stage to orbit vehicle to be practical. The hybrid air-breathing SABRE rocket engine

828-440: A cylinder on the other side. Opposed, air-cooled four- and six-cylinder piston engines are by far the most common engines used in small general aviation aircraft requiring up to 400 horsepower (300 kW) per engine. Aircraft that require more than 400 horsepower (300 kW) per engine tend to be powered by turbine engines . An H configuration engine is essentially a pair of horizontally opposed engines placed together, with

920-408: A flat or boxer engine, has two banks of cylinders on opposite sides of a centrally located crankcase. The engine is either air-cooled or liquid-cooled, but air-cooled versions predominate. Opposed engines are mounted with the crankshaft horizontal in airplanes , but may be mounted with the crankshaft vertical in helicopters . Due to the cylinder layout, reciprocating forces tend to cancel, resulting in

1012-515: A former FPL Avenger on static display. An FPL Avenger that crashed in 1975 in southwestern New Brunswick was recovered and restored by a group of interested aviation enthusiasts and is currently on display at the Atlantic Canada Aviation Museum. FPL was still operating three Avengers in 2010 configured as water-bombers, and stationed at Miramichi Airport . One of these crashed just after takeoff on 23 April 2010, killing

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1104-572: A fraction of the cost of traditional engines. Such conversions first took place in the early 1970s; and as of 10 December 2006 the National Transportation Safety Board has only seven reports of incidents involving aircraft with Mazda engines, and none of these is of a failure due to design or manufacturing flaws. The most common combustion cycle for aero engines is the four-stroke with spark ignition. Two-stroke spark ignition has also been used for small engines, while

1196-407: A free-turbine engine). A turboprop is very efficient when operated within the realm of cruise speeds it was designed for, which is typically 200 to 400 mph (320 to 640 km/h). Turboshaft engines are used primarily for helicopters and auxiliary power units . A turboshaft engine is similar to a turboprop in principle, but in a turboprop the propeller is supported by the engine and the engine

1288-456: A handful of types are still in production. The last airliner that used turbojets was the Concorde , whose Mach 2 airspeed permitted the engine to be highly efficient. A turbofan engine is much the same as a turbojet, but with an enlarged fan at the front that provides thrust in much the same way as a ducted propeller , resulting in improved fuel efficiency . Though the fan creates thrust like

1380-473: A more powerful powerplant and wing hardpoints for drop tanks and rockets ). The dash-3 was the most numerous of the Avengers (with about 4,600 produced). However, most of the Avengers in service were dash-1s until near the end of the war in 1945. Besides the traditional surface role (torpedoing surface ships), Avengers claimed about 30 submarine kills, including the cargo submarine I-52 . They were one of

1472-493: A network flow control algorithm Total Batters Faced , a baseball statistic Turkish Basketball Federation Türkiye Bisiklet Federasyonu , the Turkish Cycling Federation Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title TBF . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to

1564-569: A peak pressure of 30 MPa (300 bar). Although engine weight increases by 30%, aircraft fuel consumption is reduced by 15%. Sponsored by the European Commission under Framework 7 project LEMCOTEC , Bauhaus Luftfahrt, MTU Aero Engines and GKN Aerospace presented the concept in 2015, raising the overall engine pressure ratio to over 100 for a 15.2% fuel burn reduction compared to 2025 engines. On multi-engine aircraft, engine positions are numbered from left to right from

1656-478: A piston-engine with two 10 piston banks without a high-pressure turbine, increasing efficiency with non-stationary isochoric - isobaric combustion for higher peak pressures and temperatures. The 11,200 lb (49.7 kN) engine could power a 50-seat regional jet . Its cruise TSFC would be 11.5 g/kN/s (0.406 lb/lbf/hr) for an overall engine efficiency of 48.2%, for a burner temperature of 1,700 K (1,430 °C), an overall pressure ratio of 38 and

1748-424: A propeller, the surrounding duct frees it from many of the restrictions that limit propeller performance. This operation is a more efficient way to provide thrust than simply using the jet nozzle alone, and turbofans are more efficient than propellers in the transsonic range of aircraft speeds and can operate in the supersonic realm. A turbofan typically has extra turbine stages to turn the fan. Turbofans were among

