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45-584: The Tu-14 had its origin in the three-engined '73' design which used a pair of Rolls-Royce Nene turbojets under the wings and a single Rolls-Royce Derwent V in the tail, in an installation much like that of the central engine of a Boeing 727 . The availability of the Klimov VK-1 , a more-powerful version of the Nene, allowed the RD-500 , Soviet version of Derwent, to be deleted from the preliminary design, which

90-516: A quick calculation and announced, "We've got a 600-mph [970 km/h] Meteor". Drawings for the 0.855 scale Nene, now known as the Derwent V, were started on 1 January 1945 and on 7 June the engine began a 100-hour test at 2,600 lbf (12 kN), soon reaching 3,500 lbf (16 kN). Weight was 1,250 lb (570 kg). By 1946 thrust had been increased to 4,200 lbf (19 kN) using Nimonic 90 turbine blades. The development of

135-578: A redesigned and larger 5,000 lbf (22.2 kN) thrust engine known as the Rolls-Royce Nene . The Nene was such an advance over the Derwent that Derwent development effectively ended. The Nene was, however, larger in diameter and so could not fit into the nacelles of the Meteor. The next Derwent version, the Derwent Mk.V , was instead produced by scaling down the new Nene to the diameter of

180-482: Is generated with the same fuel flow. It was during the design of the Nene that Rolls decided to give their engines numbers as well as names, with the Welland and Derwent keeping their original Rover models, B/23 and B/26 . It was later decided that these model designations looked too much like RAF bomber designations (i.e. " English Electric Canberra B.Mk 2 " would often be shortened to " Canberra B.2 "), and "R"

225-489: Is vital. Earlier, in 1940 , Stanley Hooker of Rolls-Royce had met with Whittle and later introduced him to Ernest Hives . Rolls-Royce had a fully developed supercharger division, directed by Hooker, which was naturally suited to jet engine work. Hives agreed to supply key parts to help the project along. Eventually, by mutual agreement between the Minister of Aircraft Production and the boards of Rover and Rolls-Royce,

270-657: The Gloster Meteor proved so successful with its Derwents that the Air Ministry felt there was no pressing need to improve upon it. Instead a series of much more capable designs using the Rolls-Royce Avon were studied, and the Nene generally languished. A total of twenty-five Nenes were sold to the Soviet Union as a gesture of goodwill - with reservation to not use for military purposes - with

315-492: The OKB designation of "89". The conversion was fairly minor and involved an unpressurized central cabin that housed two automatic pivoting cameras, two fuel tanks and another camera fitted in the bomb bay and another camera for oblique photography was mounted in the aircraft's tail for the daylight photography role. All cameras and their viewports were electrically heated to prevent misting and icing at altitude. For night photography,

360-790: The axial-flow Avon that followed it. Its only widespread use in the UK was in the Hawker Sea Hawk and the Supermarine Attacker . In the US it was built under licence as the Pratt & Whitney J42 , and it powered the Grumman F9F Panther . Its most widespread use was in the form of the Klimov VK-1 , a reverse-engineered , modified and enlarged version which produced around 6,000 lbf (27 kN) of thrust, and powered

405-412: The Derwent but also eliminated cracking. Other design advances included nine new low pressure-drop/high efficiency combustion chambers developed by Lucas and a small impeller for rear bearing and turbine disc cooling. The first engine start was attempted on 27 October 1944. A number of snags delayed the run until nearly midnight, when with almost the entire day and night shift staff watching, an attempt

450-471: The Nene under licence as the Hispano-Suiza Nene , with limited production before concentrating on the larger Rolls-Royce Tay/Hispano-Suiza Verdon . Data from Related development Related lists Rolls-Royce Derwent The Rolls-Royce RB.37 Derwent is a 1940s British centrifugal compressor turbojet engine, the second Rolls-Royce jet engine to enter production. It

495-554: The Nene was continued with this scaled-down version, the Derwent V having no direct relationship to the earlier Derwent series. On 7 November 1945, the first official air speed record by a jet aircraft was set by a Meteor F.3 of 606 miles per hour (975 km/h) powered by the scaled-down Nene. The Nene doubled the thrust of the earlier generation engines, with early versions providing about 5,000 lbf (22.2 kN), but remained generally similar in most ways. This should have suggested that it would be widely used in various designs, but

