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The RollsRoyce "Derwent" Engine
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The Derwent is a 1940s British centrifugal compressor turbojet engine, the second RollsRoyce jet engine to enter production. Essentially
an improved version of the RollsRoyce Welland, itself a renamed version of Frank Whittle's Power Jets W.2B, Rolls inherited the design
from Rover when they took over their jet engine development in 1943. The performance over the original design was somewhat improved,
reliability dramatically, making the Derwent the chosen engine for the Gloster Meteor and many other postWorld War II British jet
designs.
The Rover Company
When Rover was selected for production of Whittle's designs in 1941 they set up their main
jet factory at Barnoldswick, staffed primarily by various Power Jets personnel. Rover felt Derwent
their own engineers were better at everything, and also set up a parallel effort at Waterloo RollsRoyce Derwent.
Mill, Clitheroe. Here Adrian Lombard attempted to develop the W.2 into a production
quality design, angering Whittle who was left out of the team. Type Turbojet
RollsRoyce
By 1941 it was obvious to all that the arrangement was not working; Whittle was constantly frustrated Click on Picture to enlarge
by Rover's inability to deliver productionquality parts for a test engine, and became increasingly vocal
about his complaints. Likewise Rover was losing interest in the project after the delays and constant
harassment from Power Jets. Earlier, in 1940, Stanley Hooker of RollsRoyce had met with Whittle, and
later introduced him to Rolls' CEO, Ernest Hives. Rolls had a fully developed supercharger division,
directed by Hooker, which was naturally suited to jet engine work. Hives agreed to supply key parts to
help the project along. Eventually Spencer Wilkes of Rover met with Hives and Hooker, and decided to
trade the jet factory at Barnoldswick for Rolls' Meteor tank engine factory in Nottingham. A handshake
sealed the deal, turning RollsRoyce into the powerhouse it remains to this day. Subsequent RollsRoyce
jet engines would be designated in an "RB" series, standing for Rolls Barnoldswick, the /26 Derwent
becoming the RB.26.
Problems were soon ironed out, and the original /23 design was ready for flight by late 1943. This gave
the team some breathing room, so they redesigned the /26's inlets for increased air flow, and thus thrust.
Adding improved fuel and oil systems, the newlynamed Derwent Mk.I entered production with 2,000
lbf (8.9 kN) of thrust. Mk.II, III and IV's followed, peaking at 2,400 lbf (10.7 kN) of thrust. The Derwent
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17/12/2016 The RollsRoyce "Derwent" Engine
was the primary engine of all the early Meteors with the exception of the small number of Welland
equipped models which were quickly removed from service. The Mk.II was also modified with an extra
turbine stage driving a gearbox and, eventually, a fivebladed propeller, forming the first production
turboprop engine, the Trent (RB.50).
The RollsRoyce "Derwent"
The Mk.V
The basic Derwent design was also used to produce a larger 5,000 lbf (22.2 kN) thrust engine known as the RollsRoyce Nene.
Development of the Nene continued in a scaleddown version specifically for use on the Meteor, and to avoid the stigma of the earlier
design, this was named the Derwent Mk.V. Several Derwents and Nenes were sold to the Soviet Union by the then Labor government,
causing a major political row, as it was the most powerful productionturbojet in the world at the time. The Soviets promptly reverse
engineered the Derwent V and produced their own unlicensed version, the Klimov RD500. The Mk.V was also used on the Canadian
Avro Jetliner, but this was never put into production.
On 7 November 1945, a Meteor powered by the Derwent V set a world air speed record of 606 mph (975 km/h) TAS.
Variants
Derwent I first production version, 2,000 lbf (8.9 kN) of thrust
Derwent II thrust increased to 2,200 lbf (9.8 kN)
Derwent III experimental variant providing vacuum for wing boundary layer control
Derwent IV thrust increased to 2,400 lbf (10.7 kN)
Derwent V scaleddown version of the RollsRoyce Nene developing 3,500 lbf (15.6 kN) of thrust
Specifications (Derwent I)
General characteristics
Type: Turbojet
Length: 84 in (2,135 mm)
Diameter: 41.5 in (1,055 mm)
Dry weight: 975 lb (443 kg)
Components
Compressor: Singlestage dualentry centrifugal compressor with twosided impeller
Combustors: 10 flow combustors with igniter plugs in chambers 3 and 10
Turbine: Singlestage axial flow with 54 blades
Fuel type: Aviation kerosene with 1% lubricating oil
Oil system: 2.75 gal (12.5 L) capacity, circulation rate 215 gal/hr (976 L/hr), maximum inverted flying time 15 s
Performance
Thrust:
120 lbf (0.5 kN) at 6,000 rpm at idle.
