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Aviation History
1972
1972 - 0021.PDF
FLIGHT International, 6 January 1972 16a-17 Left, Rolls-Royce/Turbomeca Adour afterburning turbofans of 6,6001b, 29kN augmented thrust, production deliveries of which are now under way for the Sepecat Jaguar. Right, more than I7,000hr bench and flight testing has been completed by Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593 turbojets for Concorde, and a further I5,000hr will be run prior to engine type certification The industry in 1972 COMPETITION is the watch-word of the capitalist system: attention is focused on the special merits of a free market with companies competing one against another to offer the product with the most desirable quali ties. This does not always mean the best technical per former; a mundane engine with development finance can often be more attractive to the airframe manufacturer or airline customer than the most technologically advanced power unit which lacks the vital attribute of the necessary cash to bring it to fruition. Governments, through their control of large-scale public funds, can provide support for projects which may be aimed more at appeasing their nationalistic pride rather than satisfying the immediate needs of the market. In this way they can distort the cor rect working of the competitive system even to a point where technically non-competitive engines are being offered against better performers which are less financially endowed. This tactic of the so-called mixed economies increasingly devalues the competitive advantages of astute marketing, of technical progress, of hard-won experience in the field, and of truly viable projects. If the foregoing appears to fit the circumstances of a number of engine programmes today, on both sides of the Iron Curtain, it perhaps illustrates the extent to which this process is already influencing government action. It also is one of the main reasons why this survey of the world's aero engines has categorised engines into compet ing groups within the same thrust or power bracket. Overall, the product range has been divided four ways— into civil and military engines, and turbofans with turbo- jets and turboprops with turboshafts. This has enabled direct comparison to be drawn between what might other wise appear to be quite separate projects in differing parts of the globe. Viewing the scene as a whole in the civil sector, while there are new engines coming along in various performance categories and others about to enter service, the real focus of attention is on the work of reducing environmental pollu tion, be it through engine noise or chemical emissions. The long-term Nasa Quiet Engine programme, which has been underway in the States for some years now, increas ingly takes on new meaning and emphasis—as does the parallel but smaller-scale work proceeding in the UK and France. Among the major suppliers of the world's trans port aircraft, only Russia appears not yet to be fully alert to the growing strength of international public opinion on the matter of industrial damage to the ecology. In the military sector even the US Air Force and Navy have initiated their own programmes in reducing engine noise and exhaust pollution. The interesting question is whether or not this trend will gain sufficient momentum to warrant re-engining the large numbers of first-generation jet trans port currently in airline service. On the military front, the most significant developments concern the new series of supersonic afterburning turbo fans being developed in the US, UK and France. Of Russian activity little is known barring a report that no less than seven new turbofans are being developed by three of the engine bureaux: some of these new units will undoubtedly constitute counterparts to the F100, F101, F401, RB.199 and M53. At the less dramatic lower end of the thrust scale, the turbofan is beginning finally to oust the turbo jet—and only the recent development by General Electric of the continuous-bleed engine is aimed at maintaining the turbojet's presence. Civil engines SUPERSONIC 30,0001b, 134kN—40,0001b, 178kN AS A MAJOR OUTLET the supersonic transport constitutes potentially the second-largest market sector for civil tur bines, certainly in terms of numbers of engines, and possibly ranking even as number one in total sales revenue —one Concorde ship-set of Olympus 593 powerplants at around £3-5 million approximately equals the combined value of engine ship-sets for a 747, DC-10 and TriStar. With the cancellation in March last year of the Boeing 2707 and its GE4 engine, the world's most powerful turbojet, the supersonic field has been left to the Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593 augmented turbojet and the Kuznetsov NK-144 augmented turbofan for the Tupolev Tu-144, the former derived from a military engine and the latter having now apparently completed the reverse process. BAC last month assessed possible sales of the Concorde and its derivatives over the next 30 years at around 1,500 aircraft, representing, with spares, an investment by the airlines of some £30,000 million. Together with Iron Curtain sales of the Tu-144, this represents a huge market for the two powerplants. Although of directly comparable thrusts, the Olympus 593 and NK-144 are not strictly competitors— neither is going to oust the other from its application. Competition is going to come only from new technology
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