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540-482: The Nene were undertaken in an Avro Lancastrian operated by Rolls-Royce from their Hucknall airfield. The two outboard Rolls-Royce Merlins were replaced by the jet engine. The Nene's first flight however was in a modified Lockheed XP-80 Shooting Star . After seeing the Nene running, at an after work drink at the Swan & Royal Hotel , Clitheroe , and hearing the complaints about a lack of any official application for

585-718: The Rover jet factory at Barnoldswick was exchanged for the Rolls-Royce Meteor tank engine factory in Nottingham. Lombard was retained as supervising engineer and went on to become the chief engineer of the Aero Engine Division of Rolls-Royce. Subsequent Rolls-Royce jet engines would be designated in an "RB" series, the /26 Derwent becoming the RB.26. Problems were soon ironed out, and the original /23 design

630-542: The Russian built Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 , a highly successful fighter aircraft which was produced in vast numbers. An uprated version of the Nene was produced as the Rolls-Royce Tay . The Nene was designed as a result of a June 1944 visit to the US by Stanley Hooker . He discovered that General Electric already had two engine types running, an axial and a centrifugal, of 4,000 lbf (18 kN) thrust. He

675-739: The agreement of Stafford Cripps . Rolls-Royce were given permission in September 1946 to sell 10 Nene engines to the USSR, and in March 1947 to sell a further 15. The price was fixed under a commercial contract. A total of 55 jet engines were sold to the Soviets in 1947. Seventeen Soviet engineers trained at the Rolls-Royce factory in Derby in 1947 to maintain and repair the engine. The Soviets reneged on

720-420: The arrangement was not working; Whittle was constantly frustrated by what he was seeing as Rover's inability to deliver production-quality parts for a test engine and became increasingly vocal about his complaints. Likewise, Rover was losing interest in the project after the delays and constant harassment from Power Jets in the critical testing process stage, where testing new designs and materials to breaking point

765-434: The corner". However they were made from thin sheet metal and often broke damaging the engine. For Hooker they were a worrying mechanical problem which he did not want so they were not fitted when the Derwent entered service, although the turbine had to run 90 degC hotter to give the take-off thrust of 2,000 lb. He was still concerned with the durability of the vanes so the first Nene was initially built without them. The Nene

810-470: The design of an engine with this configuration. The design was done in secret and was sanctioned by the Ministry of Aircraft Production (MAP) but Whittle believed all effort should have been directed towards flight testing of the reverse-flow engine. While work at Barnoldswick continued on what was now known as the W.2B/23 , Lombard's new design became the W.2B/26 . . By 1941 it was obvious to all that

855-469: The early Meteors except a small number of Welland-equipped models which were quickly removed from service. The Mk.II was also modified with a cropped impeller (turbine unchanged) and a reduction gearbox driving a five-bladed propeller. It was called the Rolls-Royce RB.50 Trent and was the first turboprop to fly. Two were installed in a Meteor I. The basic Derwent concept was also used to produce

900-405: The engine was running hotter than expected and would not reach 5,000 lb, as it was built, without overheating the turbine. Pearson, the performance engineer, insisted that no more running be done without fitting the guide vanes that were available for the impeller intake. Upon Hooker's arrival next morning, and informed that the inlet vanes had been fitted during the night, Hooker was overjoyed to see

945-420: The engine, someone - thought to be Whittle - suggested that the Nene be scaled-down to fit a Meteor nacelle. J.P. Herriot or Lombard did the calculation on a tablecloth and announced a thrust of 3,650 lbf (16.2 kN). At this time they were attempting to increase the Derwent's thrust from 2,200 to 2,450 lbf (9.8 to 10.9 kN), and the idea seemed "too good to be true". On hearing this, Hooker did

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990-427: The fuel in the combustion chamber. The igniter had to be close enough to the fuel spray to ignite it when starting, but not overheat when subjected to the continuous flame temperature when the engine was running. The larger diameter of the Nene combustion chambers found this to be a problem, and the first-run needed to ignite with a flame rather than the spark energy that was considered sufficient at that time. The Nene

1035-575: The fuel tanks and camera in the bomb bay were removed and a variety of flash bombs were carried to illuminate the targets. In addition, the screen of the PSBN-M navigation radar could be photographed by a special camera and both the pilot and navigator could record their own observations using a voice recorder. However, the VVS had already decided to use the Il-28R reconnaissance version of the standard Il-28 by