1840-425: A search for replacement fuels for general aviation aircraft a priority for pilots’ organizations. Turbine engines and aircraft diesel engines burn various grades of jet fuel . Jet fuel is a relatively less volatile petroleum derivative based on kerosene , but certified to strict aviation standards, with additional additives. Model aircraft typically use nitro engines (also known as "glow engines" due to

1932-549: A set of forward-pointing lights automatically adjusted to match the brightness of the sky. The planes therefore appeared as bright as the sky, rather than as dark shapes. The technology, a development of the Canadian navy's diffused lighting camouflage research, allowed an Avenger to advance to within 3,000 yards (2,700 m) before being seen. Many Avengers have survived into the 21st century working as spray-applicators and water-bombers throughout North America, particularly in

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2024-546: A shipment of more than 100 aircraft was sent to the Navy, arriving only a few hours after the three carriers quickly departed from Pearl Harbor , so most of them were too late to participate in the pivotal Battle of Midway . Six TBF-1s were present on Midway Island  – as part of VT-8 (Torpedo Squadron 8) – while the rest of the squadron flew Devastators from the aircraft carrier Hornet . Both types of torpedo bombers suffered heavy casualties. Out of

2116-454: A sloping glass canopy that was better suited for observation duties. The modified Avengers were designated AS 3 . A number of these aircraft were later fitted with a large magnetic anomaly detector (MAD) boom on the rear left side of the fuselage and were redesignated AS 3M . However, RCN leaders soon realized the Avenger's shortcomings as an ASW aircraft, and in 1954 they elected to replace

2208-404: A smooth running engine. Opposed-type engines have high power-to-weight ratios because they have a comparatively small, lightweight crankcase. In addition, the compact cylinder arrangement reduces the engine's frontal area and allows a streamlined installation that minimizes aerodynamic drag. These engines always have an even number of cylinders, since a cylinder on one side of the crankcase "opposes"

2300-533: Is a pre-cooled engine under development. At the April 2018 ILA Berlin Air Show , Munich -based research institute de:Bauhaus Luftfahrt presented a high-efficiency composite cycle engine for 2050, combining a geared turbofan with a piston engine core. The 2.87 m diameter, 16-blade fan gives a 33.7 ultra-high bypass ratio , driven by a geared low-pressure turbine but the high-pressure compressor drive comes from

2392-449: Is a twin-spool engine, allowing only two different speeds for the turbines. Pulsejets are mechanically simple devices that—in a repeating cycle—draw air through a no-return valve at the front of the engine into a combustion chamber and ignite it. The combustion forces the exhaust gases out the back of the engine. It produces power as a series of pulses rather than as a steady output, hence the name. The only application of this type of engine

2484-490: Is above and behind. In the Cessna 337 Skymaster , a push-pull twin-engine airplane, engine No. 1 is the one at the front of the fuselage, while engine No. 2 is aft of the cabin. Aircraft reciprocating (piston) engines are typically designed to run on aviation gasoline . Avgas has a higher octane rating than automotive gasoline to allow higher compression ratios , power output, and efficiency at higher altitudes. Currently

2576-583: Is an American World War II -era torpedo bomber developed initially for the United States Navy and Marine Corps , and eventually used by several air and naval aviation services around the world. The Avenger entered U.S. service in 1942, and first saw action during the Battle of Midway . Despite the loss of five of the six Avengers on its combat debut, it survived in service to become the most effective submarine killer and most widely-used torpedo bomber of World War II, sharing credit for sinking

2668-453: Is bolted to the airframe : in a turboshaft, the engine does not provide any direct physical support to the helicopter's rotors. The rotor is connected to a transmission which is bolted to the airframe, and the turboshaft engine drives the transmission. The distinction is seen by some as slim, as in some cases aircraft companies make both turboprop and turboshaft engines based on the same design. A number of electrically powered aircraft, such as

