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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 0333.PDF
5 February 1954 SMALL-TURBINE QUARTET Progress in Turbomeca Production at Brough : Aeronautical and Industrial Applications AT the Brough works of Blackburn and General Aircraft, Ltd., plans are now \yell advanced for the production kunder licence of four of the Turbomeca light gas turbines—the Palas, Palouste, Artouste and Turmo. Com plete engines supplied by the manufacturers from France, as well as some assembled from parts from the same source, are being bench-tested at Brough to check performance and to gain operating experience. Although assembly in the immediate future will be from parts supplied from France, preparations are in hand for complete production at Brough. Experimental machining of parts is in fact being undertaken at the moment, in the shop where Cirrus Bombardier and Foden diesel engines are being made. The whistle and roar of one or other of the small turbines can be heard in the factory throughout the working day. A Palouste has already completed 900 consecutive running hours during daylight in its open-ended test pen. Its performance in these conditions has proved to be slightly better than that quoted by the makers. To reduce the noise of testing, and thus to allow the turbines to be operated 24 hours a day without disturbance, a new engine-running block has just been com pleted. It contains two cells, at each end of which splitters and silencers greatly reduce the volume of sound reaching the outside world. The splitters and the control room walls are soundproofed with a fibrous material known as Stillite; the intake and outlet ends of the cells are automatically closed by electrically operated shutters and the cells filled with inert gas in case of fire. A Palas is at present being run in one of these cells. The Palas is a pure jet of 350 lb thrust; the Palouste, an air- compression engine which, from a compressor delivery bleed, produces 135 lb/min of air at 41.2 lb/sq in gauge at 15 deg C; the Artouste, a geared shaft-drive unit with an output of 276 h.p. (Mk 1), or 394 h.p. (Mk 2), with two alternative shaft speeds, 6,000 and 12,000 r.p.m.; and the Turmo is a free turbine shaft-drive engine producing 270 h.p. (Mk 1) and 400 h.p. (Mk 2). Although most of these engines have been airborne (the Palas in various French light aircraft, the Palouste in the S.N.C.A.S.O. Ariel helicopter, and the Artouste in the S.N.C.A.S.O. Farfadet helicopter), experimental applications in England have been mainly industrial. However, two Palas, sup plied direct from France, power the Miles Sparrowjet (these engines were recently at Brough for a routine check); and two more Palas supplied by Blackburn and General are installed in the Short Sherpa. The industrial applications arc so interesting that some, at any rate, are worthy of mention here. The most significant use has been made of the Palouste, one of which was installed in a mobile rig at the entrance to dock gates at Dover. The outer gate had been removed for maintenance, and the inner gate could not be operated in a heavy swell. The Palouste was there fore used to pump compressed air through piping to the bed of the dock entrance; the mass of bubbles rising to the surface reduced a 4ft swell to a mere 18in. Another application was at Hebburn, Newcastle-on-Tyne, where a Palouste was used to drive a Jacobs emergency water pump delivering 3,000 gal/min. A diesel compressor could quite well have supplied the same From top to bottom, the Palas pure jet, Palouste air compressor, Artouste geared shaft-drive engine and Turmo free-turbine shaft-drive engine. The Palouste is mounted on its transportable frame, with fuel tank beneath the engine and compressed-air delivery, and valve, over the combustion chamber. The drive shaft of the Artouste emerges from the right-hand end of the engine. The Turmo is seen from the drive-shaft end, with the left efflux port nearest the camera; the left-hand air intake can be seen forward, next to the accessory drive case.
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