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Aviation History
1972
1972 - 0046.PDF
30 FLIGHT International, 6 January 1972 WORLD AERO ENGINES 23kN, rising to approximately 7,5001b, 34kN with after burning. The Adour is also to be licence-built by Ishikawa- jima Harima Heavy Industries for the Mitsubishi T-2 advanced trainer now undergoing initial flight testing. R-R describes the Adour as being conservatively rated and anticipates that a thrust growth of around 25 per cent could be obtained without major redesign. The other British engine in the sextet is the Rolls-Royce Viper turbojet which, in its more powerful 600 Series, is being jointly developed with Fiat. This latter version is rated at 4,0001b, 18kN. Well over 3,000 Vipers have been ordered for a wide variety of UK and overseas trainer, Coin and business aircraft, including over 600 BAC Jet Provosts and Strikemasters. Some 2,000 Vipers are currently in service and this figure should rise to around 4,000 engines by 1980. Total flying time at present is near to 2 • 5 million hours. Close competitor of the Viper is the GE J85, also available in afterburning versions. This engine has been manufactured in even greater numbers than the Viper for use in trainer, fighter and attack aircraft. Latest version, the J85-21, is rated at 5,0001b, 23kN with afterburning which powers the Northrop F-5E international fighter air craft. Model qualification tests of the -21 should be com plete next month and USAF approval is anticipated around the middle of this year. GE foresees a production potential for the J85-21 in the F-5E of around 700 engines over the mid-1970s. Competing with J85 and Viper in basic thrust rating, the Pratt & Whitney J60 completes the trio of turbojets. Over 2,000 J60s have been built over the past decade to power trainer and light transport aircraft but no significant effort appears to have been made to extend the range of appli cations for the engine. Last of this group of six power units is the Ivchenko AI-25 turbofan which is being licence-built in Czechoslovakia by Motorlet for the Aero L-39 Super Delfin advanced trainer. Based on the 3,3071b, 15kN AI-25 engine powering the Yak-40 feederliner, the Czech version is named Titan and has been developed to higher thrusts. The Motorlet AI-25TL, which started testing last year, is rated at 3,7841b, 17kN, and a forthcoming afterburning version is designed for 4,3901b 20kN. Production of the L39 is planned to start this year, and some 500 aircraft are to be built by 1975, 300 of these going to the USSR. Market contenders: Turbomeca-Snecma Larzac 04 2,9801b, 14kN. Rolls-Royce/Turbomeca Adour 5,0001b, 23kN basic 7,5001b, 34kN A/B. Rolls-Royce Viper II 2,5001b, llkN; Viper 500 3,4101b, 15kN. Rolls-Royce/Fiat Viper 600 4,0001b, 18kN. General Electric J85-13 2,7201b, 12kN basic, 4,0801b, 19kN A/B; J85-17 2,8501b, 13kN; J85-21 3,5001b, 16kN basic, 5,0001b, 23kN A/B. Pratt & Whitney J60-P-6 3,0001b, 14kN. Motorlet AI-25TL 3,7841b, 17kN. Up to 2,5001b, 11 kN THIS SECTOR has a surprisingly diversified series of markets, ranging from re-usable engines for target drones and reconnaissance/battlefield surveillance drones, to expendable engines for decoys and air-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles, flying ejection seats, and finally more conventional engines for flying "belts" and light weight trainer aircraft. This activity is primarily in America where engine competitions, such as for the US Navy McDonnell Douglas AGM-84A Harpoon anti-ship missile, have considerably stimulated the competitive atmosphere. Teledyne CAE (hitherto known as Continental) and AiResearch are the finalists out of an original list of seven engine companies. Teledyne CAE is fighting to retain what it regards as its established niche in the US military market, mainly via its J69 turbojet where, out of a total of more than 9,000 built, 5,000 have been supplied for subsonic JM •&•• "••••I K Diminutive Microturbo Cougar turbojet of 1651b, 0-8kN which powers the Australian Government Aircraft Factory Turana target drone and supersonic drones—and AiResearch is trying to break into this specialist and potentially remunerative area via its considerable small aero gas-turbine experience and its production techniques in manufacturing 100,000 industrial turbochargers each year. The Teledyne CAE entry for Harpoon is the 6001b, 2-7kN-thrust Model 370 J402-CA-400 turbojet with a design weight of only 901b, 41kg, and the AiResearch entry is the ETJ331-1-1 turbojet, presumably also of 6001b, 2-7kN. Both are low-cost expendable engines and were tested in late summer last year "boiler-plate" demon strator form. Following initial $1 million contracts to each company in February 1971 to test-run three engines within ten months, contract extensions were awarded in October to enable further development of the two turbo-jets. A fly-off competition this year will decide the winner. A six-months flight-test programme with the AGM-84A Harpoon is scheduled to start around the end of this year. A number of other small-engine programmes are under way in the US, including the USAF's Scad (Subsonic cruise armed decoy); the Fairchild Hiller Aercab flying ejection seat; USAF contracts to AiResearch and Tele dyne CAE respectively for development and study work on small, and low-cost, limited-life turbine engines; and US Army contracts totalling $10 million awarded in November last year to Williams Research, Lycoming, AiResearch and Pratt & Whitney for development work on small-turbine advanced gas-generators (Stagg) of around 2-51b/sec 1-lkg/sec air mass-flow. For the Scad and Aercab programmes, Williams Research turbojets are being used, but for the former it is likely that com petitive bids will be requested from industry before a final engine decision is made. The Williams Research J400-WR-400 and WR2-6 turbojets of 1211b, 0-5kN and 1251b, 0-6kN respectively power the Northrop MQM-74A target drone and Canadair AN-USD-501 battlefield reconnaissance drone. Four companies in Europe are active with small-engine developments—Turbomeca with its Marbore turbojet, covering 8801b, 3-9kN to 1,0581b, 4-8kN, over 4,200 of which have been built for trainers and target drones, and 8801b, 3-9kN TR 281 turbojet for the Engins Matra Otomat ship-to-ship missile; Alvis/Rover with its TJ.125 turbojet for MBLE Epervier surveillance drone; Micro- turbo with its Eclair and Cougar turbojets, the latter powering the Australian Government Aircraft Factory Turana target drone; and, most recently in the field, Sermel in France with its TRS12 and TRS18 turbojets for which applications have yet to be announced. In the Communist bloc, Czechoslovakia has built well over 4,500 of its Motorlet M701 1,9261b, 9kN turbojet for the Aero L-29 Delfin trainer. Market contenders: Williams Research J400-WR-400 1211b, 0-5kN. Williams Research WR2-6 1251b, 0-6kN. Williams Research WR19 4301b, 2-0kN. Williams Research WR24-7 1701b, 0-8kN. Teledyne CAE J69-T-29 1,7001b, 7-7kN; J69-T-406 1,9201b, 8-7kN. Teledyne CAE J402-CA-400 6001b, 2-7kN. AiResearch ETJ331-1-1 6001b, 2-7kN. Turbomeca Marbore 2 8801b, 3-9kN; Marbore 6 1,0581b, 4-8kN; Turbomeca TR281 8801b, 3-9kN. Alvis/Rover TJ.125 1141b, 0-5kN.
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