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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 1770.PDF
FLIGHT, 18 June 1954 787 Anglo-American Jewel Engineering Details of the Wright J65 Sapphire Revealed Although output of]65s is proceeding at a lower tempo than was once planned, it is still massive by any standard. These are Buick-built Sapphires at Flint, Michigan. Each is reported to bring about £22 royalty to Armstrong Siddeley. AS we recorded last week, the American Department of Defense has cleared for publication several drawings " showing interior details of the Wright J65 Sapphire turbojet. From these we have prepared the line drawings which appear on these pages. It is emphasized that these illustrations refer solely to the J65 and do not represent the Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire as now made in Great Britain. As an introductory background, the following appeared in our "Power Plants" issue of April 9th last: — "When first taken over by Armstrong Siddeley in 1948—from Metropolitan Vickers—the Sapphire was the largest turbojet then running anywhere in the world and, although in need of much develop ment, it offered great promise. During the first few years, Armstrong Siddeley made and broke various Sapphires, and had them flying in a Lancastrian in 1949. There is today very little Metrovick design left in the engine; the compressor and turbines are noticeably different, the structure has been revised, and the combustion chamber has been com pletely revised with the Armstrong Siddeley vaporizing burner system; photographs show six fuel pipes each split into six, making a total of 36 burners in all. Sapphires are made by Armstrong Siddeley and at the Gloucestershire factory of Brockworth Engineering. The ASSa.l flew in the Lancastrian; the Sa.2 flew in a Meteor (rate-of-climb record) and Hastings at about 7,250 lb thrust; the Sa.3 introduced the vaporizing combustion and other features and was air-tested at 8,300 r.p.m. and 7,500 lb; the Sa.6, the latest Sapphire which can be illustrated, has a type-tested rating of 8,300 lb at higher r.p.m., and is in quantity production. The Sapphires 4, 5 and 7 cannot be discussed in detail. . . ." In November 1950, Armstrong Siddeley granted a manufactur ing and development licence to the Wright Aeronautical Division of the Curtiss-Wright Corporation, of Wood-Ridge, New Jersey. As the J65 Sapphire, uiis engine has gone into large-scale pro duction in America, both at the Wright plant and at a new 2,000,000 sq ft factory in Flint, Michigan, where the Buick Motor Division of General Motors make the J65 under a sub-licence. Again quoting from the April 9th issue: — "The eventual J65 is fairly far removed from the British engine; Wright switched to steel compressor-blading in parallel with Armstrong Siddeley, but re-designed the centre-bearing support—which in the original engine supplied to them was profiled from a solid light-alloy forging—as a precision-welded assembly in spheroidal-graphite cast-iron sheet. Metal-braided flexible pipe replaces much of the rigid pipe of the British engine, and other changes include a re-rating of the first engines to run at no more than 8,200 r.p.m." As a result, the present J65 is rated at no more than 7,220 lb thrust, but even this is about 50 per cent more than the rating of the J35 and J47 turbojets which the J65 has replaced as the power unit of some of America's most important fighters. Present American production consists mainly of the J65-W-1, 3 and 5, the two latter having the 340 h.p. Eclipse-Pioneer (Bendix) fuel/air starter, and the J65-B-3, and W-2 and 4. The odd- Prepared by a "Flight" artist, this drawing shows the essential// simple nature of the Sapphire—actually the YJ65-W-1, the first American variant. The engine is shown com pletely devoid of any accessories, such as a starter motor or fuel pump. D
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