1080-589: The fuselage nose, but the design of the fuselage was changed to give the gunner his own separate pressurized compartment and a KDU-81 tail turret armed with another pair of NR-23 guns. Construction of the prototype began in August 1949, using components from the canceled Tu-73S prototypes, and was completed in October. The manufacturer's tests were conducted between 13 October 1949 and 21 January 1950. Its State acceptance trials lasted from 23 January to 27 May 1950 and it

1125-484: The previous Derwent, specifically for use on the Meteor. Several Derwents and Nenes were sold to the Soviet Union by the then Labour government , causing a major political row, as the Nene was the most powerful production turbojet in the world at the time. The Soviets promptly reverse engineered the Derwent V and produced their own unlicensed version, the Klimov RD-500 . The Nene was reverse-engineered to form

1170-540: The promise to not use it for military purposes, and reverse engineered the Nene to develop the Klimov RD-45 , and a larger version, the Klimov VK-1 , which soon appeared in various Soviet fighters including Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 . Pratt & Whitney acquired a licence to produce the Nene as the Pratt & Whitney J42 , and it powered the Grumman F9F Panther which first flew in November 1947. The Nene

1215-578: The propulsion unit for the famous MiG-15 jet fighter. The Derwent Mk.V was also used on the Canadian Avro Jetliner , but this was not put into production. On 7 November 1945, a Meteor powered by the Derwent V set a world air speed record of 606 mph (975 km/h) TAS . An unusual application of the Derwent V was to propel the former paddle steamer PS  Lucy Ashton . The 1888 ship had her steam machinery removed and replaced by four Derwents in 1950–1951. The purpose of this

1260-460: The thrust gauge needle registering 5,000 lbf (22 kN) at the same temperature that had only given 4,000 lb the previous night, making the B.41 the highest thrust jet engine in the world. Weight was around 1,600 lb (730 kg). Inlet guide vanes had been in use in Whittle engines for some time. They improve the overall performance of the engine significantly by "helping the air round

1305-422: The time that the "89" first flew on 23 March 1951 and Tupolev decided not to submit it for State acceptance trials. Data from Gunston, Bill (1995). Tupolev Aircraft Since 1922 General characteristics Performance Armament Avionics PSBN-M navigation radar Rolls-Royce Nene The Rolls-Royce RB.41 Nene is a 1940s British centrifugal compressor turbojet engine. The Nene

1350-446: Was 28.8 inches (73 cm) in diameter, compared to 20.68 in (52.5 cm) for the Derwent I, to produce an airflow of 80 lb/s (36 kg/s), while the overall diameter of the engine was 49.5 inches (126 cm). A scaled up Derwent of the same thrust would have had a 60-inch (150 cm) diameter. The compressor casing was based on Whittle's Type 16 W.2/500 compressor case which was more aerodynamically efficient than that on

1395-643: Was a complete redesign, rather than a scaled-up Rolls-Royce Derwent , with a design target of 5,000  lbf (22 kN), making it the most powerful engine of its era. First run in 1944, it was Rolls-Royce 's third jet engine to enter production, and first ran less than 6 months from the start of design. It was named after the River Nene in keeping with the company's tradition of naming its jet engines after rivers. The design saw relatively little use in British aircraft designs, being passed over in favour of

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1440-552: Was accepted for production, provided that the problems with the KDU-81 turret were resolved and that ejection seats were provided for the pilot and gunner, a hot air deicing was to be fitted and the gun mount in the nose revised. The first five preproduction aircraft did not incorporate these changes as they were built using Tu-73S components, after the factory in Irkutsk had prematurely begun production of that bomber. One of these

1485-580: Was added to the front, the "R" signifying "Rolls" and the original Rover "B" signifying Barnoldswick . This RB designation scheme continued into the late 20th Century, with turbofan designs such as the RB.199 , RB.203 and RB.211 ; the most recent family of Rolls-Royce turbofans (a development of the RB.211) goes under the simple designation " Rolls-Royce Trent ", with variants given their own designator number or letter series (i.e. Trent 500 , Trent 900 , Trent 1000 , Trent XWB , etc.). Early airborne tests of

