Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust
Technical Series Reviews - Page 02
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Rocket Development with Liquid Propellants Softbound, 210 x 297 x 10 mm, 156 pages Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust Recommended Retail Price: 84 photographs/diagrams |
Reviewed by Graham White
Rocket development has not received anything like the publicity of, say, piston engines. This book helps fill that void. Based on a technical paper written by W H J Reidel in 1950 for the British, it offers excellent insight into German rocket development culminating in the V2. Starting out with primitive rocket powered cars in the late 1920s, the paper goes through the evolutionary development steps required for a successful rocket engine. Critical to the success of a rocket is the guidance system, this pare describes in fairly good detail the gyroscopes and steering vanes used in the V2.
For the rocket enthusiast I’d say this is a must read book. Number 7 in the Technical series, it is a larger format than the normal Heritage Trust books being 8-1/4” by 11-5/8” and soft bound. Profusely illustrated with photographs and drawing by the author, all German captions are translated into English.
As with all Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust books this one offers unbelievable value for money.
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The Allison Engine Catalog Softbound, 215 x 280 x 15 mm, 282 pages Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust Recommended Retail Price: 300 b/w photographs/drawings |
Reviewed by Kimble D. McCutcheon
This book provides a broad and fascinating survey of Allison engines and products, covering nearly everything except proprietary (vehicle transmission and GM diesel engine production) and still-classified aerospace products. While it does not attempt to address every model where there were many variants (such as the V-1710), it makes up for the lack of such minutia by exposing the reader to many new concepts, projects and products.
John Leonard, a third-generation Allison employee and long-time editor/contributor of the Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust Allison Branch Newsletter, has combined his vast knowledge of Allison engines with pictures, drawings and information from the Allison archives to produce this very enjoyable work.
Chapter 1, Piston Engines, covers Allison’s work on the Liberty engine, its variants and myriad gearbox concepts. In addition to specifications and historical précis of selected models from the V-1710 series, V-3420 series, and DV-6840, relatively obscure concepts such as fuel injection, remote gearboxes (some facilitating multiple engines) and turbocompounding are presented.
Chapter 2, Turboprop, Turboshaft and Propfan Engines, includes the T38, T40, T54, T56 (powerplant for the Lockheed Electra and C-130), and Model 250 (helicopter) series. There is additional discussion of several afterburning and recuperated models, as well as test rigs, gearboxes and work on supersonic propellers.
Chapter 3, Turbojet and Turbofan Engines, includes numerous series, such as the J31, J33, J35, J71, TF41, and AE3007. Also covered are various lift-fan engines, such as the Model 610 and XJ-99.
Chapter 4, Ramjet and Rocket Engines, features Allison’s experimental work on the PD-37 ramjet and rocket motor cases. While these activities yielded no production contracts, they did equip the company to build propellant tanks for the Apollo Command/Service and Lunar Excursion Modules.
Chapter 5, Automotive and Industrial Engines, details the gas turbine components and complete engines Allison designed and built for numerous customers including the General Motors Research Laboratory, US Army, US Navy, and US Department of Energy. These engines were intended to power automobiles, armored vehicles, busses, locomotives, boats, generators and auxiliary power units. Many of these engines were recuperated. Some were aimed at extremely high fuel economy and low emissions. Several were multi-fueled; a couple burned coal and one even burned wood!
Chapter 6, Development and Demonstration Engines, is comprised of advanced-concept demonstrators used to investigate high-Mach missile propulsion, high turbine inlet temperature, cooled turbine blades, variable-flow turbines, advanced gas generators, advanced materials and variable cycles.
Chapter 7, Engine Concepts, looks at paper studies that apparently never reached the hardware stage. Of note was a two-stroke V-12 reversible diesel for airship power, a 9,000 hp turboprop, a 10,500 hp coupled turboprop, a two-turbine turbojet with an interburner between the turbine stages, a few recuperated turboprops, several lift fan engines, and a nuclear rocket engine that appears to have been intended for atmospheric use.
Chapter 8, Other Products, examines the components Allison has designed and built over the years. These include parts for WWI vehicles, marine and aviation propeller reduction gearboxes, steel-backed bearings, Roots blowers, various clutches, fuel cells, and a compact nuclear reactor intended to power a portable ammonia generator that would provide fuel for an army from air and water.