2760-400: Is located above the cylinders, it is called an inverted inline engine: this allows the propeller to be mounted high up to increase ground clearance, enabling shorter landing gear. The disadvantages of an inline engine include a poor power-to-weight ratio , because the crankcase and crankshaft are long and thus heavy. An in-line engine may be either air-cooled or liquid-cooled, but liquid-cooling

2852-720: Is more common because it is difficult to get enough air-flow to cool the rear cylinders directly. Inline engines were common in early aircraft; one was used in the Wright Flyer , the aircraft that made the first controlled powered flight. However, the inherent disadvantages of the design soon became apparent, and the inline design was abandoned, becoming a rarity in modern aviation. For other configurations of aviation inline engine, such as X-engines , U-engines , H-engines , etc., see Inline engine (aeronautics) . Cylinders in this engine are arranged in two in-line banks, typically tilted 60–90 degrees apart from each other and driving

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2944-400: Is not limited to engines with a single row of cylinders. This is typically to differentiate them from radial engines . A straight engine typically has an even number of cylinders, but there are instances of three- and five-cylinder engines. The greatest advantage of an inline engine is that it allows the aircraft to be designed with a low frontal area to minimize drag. If the engine crankshaft

3036-430: Is of lesser concern, rocket engines can be useful because they produce very large amounts of thrust and weigh very little. A rocket turbine engine is a combination of two types of propulsion engines: a liquid-propellant rocket and a turbine jet engine. Its power-to-weight ratio is a little higher than a regular jet engine, and works at higher altitudes. For very high supersonic/low hypersonic flight speeds, inserting

3128-536: The Distinguished Flying Cross . Another famous Avenger aviator was Paul Newman , who flew as a rear gunner. He had hoped to be accepted for pilot training, but did not qualify because he was color blind . Newman was on board the escort carrier USS  Hollandia roughly 500 mi (800 km) from Japan when the Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima . The Avenger

3220-808: The Eastern Solomons . Based on the carriers Saratoga and Enterprise , the 24 TBFs present were able to sink the Japanese light carrier Ryūjō and claim one dive bomber, at the cost of seven aircraft. The first major "prize" for the TBFs (which had been assigned the name "Avenger" in October 1941, before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor) was at the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in November 1942, when Marine Corps and Navy Avengers helped sink

3312-547: The F4F Wildcat fighters in the same airgroups. On the afternoon of 7 December 1941, Grumman held a ceremony to open a new manufacturing plant and display the new TBF to the public. Coincidentally, on that day, the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor , as Grumman soon found out. After the ceremony was over, the plant was quickly sealed off to guard against possible sabotage. By early June 1942,

3404-527: The QinetiQ Zephyr , have been designed since the 1960s. Some are used as military drones . In France in late 2007, a conventional light aircraft powered by an 18 kW electric motor using lithium polymer batteries was flown, covering more than 50 kilometers (31 mi), the first electric airplane to receive a certificate of airworthiness . On 18 May 2020, the Pipistrel E-811 was

3496-684: The Rutan Quickie . The single-rotor engine was put into a Chevvron motor glider and into the Schleicher ASH motor-gliders. After the demise of MidWest, all rights were sold to Diamond of Austria, who have since developed a MkII version of the engine. As a cost-effective alternative to certified aircraft engines some Wankel engines, removed from automobiles and converted to aviation use, have been fitted in homebuilt experimental aircraft . Mazda units with outputs ranging from 100 horsepower (75 kW) to 300 horsepower (220 kW) can be

3588-424: The gyroscopic effects of the heavy rotating engine produced handling problems in aircraft and the engines also consumed large amounts of oil since they used total loss lubrication, the oil being mixed with the fuel and ejected with the exhaust gases. Castor oil was used for lubrication, since it is not soluble in petrol, and the resultant fumes were nauseating to the pilots. Engine designers had always been aware of

3680-424: The oxygen necessary for fuel combustion comes from the air, while rockets carry an oxidizer (usually oxygen in some form) as part of the fuel load, permitting their use in space. A turbojet is a type of gas turbine engine that was originally developed for military fighters during World War II . A turbojet is the simplest of all aircraft gas turbines. It consists of a compressor to draw air in and compress it,

