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Aviation History
1978
1978 - 0028.PDF
36 FLIGHT International, 7 January 1978 iPublic corporation engaged in a varied range of indus trial and aerospace activities, including manufacture and sub-licensing of NSU-Wankel rotary combustion engines and licensed manufacture of gas turbines. Corporate assets $322 million (£184 million) and employees 5,450. Cor porate sales in 1976 up slightly to $337 million (£192 mil lion), of which aero-engine activities constituted a minor part. Main aero-engine work by Curtiss-Wright concerns the overhaul and modification of its J65 (licence-built Arm- strongs-Siddeley Sapphire) turbojet, which continues in U9 military service in such aircraft as the Martin B-57 and McDonnell Douglas A-4B Skyhawk. The company also con ducts R&D and overhaul work on industrial turbines. DETROIT DIESEL ALLISON (USA) Detroit Diesel Allison Division, General Motors Corpora tion. Divisional headquarters, Indianapolis Operations: PO Box 894, Indianapolis, Indiana 46206. Tel: (317) 244-1511. Division of public corporation, the world's largest indus trial organisation, engaged in manufacture of a wide range of automotive and other industrial and consumer goods, and aero and non-aero gas turbines. Corporate assets $24,442 million (£13,920 million) and employees 748,000. Corporate turnover significantly up in 1976 to record $47,181 million (£26,870 million), of which aero-engine sales represented a very small percentage. General Motors earned a net $2,903 million (£1,653 mil lion) in 1976, a rise of 142 per cent over 1975, and antici pated increased sales not only for the year just ended but also again in 1978. The Allison contribution to this success is not divulged by the corporation. Detroit Diesel Allison has three main product lines: aero and non-aero gas turbines, heavy-duty power-shift and automatic transmis sions, and diesel engines. Gas-turbine parts typically account for half to one-third of all sales by Indianapolis Operations. ATDE Turboshaft. Together with Avco Lycoming, Allison was awarded a contract by the US Army Aviation Systems Command early in 1977 for development of 800 s.h.p. Advanced Technology Demonstrator Engines for helicopter propulsion. Allison's contract was valued at $11 • 3 million (£6-4 million). For further details see Lycoming's ATDE, page 32. Ategg Gas generator. Allison is one of four contractors to participate in the joint USAF/USN Ategg (Advanced Tur bine Engine Gas Generator) programme in which the new technology for America's future big military programmes is being established. It seems that this programme has now been superseded by the ATDE (see above). Gate Turbofan/turboprop/turboshaft. Under Nasa Lewis Research Centre's General Aviation Turbine Engine (Gate) programme, Allison and three other US aero-engine manu facturers (Garrett AiResearch, Teledyne CAE and Williams Research) were awarded 10-month study contracts totalling $300,000 in July last year. Under Phase 1 of the pro gramme, aimed at assessing the feasibility of applying advanced turbine concepts to small aircraft, each of the companies is performing a market study to determine what sizes of turbine engine are likely to be most appro priate to fixed-wing and helicopter applications in the late 1980s. In particular, the companies are examining the prospects for turbofans up to 1,5001b thrust, and turbo- props and turboshafts up to 1,000 h.p. Phase 2 of Gate will analyse the technical and economic trade-offs between main-cycle parameters and s.f.c, and will identify areas in which technology is lacking: combustors with reduced smoke and NOa emissions, for instance. In Phase 3, "paper" engines will be used to explore the relative merits of tur bine and piston powerplants. Finally, if the prospects are promising, Phase 4 (a technology-development pro gramme) will be funded to investigate critical components and perhaps also to build demonstrator engines. GMA 300 Gas generator. As well as providing the h-p section for the Model 501-M62/T701 (see below), the GMA 300 core engine has been proposed by Allison as the basis for a varied family of new turbofans and industrial/marine turboshafts. GMA 500 Two-shaft turboshaft. One of a series of Allison design projects, the GMA 500 is a potential 750 s.h.p. Series V configuration of the company's highly successful Model 250 turboshaft/trurboprop. A major feature of the design is its low s.f.c. of 0-551b/hr/s.h.p. J99 Two-shaft liftjet. This joint Allison/Rolls-Royce engine is described under the Rolls-Royce entry. JTDE Allison, together with other companies, holds con tracts under the USN/USAF Joint Technology Demonstra tor Engine (JTDE) programme, to which each service is contributing about $18 million. The programme is intended to bring together the advances in component technology achieved during the past several years of USN/USAF- funded research, and to establish how they can be made to work together in high-pressure-ratio, high-temperature demonstrator engines. JTDE engines will run for the first time this year. Model 250 (T63) Free-turbine two-shaft turboshaft and turboprop. Second only to the Lycoming T53 in turboshaft numbers built, the Model 250/T63 has dominated the 300- 400 h.p. sector since production started in 1965. Deliveries to date exceed 10,000 units, with a total flying time in excess of ten million hours. Turboshaft variants of the Model 250-C/T63 contribute much the larger share of these statistics. Four basic versions have been built. Series I, the early 317 s.h.p. Model 250-C18/T63-A-5A and -700 turbo shaft and Model 250-B15 turboprop, is now out of produc tion. Series II, the 400 s.h.p. Model 250-C20/T63-A-701 and Allison 2S0-C30 turboshaft 420 s.h.p. Model 250-C20B/T63-A-720 turboshafts and 400 s.h.p. Model 250-B17B turboprop, comprises the main pro duction variants. The 500 s.h.p. Model 250-C28B turboshaft with a 550 s.h.p. 212min single-engine rating in multi- engine installations forms Series III, and the 630 s.h.p. Model 250-C30 is the Series IV variant. The 750 s.h.p. GMA 500 (see above) provides the basis for a possible Series V engine. The Series II is a product>improvement/growth version of the Series I, and the Series III and rv are complete redesigns which, among other changes, omit the axial stages of the compressor and rely entirely on a larger, more advanced centrifugal stage to provide both a higher overall pressure ratio and greater mass flow. Deliveries of the Model 250-C28B, which features an integral air-inlet particle separator, are scheduled to start early this year. Deliveries of all variants of Model 250 last year amounted to around 950 units. Main production applications for the
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