Westinghouse J40
| J40 | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Type | Turbojet |
| National origin | United States |
| Manufacturer | Westinghouse Aviation Gas Turbine Division |
| Major applications | McDonnell F3H Demon |
| Program cost | $281 million |
The Westinghouse J40 was to be a high-performance afterburning turbojet engine. It was intended by the Bureau of Aeronautics, in early 1946, to power several fighter aircraft and a bomber, with a rating of 7,500 lbf (33 kN) thrust at sea level static conditions without afterburner and 10,900 lbf thrust with afterburner. A more powerful model 9.500/13,700 lbf thrust version was intended to replace the earlier engines for the various airframes, but proved to have a flawed compressor design and lacked a suitable control system. These higher-power engines were deemed a failure, leaving the US Navy Bureau of Aeronautics with only the earlier lower-power engines. These were eventually used for early flight testing. In the case of the McDonnell F3H-1N Demon, the 10,900 lbf thrust engine was used in production airframes for a very short period before the aircraft was grounded after repeated incidents caused by flying the now overweight airframe with an underpowered engine and continuing engine issues. Failures in service led to the loss of aircraft. A government investigation of the F3H-1N program issue failed to determine if pilots had been lost due solely to the engine issues. The grounded airframes were either scrapped or used for ground training. The F3H-2N used the Allison J71 engine.
After the program was called a "fiasco" and an "engine flop", the J40 program was terminated in 1955, by which time all the aircraft it was to power were either grounded, cancelled or redesigned to use alternative engines. The J40's failure was among those that affected the most military programs. The program failure was primarily due to lack of investment in research and experimental resources by Westinghouse, leaving them unable to resolve the issues with the various models of the engines. In 1953 Westinghouse worked with Rolls-Royce to offer engines based on the Avon, but Westinghouse was out of the aircraft engine business by 1965 when their 6,200 lbf thrust scaled-down version of the 12,000 lbf Avon 300-series engine, the XJ54, also failed to find a United States market.
The engine program was far larger than is commonly known, with 13 different models placed under contract, although not all entered active development. The projected need for the higher-power engines led BuAer to place a second source production contract with Ford Motor Company, Lincoln Mercury Division for both J40-WE-10 and J40-WE-12 engines. The contract was cancelled after the engines failed in development.
...
Wikipedia