3772-710: The AS 3 with the Grumman S-2 Tracker , which offered longer range, greater load-carrying capacity for electronics and armament, and a second engine, a great safety benefit when flying long-range ASW patrols over frigid North Atlantic waters. As delivery of the new license-built CS2F Trackers began in 1957, the Avengers were shifted to training duties, and were officially retired in July 1960. TBM Avengers were used in wartime research into counter-illumination camouflage . The torpedo bombers were fitted with Yehudi lights ,

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3864-639: The Canadian province of New Brunswick . Forest Protection Limited (FPL) of Fredericton, New Brunswick , once owned and operated the largest civilian fleet of Avengers in the world. FPL began operating Avengers in 1958 after purchasing 12 surplus TBM-3E aircraft from the Royal Canadian Navy . Use of the Avenger fleet at FPL peaked in 1971 when 43 aircraft were in use as both water bombers and spray aircraft. The company sold three Avengers in 2004 (C-GFPS, C-GFPM, and C-GLEJ) to museums or private collectors. The Central New Brunswick Woodsmen's Museum has

3956-817: The Clerget 14F Diesel radial engine (1939) has the same power to weight ratio as a gasoline radial. Improvements in Diesel technology in automobiles (leading to much better power-weight ratios), the Diesel's much better fuel efficiency and the high relative taxation of AVGAS compared to Jet A1 in Europe have all seen a revival of interest in the use of diesels for aircraft. Thielert Aircraft Engines converted Mercedes Diesel automotive engines, certified them for aircraft use, and became an OEM provider to Diamond Aviation for their light twin. Financial problems have plagued Thielert, so Diamond's affiliate — Austro Engine — developed

4048-874: The French Navy in 1957–1958. The only other operator in World War II was the Royal New Zealand Air Force which used the type primarily as a bomber, equipping Nos. 30 and 31 Squadrons , with both operating from South Pacific island bases during 1944 in support of the Bougainville campaign . Some of the Avengers were later transferred to the British Pacific Fleet . In 1945, Avengers were involved in pioneering trials of aerial topdressing in New Zealand that led to

4140-663: The Japanese battleship Hiei , which had already been crippled the night before. After hundreds of the original TBF-1 models were built, the TBF-1C began production. The allotment of space for specialized internal and wing-mounted fuel tanks doubled the Avenger's range. By 1943, Grumman began to slowly phase out production of the Avenger to produce F6F Hellcat fighters, and the Eastern Aircraft Division of General Motors took over production, with these aircraft being designated TBM . The Eastern Aircraft plant

4232-550: The Japanese task force. Fighting 300 nmi (560 km) away from the fleet at the extreme end of their range, the group of Hellcats, TBF/TBMs, and dive bombers took many casualties. However, Avengers from the Independence -class aircraft carrier USS  Belleau Wood sank the light carrier Hiyō as their only major prize. Mitscher's gamble did not pay off as well as he had hoped. In June 1943, shortly before his 19th birthday, future-president, George H. W. Bush ,

4324-604: The Navy. Designed by Leroy Grumman , the first prototype was called the XTBF-1 . It was first flown on 7 August 1941. Although one of the first two prototypes crashed near Brentwood, New York , rapid production continued. To ease carrier storage concerns, simultaneously with the F4F-4 model of its Wildcat carrier fighter, Grumman designed the Avenger to also use the new Sto-Wing patented "compound angle" wing-folding mechanism, intended to maximize storage space on an aircraft carrier;

4416-879: The Rocky Mountain Wing in Grand Junction, Colorado; another with the Missouri Wing at St Charles Smartt Field; and their newest with the Capital Wing in Culpeper, Virginia. Each of these allow non-CAF members to ride in the aircraft for a Living History Flight Experience. Data from Jane's Fighting aircraft of World War II Armament data from Flight Journal.com General characteristics Performance Armament Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era Related lists Aircraft engine In commercial aviation

4508-643: The Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS  Perseus . The Avengers were fitted with British equipment by Scottish Aviation and delivered as the Avenger AS.4 to several FAA squadrons including No. 767, 814, 815, 820 and 824. The aircraft were replaced from 1954 by Fairey Gannets and were passed to squadrons of the Royal Naval Reserve including No. 1841 and 1844 until the RNR Air Branch was disbanded in 1957. The survivors were transferred to

