General Electric J79
| J79 | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| J79 on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force | |
| Type | Afterburning turbojet |
| National origin | United States |
| Manufacturer | General Electric Aircraft Engines |
| First run | 20 May 1955 (first flight) |
| Major applications |
Convair B-58 Hustler Lockheed F-104 Starfighter McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II North American A-5 Vigilante |
| Number built | >17,000 |
| Unit cost | $624,727 (J79-GE-3, 1960) |
| Developed from | General Electric J73 |
| Variants | General Electric CJ805 |
| Developed into | General Electric CJ805-23 |
The General Electric J79 is an axial-flow turbojet engine built for use in a variety of fighter and bomber aircraft and a supersonic cruise missile. The J79 was produced by General Electric Aircraft Engines in the United States, and under license by several other companies worldwide.
A commercial version, designated the CJ805, powered the Convair 880, while an aft-turbofan derivative, the CJ805-23, powered the Convair 990 airliners and a single Sud Aviation Caravelle intended to demonstrate to the U.S. market the benefits of a bypass engine over the existing Avon turbojet.
In 1959 the gas generator of the J79 was developed as a stationary 10MW-class (13,000 bhp) free-turbine turboshaft engine for naval power, power generation, and industrial use, called the LM1500. Its first application was in the research hydrofoil USS Plainview.
The J79 was developed in the 1950s for reliable Mach 2 performance. The U.S.A.F. had a requirement to power their next generation bomber which became the Convair B-58 and this application launched the J79.
The first flight of the engine was on 20 May 1955 where the engine was placed in the bomb bay of a J47-powered B-45C (48-009). The J79 was lowered from the bomb bay and the four J47s were shut down leaving the B-45 flying on the single J79. The first flight after the 50-hour qualification test was on 8 December 1955, powering the second pre-production Douglas F4D Skyray, with the J79 in place of its original Westinghouse J40 engine as part of the General Electric development and qualification program. The YF-104 was the next airplane to fly with the J79 followed by a re-engined Grumman F11F Tiger in a Navy-sponsored program to gain experience with the engine before the first flight of the F4H (F-4).
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