2,000 lbf (8.9 kN) at 16,500 rpm for takeoff
1,550 lbf (6.9 kN) at 15,000 rpm for cruise
Overall pressure ratio: 3.9:1
Fuel consumption:
470 lb/hr (215 kg/hr) at idle
1,820 lb/hr (830 kg/hr) at cruise power
2,360 lb/hr (1,070 kg/hr) at maximum power
Oil consumption: 0.125 gal/hr (0.57 L/hr)
Thrusttoweight ratio: 2.1:1 (20.1 N/kg)
References
Bridgman, L, (ed.) Jane's fighting aircraft of World War II. London: Crescent, 1998. ISBN 0517679647
Wikipedia
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Rolls Royce W2 "Welland"
Click on Picture to enlarge
The W2 RollsRoyce engineering staff had been working on a turboprop engine
with Dr Griffith since 1939 and saw the value of the turbojet engine, when in mid
1942 RollsRoyce's Ernest Hives took S.B. Wilks of Rover out to lunch and in a deal
with Wilks the production and development of the Whittle engine was swapped for
the Vickers Tank plant in Nottingham. The British Air Ministry was more than
happy with this arrangement hoping that the jet engine had finally got on track. It
had RollsRoyce and the jet engine took to each other like a "duck to water".
Working with Whittle to finally get an uprated version of the engine in production,
the production version of the W.1 engine the W.2 was soon coming off the
The RollsRoyce "Welland" engine production line in an ever increasing rate. The W.2B made 1,600 lb of thrust by this
time. RollsRoyce named the new engine the "Welland ", beginning the RollsRoyce
tradition of naming their engines after British rivers. The Welland was fitted to the first production Gloster
"Meteor" Mk I.
"Derwent"
All of the "Whittle type engines until 1943 were reverseflow centrifugal engines. Click on Picture to enlarge
RollsRoyce reworked the design to feature straightthrough combustion chambers
and better fuel and oil systems, similar in lay out to the de Havilland H1, all this
work resulted in the "Derwent I",which made 2,000 lb of thrust and used less fuel.
Ran for the first time on the test bench in July 1943, the "Derwent I" was fitted to a
Gloster Meteor in March 1944, and would powered the Gloster "Meteor Mk III"
after the 15th aircraft. The Derwent was refined various versions up to the "Mark
IV", which made 2,450 lb of thrust. The "Derwent" Engine
RB.41 "Nene"
Click on Picture to enlarge
Developed from the the "Derwent" in 1943/4 by Stanley Hooker, who had been in
charge of the RollsRoyce design team that built the Derwent. Roll Royce realizing
that the Britain was beginning to fall behind the USA, initiated a fasttrack project
to build a new, much more powerful centrifugalflow engine, the "RB.41 Nene",
which was first benchtested in November 1944 making well over 4,000 lb of thrust.
Used in the Gloster E.1/44, Supermarine Attacker, Hawker P.1040 and D.H.
Vampire Mk II
At the time the Nene was the world's most powerful engine plus it was simple, cheap
and reliable. Built under license in Australia, France and was to be built under
license in the USA by the Taylor Turbine Corporation as the J42TT2 as the "J
42", it powered early versions of the US Navy's Grumman F9F Panther fighter,
The RB.41 "Nene" however since the the J42 was not going to be ready in time to be installed in the
XF9F2, Taylor Turbine Corporation supplied six imported RollsRoyce Nene
turbojets to Grumman.
By 1948 the US Navy was fearful that the Taylor Turbine Corporation might not be able to deliver sufficient
numbers of engines so the Navy encouraged Taylor to negotiate an agreement whereby the Nene manufacturing
license would be transferred to a moreestablished engine manufacturing company. This was done as requested,
and the Nene license was purchased from Taylor by Pratt & Whitney. Who would collaborated with RollsRoyce
to develop a version of the Nene with water injection, this version of the engine the "J48", powered later versions
of the Panther and its sweptwing Cougar .
Also the Nene was built in large numbers in the USSR. In 1946, a Soviet delegation went to Britain and came back
with new Nene engines. Named the RD45 and later the VK1,it was powered the MiG15 and most other jet
aircraft in the USSR for some time. The Chinese also built a copy of the engine, only finally ceasing production in
1979.
Derwent5
Click on Picture to enlarge
The Nene was very a good engine but it could not be used in the Meteor with out a
major redesign because of it's greater size, In 1944 RollsRoyce proposed to build a
scaleddown version of the engine to fit the Meteor, this they did and had it up and
ruining with in 25 weeks and producing 3,000 lb of thrust.
The new engine which was designated the "Derwent V"( though it had no
relationship to earlier Derwent marks) was in production by the middle of 1945 and
making 3,500 lb of thrust. The Derwent V was first fitted in the Meteor MkIV and
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powered EE 454 "Britannia" to 606 mph on the 7/11/45 and EE455 "Gloster Meteor
IV" two converted MK IIIs
Derwent5
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