4600-508: The US aeronautical research arm NACA used a complete Avenger in a comprehensive drag-reduction study in their large Langley wind tunnel . The Avenger was also used by the Royal Navy 's Fleet Air Arm , where it was initially known as the " Tarpon ". Initial test flights were carried out by British Admiralty test pilot Roy Sydney Baker-Falkner at RAF Boscombe Down . However, this name

4692-574: The Wankel engine has been used in motor gliders where the compactness, light weight, and smoothness are crucially important. The now-defunct Staverton-based firm MidWest designed and produced single- and twin-rotor aero engines, the MidWest AE series . These engines were developed from the motor in the Norton Classic motorcycle . The twin-rotor version was fitted into ARV Super2s and

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4784-573: The Wildcat's replacement, the F6F Hellcat , also employed this mechanism. The engine used was the twin-row Wright R-2600-20 Twin Cyclone fourteen-cylinder radial engine, which produced 1,900 horsepower (1,420 kW). There were three crew members: pilot, turret gunner and radioman/bombardier/ventral gunner. A single synchronized .30 caliber (7.62 mm) machine gun was mounted in

4876-587: The belly of the tail section, though he usually sat on a folding bench facing forward to operate the radio and to sight in bombing runs. Later models of the TBF/TBM omitted the cowl-mount synchronized 0.30 caliber (7.62 mm) gun, and replaced it with twin Browning AN/M2 0.50 caliber (12.7 mm) light-barrel guns, one in each wing outboard of the propeller arc, per pilots' requests for better forward firepower and increased strafing ability. There

4968-500: The compression-ignition diesel engine is seldom used. Starting in the 1930s attempts were made to produce a practical aircraft diesel engine . In general, Diesel engines are more reliable and much better suited to running for long periods of time at medium power settings. The lightweight alloys of the 1930s were not up to the task of handling the much higher compression ratios of diesel engines, so they generally had poor power-to-weight ratios and were uncommon for that reason, although

5060-593: The cylinders arranged evenly around the crankshaft, although some early engines, sometimes called semi-radials or fan configuration engines, had an uneven arrangement. The best known engine of this type is the Anzani engine, which was fitted to the Bleriot XI used for the first flight across the English Channel in 1909. This arrangement had the drawback of needing a heavy counterbalance for the crankshaft, but

5152-486: The cylinders in a circle around the crankcase, as in a radial engine, (see above), but the crankshaft is fixed to the airframe and the propeller is fixed to the engine case, so that the crankcase and cylinders rotate. The advantage of this arrangement is that a satisfactory flow of cooling air is maintained even at low airspeeds, retaining the weight advantage and simplicity of a conventional air-cooled engine without one of their major drawbacks. The first practical rotary engine

5244-581: The engine core is the bypass ratio. Low-bypass engines are preferred for military applications such as fighters due to high thrust-to-weight ratio, while high-bypass engines are preferred for civil use for good fuel efficiency and low noise. High-bypass turbofans are usually most efficient when the aircraft is traveling at 500 to 550 miles per hour (800 to 890 kilometres per hour), the cruise speed of most large airliners. Low-bypass turbofans can reach supersonic speeds, though normally only when fitted with afterburners . The term advanced technology engine refers to

5336-438: The engine works by having a coiled pipe in the combustion chamber that superheats the fuel (propane) before being injected into the air-fuel inlet. In the combustion chamber, the fuel/air mixture ignites and burns, creating thrust as it leaves through the exhaust pipe. Induction and compression of the fuel/air mixture is done both by the pressure of propane as it is injected, along with the sound waves created by combustion acting on

5428-415: The engine's heat-radiating surfaces to the air and tends to cancel reciprocating forces, radials tend to cool evenly and run smoothly. The lower cylinders, which are under the crankcase, may collect oil when the engine has been stopped for an extended period. If this oil is not cleared from the cylinders prior to starting the engine, serious damage due to hydrostatic lock may occur. Most radial engines have