1530-583: Was also aware of the potential of a more efficient design that removed the Power Jets' "folded" layout with a straight-through airflow. It would also simplify production. This layout had already been used by Whittle in his drawings of the W2Y and W3X and was also being pursued by the de Havilland Company with the Halford H.1 . Wilks set up a design office at Waterloo Mill, Clitheroe with Adrian Lombard leading

1575-504: Was an improved version of the Rolls-Royce Welland , which itself was a renamed version of Frank Whittle 's Power Jets W.2B. Rolls-Royce inherited the Derwent design from Rover when they took over their jet engine development in 1943 . When Rover was selected for production of Whittle's designs in 1941 they set up their main jet factory at Barnoldswick , staffed primarily by Power Jets personnel. Rover's Maurice Wilks

1620-475: Was based on the "straight-through" version of the basic Whittle -style layout, with the flow going directly through the engine from front to rear, as opposed to a "reverse-flow" type, which reverses the direction of air flow through the combustor section so that the turbine stage can be mounted within the combustor section; this allows for a more compact engine, but increases the combustor pressure losses which has an adverse effect on engine performance. Less thrust

1665-410: Was determined to produce a higher thrust engine and subsequently obtained a Ministry of Aircraft Production contract for an engine of 4,200 lbf (19 kN) thrust with the understanding that 5,000 lbf (22 kN) would be the design target. Hooker, Adrian Lombard , Pearson and Morley designed a new engine, the B.41 later called the Nene, rather than scaling up the Derwent. The double-sided impeller

1710-530: Was given the NATO reporting name Bosun . After it was withdrawn from service, several were used for various test programs, including one evaluating ramjet engines. Up to 50 used Tu-14Ts were delivered to the Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force although quantities and dates cannot be confirmed. The second preproduction Tu-14 was converted into a day or night photographic reconnaissance aircraft with

1755-491: Was given the internal designation of "81". The other major change was the addition of a PSBN navigation radar which required a fifth crewmember to operate. This was rejected by the VVS and Tupolev reworked the design to eliminate the dorsal and ventral turrets and reduce the crew to only three, the pilot, a bombardier-navigator, and a tail gunner. It retained the two fixed 23 mm (0.91 in) Nudelman-Rikhter NR-23 cannon in

1800-436: Was made to start the engine. To the frustration of everyone with a vested interest in it starting the engine refused to light - positioning the igniter was a trial-and-error affair at the time. On a subsequent attempt, Denis Drew, who had come from Lucas, the combustion specialists, and took a wide interest in engine development problems, removed one of the igniters and instead used the flame from an oxy-acetylene torch to ignite

1845-401: Was ready for flight by late 1943. This gave the team some breathing room, so they redesigned the /26's inlets for increased airflow and thrust. Adding improved fuel and oil systems, the newly named Derwent Mk.I entered production with 2,000 lbf (8.9 kN) of thrust. Mk.II, III and IV's followed, peaking at 2,400 lbf (10.7 kN) of thrust. The Derwent was the primary engine of all

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1890-557: Was sent to Moscow where it was evaluated by Soviet Naval Aviation for use as a torpedo bomber. The sixth aircraft did incorporate all these changes as well as the navigator's ejection seat requested by Naval Aviation, and it was evaluated in May 1951. It was recommended for production as the Tu-14T and entered service in 1952 with Naval Aviation. About 150 were produced and served with the mine-torpedo regiments of Naval Aviation until 1959. It

1935-417: Was subsequently fitted with two torch, or flame, igniters which had a fuel spray next to an igniter. The flame would project into the main combustor fuel spray. Torch igniters were superseded by surface discharge igniter plugs with a considerably greater energy release rate than a flame. The engine was run up to just over 4,000 lbf (18 kN), and a cheer went up around the assembled personnel. However

1980-469: Was to conduct research on the friction and drag produced by a ship hull in real-life conditions. Jets were preferable to marine propellers or paddles as these would have created a disturbance in the water, and the force exerted by them was harder to measure. The four engines could propel the Lucy Ashton at a speed in excess of 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph). A Derwent Mk.8 from a Gloster Meteor

2025-690: Was used to power the first civil jet aircraft, the Nene Viking, a modified Vickers Viking , the single example of which first flew on 6 April 1948 from Wisley Airfield . It was briefly made under licence in Australia for use in the RAAF de Havilland Vampire fighters. It was also built by Orenda in Canada for use in 656 Canadair CT-133 Silver Star aircraft from 1952. Hispano-Suiza in France built

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