Rolls-Royce Dart
| Dart | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Rolls-Royce Dart RDa. 3 Mk506 | |
| Type | Turboprop |
| Manufacturer | Rolls-Royce Limited |
| First run | 1946 |
| Major applications |
Avro 748 Breguet Alizé Fokker F27 Grumman Gulfstream I Vickers Viscount |
| Number built | more than 7,100 |
The Rolls-Royce RB.53 Dart is a long-lived British turboprop engine designed, built and manufactured by Rolls-Royce Limited. First run in 1946 it powered the first Vickers Viscount maiden flight in 1948 and in the Viscount was the first turboprop engine to enter airline service, with British European Airways (BEA), in 1950. On 29 July 1948 a flight between Northolt and Paris–Le Bourget Airport with 14 paying passengers in a Dart-powered Viscount was the first scheduled airline flight by any turbine-powered aircraft.
The Dart was still in production when the last Fokker F27 Friendships and Hawker Siddeley HS 748s were produced in 1987. Following the company convention for naming gas turbine engines after rivers, this turboprop design was named after the River Dart.
Designed in 1946 by a team under Lionel Haworth using experience gained with the earlier Rolls-Royce Clyde, the Dart engine was initially rated at 890 shp and first flew in the nose of a converted Avro Lancaster in October 1947. Improvements in design led to the Dart RDa.3 of 1,400 shp which went into production for the Viscount in 1952. The RDa.6 increased this rating to 1,600 shp and the RDa.7, thanks to a three-stage turbine, increased this to 1,800 shp.
Later Darts were rated up to 3,245 ehp and the Dart remained in production until 1987, some 7,100 having been produced and the engine type having flown some 170 million flying hours.
The Dart was also produced under licence in India by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.
Haworth and his team later went on to design and develop the Rolls-Royce Tyne.
As well as the RB.53 designation each mark of Dart engine was allocated a Ministry of Supply (MoS) "RDa.n" number as well as Mk.numbers.
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