5520-529: The establishment of an industry which markedly increased food production and efficiency in farming worldwide. Pilots of the Royal New Zealand Air Force 's No. 42 Squadron spread fertilizer from Avengers beside runways at Ohakea Air Base and provided a demonstration for farmers at Hood Aerodrome , Masterton, New Zealand. One of the primary postwar users of the Avenger was the Royal Canadian Navy , which obtained 125 former US Navy TBM-3E Avengers from 1950 to 1952 to replace their venerable Fairey Fireflies . By

5612-606: The first electric aircraft engine to be awarded a type certificate by EASA for use in general aviation . The E-811 powers the Pipistrel Velis Electro . Limited experiments with solar electric propulsion have been performed, notably the manned Solar Challenger and Solar Impulse and the unmanned NASA Pathfinder aircraft. Many big companies, such as Siemens, are developing high performance electric engines for aircraft use, also, SAE shows new developments in elements as pure Copper core electric motors with

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5704-399: The first engines to use multiple spools —concentric shafts that are free to rotate at their own speed—to let the engine react more quickly to changing power requirements. Turbofans are coarsely split into low-bypass and high-bypass categories. Bypass air flows through the fan, but around the jet core, not mixing with fuel and burning. The ratio of this air to the amount of air flowing through

5796-423: The inexperienced American pilots and lack of fighter cover were responsible for poor showing of US torpedo bombers, regardless of type. Later in the war, with growing American air superiority, better attack coordination and more veteran pilots, Avengers were able to play vital roles in the subsequent battles against Japanese surface forces. On 24 August 1942, the next major naval aircraft carrier battle occurred at

5888-497: The intake stacks. It was intended as a power plant for personal helicopters and compact aircraft such as Microlights. A few aircraft have used rocket engines for main thrust or attitude control, notably the Bell X-1 and North American X-15 . Rocket engines are not used for most aircraft as the energy and propellant efficiency is very poor, but have been employed for short bursts of speed and takeoff. Where fuel/propellant efficiency

5980-426: The intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=TBF&oldid=1238657755 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Grumman TBF Avenger The Grumman TBF Avenger (designated TBM for aircraft manufactured by General Motors )

6072-478: The major Western manufacturers of turbofan engines are Pratt & Whitney (a subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies ), General Electric , Rolls-Royce , and CFM International (a joint venture of Safran Aircraft Engines and General Electric). Russian manufacturers include the United Engine Corporation , Aviadvigatel and Klimov . Aeroengine Corporation of China was formed in 2016 with

6164-430: The many limitations of the rotary engine so when the static style engines became more reliable and gave better specific weights and fuel consumption, the days of the rotary engine were numbered. The Wankel is a type of rotary engine. The Wankel engine is about one half the weight and size of a traditional four-stroke cycle piston engine of equal power output, and much lower in complexity. In an aircraft application,

6256-462: The merger of several smaller companies. The largest manufacturer of turboprop engines for general aviation is Pratt & Whitney. General Electric announced in 2015 entrance into the market. In this section, for clarity, the term "inline engine" refers only to engines with a single row of cylinders, as used in automotive language, but in aviation terms, the phrase "inline engine" also covers V-type and opposed engines (as described below), and

6348-433: The modern generation of jet engines. The principle is that a turbine engine will function more efficiently if the various sets of turbines can revolve at their individual optimum speeds, instead of at the same speed. The true advanced technology engine has a triple spool, meaning that instead of having a single drive shaft, there are three, in order that the three sets of blades may revolve at different speeds. An interim state

6440-463: The most common Avgas is 100LL. This refers to the octane rating (100 octane) and the lead content (LL = low lead, relative to the historic levels of lead in pre-regulation Avgas). Refineries blend Avgas with tetraethyllead (TEL) to achieve these high octane ratings, a practice that governments no longer permit for gasoline intended for road vehicles. The shrinking supply of TEL and the possibility of environmental legislation banning its use have made

