Heroes and Landmarks of British Military Aviation by Peter J Edwards & Richard Edwards

Author:Peter J Edwards & Richard Edwards
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781783034949
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2013-02-19T05:00:00+00:00

Into the Jet Age

Rolls-Royce took over Rover’s jet engine development work in 1943 and in doing so inherited the Rover W.2B/26 turbojet developed from Frank Whittle’s original design that was built by Power Jets. The W.2B/26 was improved by Rolls-Royce and became the Derwent centrifugal compressor turbojet engine that powered the Gloster Meteor, the world’s first operational jet fighter.

In 1941 Rover was selected to begin production of Whittle’s revolutionary turbojet engine and established a factory at Barnoldswick near Blackburn in Lancashire. Rover also set up a parallel development facility at Waterloo Mill in Clitheroe, where Adrian Lombard, an aeronautical engineer who had joined Rover at the age of fifteen in the drawing room, made a number of design improvements without the knowledge or input of Whittle himself. Lombard felt that the improvements, which included a new combustion system, were necessary if the engine was to move successfully into mass production. Lombard joined Rolls-Royce in 1943 when the company agreed to take over Rover’s interests in the jet engine.

In 1941 Whittle became increasingly frustrated with Rover’s work on the engine and its ability to produce satisfactory components. The previous year Whittle had met with Ernest Hives at Rolls-Royce, who had agreed to help the production of the engine by producing key components. By 1943 Rover was cooling on the idea of producing the jet engine and an agreement was reached between Spencer Wilkes of Rover and Hives at Rolls-Royce that Rover would swap its factory at Barnoldswick for Rolls-Royce’s Meteor tank engine factory in Nottingham. The technical problems that Rover had experienced were resolved and the renamed Derwent I turbojet engine went into production. The first variant would produce 1,200lbf at 6,000rpm, increasing to 2,000lbf at 16,600rpm at take-off and 1,550lbf at 15,000rpm when at cruising altitude. The engine used a single-stage dual-entry centrifugal compressor with a two-sided impeller. It had ten flow combustors with ignite plugs in chambers three and ten and used a single-stage axial flow turbine with 54 blades. Successive improvements eventually led to the Derwent V, which increased the thrust capability at take-off from 2,000lbf to 3,500lbf. On 27 October 1944 the Rolls-Royce Nene engine that was developed from the Derwent, was run for the first time and was capable of producing 5,000lbf of thrust. The Derwent was fitted to the Avro 707, the Avro Canada C102 Jetliner, the Fairey Delta 1, the Fokker S14 Machtrainer, the Nord 1601 and the highly successful Gloster Meteor. On 7 November 1945 a Gloster Meteor fitted with a Derwent V turbojet engine set a world airspeed record of 606mph. Rolls-Royce had already been established as a leading aero engine manufacturer in Britain, but the success of the Derwent cemented its position and demonstrated its ability to take on the challenges of the new jet age.

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