Some Allison Records:
- The V-1710 was the first 1,000 hp piston engine to pass a 150-hr type test
- The J35-A-33 was the first afterburning turbojet to enter production
- Allison was the first company to build 25,000 jet engines
- The Convair XFY-1 “Pogo”, powered by an Allison T40-A-14, was the first tail-sitting fighter to take off vertically, fly horizontally, and land vertically
- The T56 is the only turboprop to have been in production for 50 years
- Allison built the only regenerative turbine engine that flew (Model 250-F3)
- Allison was the only company to produce turboprop (AE1107), turboshaft (AE 2100)and turbofan (AE 3007) engines using the same core
- Allison steel-backed bearings were the best available from the late 1920s through mid-1940s
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Rolls-Royce Spey Softbound, 295 x 210 x 8 mm, 127 pages Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust Recommended Retail Price: 84 photographs/illustrations |
Reviewed by Kimble D. McCutcheon
The Rolls-Royce Spey, which entered service in 1964, was arguably the first turbofan engine designed specifically for commercial use. It later was also used in military applications as the core engine was modified and enhanced. The Spey’s predecessor (12,000 lbT RB-141) was initially envisaged as power for the three-engine de Havilland DH121. However, British European Airways changed the requirement to a smaller airframe, ultimately resulting in the 9,850 lbT RB-163-1, which was later named the Spey. Variants found numerous applications, including the Trident, BAC 111, Buccaneer, F28, Gulfstream, Nimrod, Phantom and Corsair. The Spey has been used in marine and industrial applications and currently holds the world land speed record. More severe noise rules and requirements for better fuel economy ultimately ended Spey aero engine production after 5,646 were built. Industrial and marine engines are still being produced.
Broad application of the Spey involved numerous changes to the basic design, and this book details the more significant ones. All Speys were two-shaft engines. Nearly all had 3, 4 or 5-stage low-pressure compressors, 11 or 12-stage high-pressure compressors, 2-stage high-pressure turbines and 2-stage low-pressure turbines. The TF41 had a 3-stage low-pressure, 2-stage intermediate-pressure and 11-stage high-pressure compressor. Industrial and marine variants have an additional 2-stage power turbine.
The book is full of development and technical detail, with at least one high-quality illustration or photograph on nearly every spread; most are in color. Another attractive feature of the book is its landscape format, which lends itself to the presentation of gas turbine images. This is the second such book produced by the Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust, the first being Fast Jets, which tells the story of reheat.
Among the intriguing details is a long description of the fuel control system, which broke new ground in terms of reliability, acceleration control, surge margins over a wide range of flight conditions, and accuracy. Lucas designed, developed and funded the fuel control system using control laws and parameters that were very different from previous engines. The design employed full-flow metering and spinning valves to alleviate problems with hysteresis and friction that had arisen in previous systems as a result of fuel contamination and specific gravity variations.
Similar rich detail accompanies the discussions of compressor, burner and turbine development, as well as the many modifications that were made during its service life.
Like other Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust books, this one meets high standards for its writing, editing, illustration and production. It would be a bargain at twice the price.
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Sectioned Drawings Softbound, 420 x 296 x 5 mm, 80 pages Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust Recommended Retail Price: 36 drawing spreads |
Reviewed by Kimble D. McCutcheon
Born in 1924, Lyndon Jones trained as a flight mechanic after joining the Royal Air Force in 1942. While working on a wide range of aircraft both in the UK and elsewhere, Jones learned the basics of aeronautical engineering and developed a talent for drawing. After WWII he worked for Handley Page, Rolls-Royce, Gloster Aircraft Company, and Atomic Energy Research Establishment as a technical artist. From WWII onward he produced a series of sectioned drawings of airplanes, engines, steam locomotives, motorcycles and even cathedrals. Upon his retirement, Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust received custody of his engine drawings, which form the content of this book.
Each of the 36 double-A3-sized spreads features a sectioned engine drawing, a description, detail drawings of the engine internals and/or installation, and often a drawing of an airplane in which the engine flew. This is an outstanding reference for the engine enthusiast; it’s not bad eye candy either.
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Engine Drawings |
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Rolls-Royce Eagle VIII Rolls-Royce Falcon III Napier Lion XI Rolls-Royce Condor IIIA Rolls-Royce Kestrel V Rolls-Royce Buzzard Rolls-Royce 'R' Engine Rolls-Royce Kestrel with Sleeve Valves De Havilland Gipsy Major De Havilland Gipsy Six Junkers Jumo 205D Armstrong Siddeley Cheetah IX Bristol Pegasus XVIII De Havilland Gipsy Twelve Junkers Jumo 211 D Rolls-Royce Peregrine I Bristol Hercules XVI Rolls-Royce Vulture II |
Daimler Benz DB 601 Rolls-Royce Merlin XX BMW 801 D Armstrong Siddeley Deerhound Rolls-Royce H Merlin Allison V-1710-39 Wright Cyclone R-1820-97 Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp R-1830-65 Napier Sabre V Bristol Hercules 100 Rolls-Royce Merlin 113/114 Rolls-Royce Merlin 130/131 Rolls-Royce Griffon 65 Bristol Centaurus 18 Rolls-Royce Eagle 22 Rolls-Royce Crecy II Rolls-Royce Pennine Napier Nomad 2 |
