The Pratt & Whitney J48 (company designation JT7 Turbo-Wasp) is a turbojet engine developed by Pratt & Whitney as a license-built version of the Rolls-Royce Tay. The Tay/J48 was an enlarged development of the Rolls-Royce Nene (Pratt & Whitney J42).
Design and development
In 1947, at the behest of the United States Navy, Pratt & Whitney entered into an agreement to produce the Rolls-Royce Nene centrifugal-flow turbojet engine under license as the J42 (company designation JT6), for use in the Grumman F9F Panther fighter aircraft.[1] Concerned that the Nene would not have the potential to cope with future weight growth in improved versions of the Panther, Luke Hobbs, vice president of engineering for P&W's parent company, the United Aircraft Corporation, requested that Rolls-Royce design a more powerful engine based on the Nene, which Pratt & Whitney would also produce.
By 1948, Rolls-Royce had designed the Tay turbojet, also a centrifugal-flow design. However, as Rolls-Royce was then developing an improved design with an axial compressor, which would become the Avon, the development and production of the Tay turbojet was left to Pratt & Whitney.[1][2] However, Rolls-Royce retained the rights to the Tay outside of the United States.
The Tay/J48 was a thirty percent enlargement of the preceding Nene/J42, and was produced both with and without afterburning.[2]
^Wilkinson, Paul H. (1957). Aircraft engines of the World 1957 (15th ed.). London: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons Ltd. pp. 98–99.
^Wilkinson, Paul H. (1955). Aircraft engines of the World 1955 (13th ed.). London: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons Ltd.
Bibliography
Bishop, Chris; Chris Chant (2004). Aircraft Carriers: The world's greatest naval vessels and their aircraft. Minneapolis, MN: Zenith Press. ISBN978-0-7603-2005-1.
Gunston, Bill (2006). World Encyclopedia of Aero Engines, 5th Edition. Phoenix Mill, Gloucestershire, England, UK: Sutton Publishing Limited. ISBN0-7509-4479-X.
Kay, Anthony L. (2007). Turbojet History and Development 1930–1960 Volume 2:USSR, USA, Japan, France, Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy and Hungary (1st ed.). Ramsbury: The Crowood Press. ISBN978-1861269393.