6532-536: The most effective sub-killers in the Pacific theater , as well as in the Atlantic, when escort carriers were finally available to escort Allied convoys. There, the Avengers contributed to the warding off of German U-boats while providing air cover for the convoys. After the " Marianas Turkey Shoot ", in which more than 250 Japanese aircraft were downed, Admiral Marc Mitscher ordered a 220-aircraft mission to find

6624-404: The new AE300 turbodiesel , also based on a Mercedes engine. Competing new Diesel engines may bring fuel efficiency and lead-free emissions to small aircraft, representing the biggest change in light aircraft engines in decades. While military fighters require very high speeds, many civil airplanes do not. Yet, civil aircraft designers wanted to benefit from the high power and low maintenance that

6716-430: The nose, a .50 caliber (12.7 mm) gun was mounted right next to the turret gunner's head in a rear-facing electrically powered turret, and a single 0.30 caliber (7.62 mm) hand-fired machine gun flexibly-mounted ventrally (under the tail), which was used to defend against enemy fighters attacking from below and to the rear. This gun was fired by the radioman/bombardier while standing up and bending over in

6808-626: The pilot. The last FPL Avenger was retired on 26 July 2012 and sold to the Shearwater Aviation Museum in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. There are several other Avengers, usually flying as warbirds in private collections around the world today. They are a popular airshow fixture in both flying and static displays. In 2020 the Commemorative Air Force (CAF) were flying three TBM Avengers with one based with

6900-483: The point of view of the pilot looking forward, so for example on a four-engine aircraft such as the Boeing 747 , engine No. 1 is on the left side, farthest from the fuselage, while engine No. 3 is on the right side nearest to the fuselage. In the case of the twin-engine English Electric Lightning , which has two fuselage-mounted jet engines one above the other, engine No. 1 is below and to the front of engine No. 2, which

6992-432: The power-to-weight ratio is very important, making the Wankel engine a good choice. Because the engine is typically constructed with an aluminium housing and a steel rotor, and aluminium expands more than steel when heated, a Wankel engine does not seize when overheated, unlike a piston engine. This is an important safety factor for aeronautical use. Considerable development of these designs started after World War II , but at

7084-554: The radios, allowing for a fourth passenger. The Avenger had a large bomb bay, allowing for one Bliss-Leavitt Mark 13 torpedo , a single 2,000-pound (907 kg) bomb, or up to four 500-pound (227 kg) bombs . The aircraft had overall ruggedness and stability, and pilots say it flew like a truck, for better or worse. With its good radio facilities, docile handling, and long range, the Grumman Avenger also made an ideal command aircraft for Commanders, Air Group (CAGs). With

7176-488: The six Avengers, five were shot down and the other returned heavily damaged with one of its gunners killed, and the other gunner and the pilot wounded. Author Gordon Prange posited in Miracle at Midway that the outdated Devastators (and lack of new aircraft) contributed somewhat to the lack of a complete victory at Midway (the four Japanese fleet carriers were sunk directly by dive bombers instead). Others pointed out that

7268-484: The super-battleships Yamato and Musashi and being credited for sinking 30 submarines. Greatly modified after the war, it remained in use until the 1960s. The Douglas TBD Devastator , the U.S. Navy's main torpedo bomber introduced in 1935, was obsolete by 1939. Bids were accepted from several companies, but Grumman's TBF design was selected as the replacement for the TBD and in April 1940 two prototypes were ordered by

7360-519: The time the Avengers were delivered, the RCN was shifting its primary focus to anti-submarine warfare (ASW), and the aircraft was rapidly becoming obsolete as an attack platform. Consequently, 98 of the RCN Avengers were fitted with an extensive number of novel ASW modifications, including radar , electronic countermeasures (ECM) equipment, and sonobuoys , and the upper ball turret was replaced with

7452-439: The time the aircraft industry favored the use of turbine engines. It was believed that turbojet or turboprop engines could power all aircraft, from the largest to smallest designs. The Wankel engine did not find many applications in aircraft, but was used by Mazda in a popular line of sports cars . The French company Citroën had developed Wankel powered RE-2  [ fr ] helicopter in 1970's. In modern times

