Rolls-Royce Soar

The Rolls-Royce RB.82 Soar (originally Soar RSr.2 , later Rolls-Royce RB.93 ) was a turbine jet engine with an axial design from the British manufacturer Rolls-Royce . It represented a milestone in the development of drives with a high thrust-to-weight ratio and further led to the development of special lifting drives for vertical take-offs .

history

The engine was designed in 1949 by Alan Arnold Griffith , the chief developer of Rolls-Royce. The housing was made of a welded sheet metal tube into which a single-stage axial compressor, an annular combustion chamber and a single-stage turbine were installed, with the turbine and compressor sitting on a common shaft. While the inlet cone, which also carried the generator, was held in place by four struts, the outlet cone had seven. The engine was developed under strict secrecy because it was intended to drive the Red Rapier missile . In June 1952 it achieved a service life of only 2-3 hours with a thrust of 6.1 kN on test bench runs. Later the service life could be increased to 10 h and the thrust to 8.27 kN. Difficulties were caused by the short combustion chamber, which was difficult to ignite and worked unstably in the lower power range. A Gloster Meteor F.8 with the RAF serial number WA982 received two of these engines at the wing tips for testing. However, the problems could not be eliminated.

When the Red Rapier project was discontinued in 1953, the test vehicle was presented at the Farnborough Air Show in August 1954 . In 1955 Canadian Aviation Electronics (now CAE ) released a drone called the Canadian Aviation Electronics P-1 or Caeta , which was powered by a Rolls-Royce Soar. After developing more powerful engines such as the Rolls-Royce RB.108 , Rolls-Royce stopped developing the RB.82 Soar around 1957. Westinghouse received some engines under the designation RB.93, which were adapted to American standards. Later the company also got a manufacturing license. The engine now ran under the US designation Westinghouse J81 and was installed in the supersonic missile Northrop AQM-35 , while the planned use in the Northrop GAM-67 was abandoned. It was intended as an auxiliary engine for the Aerfer Ariete , but there was no series production.

Technical specifications 

• Weight: 121 kg
• Diameter: 401 mm
• Length: 1497 mm (without inlet and generator cover)
• Thrust: 8.27 kN
• Compression: 4.5: 1

Web links

• image

swell

• Jane's all the world's aircraft , 1956/57
• Flight , August 27, 1954
• Flight , September 10, 1954
• Flight , September 2, 1955
• Flight , May 11, 1956
• Flight , January 3, 1958
• Flight , October 9, 1959