7544-414: The two crankshafts geared together. This type of engine has one or more rows of cylinders arranged around a centrally located crankcase . Each row generally has an odd number of cylinders to produce smooth operation. A radial engine has only one crank throw per row and a relatively small crankcase, resulting in a favorable power-to-weight ratio . Because the cylinder arrangement exposes a large amount of

7636-399: The years after the war, the drawbacks of the turbojet gradually became apparent. Below about Mach 2, turbojets are very fuel inefficient and create tremendous amounts of noise. Early designs also respond very slowly to power changes, a fact that killed many experienced pilots when they attempted the transition to jets. These drawbacks eventually led to the downfall of the pure turbojet, and only

7728-554: Was commissioned as the youngest naval aviator at the time. Later, while flying a TBM with VT-51 (from USS  San Jacinto ), his Avenger was shot down on 2 September 1944 over the Pacific island of Chichi Jima . However, he released his payload and hit the radio tower target before being forced to bail out over water. Both of his crewmates died. He was rescued at sea by the American submarine USS  Finback . He later received

7820-560: Was later discontinued and the Avenger name used instead, as part of the process of the Fleet Air Arm universally adopting the U.S. Navy's names for American naval aircraft. The first 402 aircraft were known as Avenger Mk I, 334 TBM-1s from Grumman were called the Avenger Mk II, and 334 TBM-3 were designated the Mk III. An interesting kill by a Royal Navy Avenger was the destruction of a V-1 flying bomb on 9 July 1944. The much faster V-1

7912-523: Was located in Ewing , New Jersey. Grumman delivered a TBF-1, held together with sheet metal screws, so that the automotive engineers could disassemble it, one part at a time, and redesign the aircraft for automotive-style production. This aircraft was known as the "P-K Avenger" ("P-K" being an abbreviation for Parker-Kalon, manufacturer of sheet metal screws). Starting in mid-1944, the TBM-3 began production (with

8004-475: Was only one set of controls on the aircraft, and no direct access to the pilot's position existed from the rest of the aircraft's interior. The radio equipment was massive, especially by today's standards, and filled the length of the well-framed "greenhouse" canopy to the rear of the pilot. The radios were accessible for repair through a "tunnel" along the right hand side. Any Avengers that are still flying today usually have an additional rear-mounted seat in place of

8096-709: Was overtaking the Avenger when the Telegraphist Air Gunner in the dorsal turret, Leading Airman Fred Shirmer, fired at it from 700 yards (640 m). For this achievement, Shirmer was Mentioned in Dispatches , later being awarded the DSM for the 1945 Operation Meridian action at Palembang . In the January 1945 British carrier raid on the Soengei Gerong oil refinery during Operation Meridian ,

8188-572: Was the Gnome Omega designed by the Seguin brothers and first flown in 1909. Its relative reliability and good power to weight ratio changed aviation dramatically. Before the first World War most speed records were gained using Gnome-engined aircraft, and in the early years of the war rotary engines were dominant in aircraft types for which speed and agility were paramount. To increase power, engines with two rows of cylinders were built. However,

8280-479: Was the German unmanned V1 flying bomb of World War II . Though the same engines were also used experimentally for ersatz fighter aircraft, the extremely loud noise generated by the engines caused mechanical damage to the airframe that was sufficient to make the idea unworkable. The Gluhareff Pressure Jet (or tip jet) is a type of jet engine that, like a valveless pulsejet, has no moving parts. Having no moving parts,

8372-664: Was the type of torpedo bomber used during the sinking of the two Japanese "super battleships", with the US Navy having complete air superiority in both engagements: Musashi and Yamato . The postwar disappearance on 5 December 1945 of a flight of five American Avengers, known as Flight 19 , was later added to the Bermuda Triangle legend, first written about by Edward Van Winkle Jones in an Associated Press article published in September 1950. During World War II,

8464-487: Was used to avoid the spark plugs oiling up. In military aircraft designs, the large frontal area of the engine acted as an extra layer of armor for the pilot. Also air-cooled engines, without vulnerable radiators, are slightly less prone to battle damage, and on occasion would continue running even with one or more cylinders shot away. However, the large frontal area also resulted in an aircraft with an aerodynamically inefficient increased frontal area. Rotary engines have

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