Soar | |
---|---|
Rolls-Royce Soar on display at the Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust, Derby | |
Type | Turbojet |
Manufacturer | Rolls-Royce Limited |
First run | January 1953 |
Developed into | Rolls-Royce RB108 |
The Rolls-Royce RB.93 Soar, also given the Ministry of Supply designation RSr., was a small, expendable British axial-flow turbojet intended for cruise missile use and built by Rolls-Royce Limited in the 1950s and 1960s. Like all the company's gas turbine engines it was named after a British river, in this case, the River Soar.
The Soar was developed in the early 1950s, and was demonstrated at the Farnborough Airshow in 1953 on each wingtip of a Gloster Meteor flying testbed. It was the smallest aero-engine ever made by Rolls-Royce and was an extremely simple engine with very few parts. Its starting and control systems were almost non-existent. Lessons learned in producing the Soar at low weight and cost would be applied to the next light-weight engine, the RB108 lift engine. [1]
As a cruise-missile expendable powerplant the Soar engine had a design life of 10 hours for a Red Rapier flight time of about 1 hour (range 400 nautical miles at 475 knots). [2]
It was to be the intended powerplant for the "Red Rapier" missile project [3] one of the projects coming from the UB.109T operational requirement. Red Rapier was to be built by Vickers-Armstrong Ltd, Weybridge, Surrey as the Vickers 825. Development was cancelled in 1953. Three Soar engines were used on this design, two on the tips of the tailplane, and one on the tip of the fin. One-third scale models without engines were built and air launched from a Washington bomber (the Boeing B-29 Superfortress in RAF service) on the Woomera missile range to test the aerodynamics and autopilot operation. [4]
As the Westinghouse J81 it was a powerplant for the US AQM-35 missile [5]
It was employed as an auxiliary powerplant for the Italian Aerfer Ariete fighter design and also considered as a JATO powerplant for other aircraft.
The Soar project was cancelled in March 1965, at a reported total cost of £1.2 million. [6]
Data fromRolls-Royce Aero Engines [7]
Related development
Related lists
The Rolls-Royce RB.44 Tay is a British turbojet engine of the 1940s, an enlarged version of the Rolls-Royce Nene designed at the request of Pratt & Whitney. It saw no use by British production aircraft but the design was licence built by Pratt & Whitney as the J48, and by Hispano-Suiza as the Verdon.
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. Among its major uses was the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, Convair B-58 Hustler, McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, North American A-5 Vigilante and IAI Kfir.
The Rolls-Royce RB.41 Nene is a 1940s British centrifugal compressor turbojet engine. The Nene was a complete redesign, rather than a scaled-up Rolls-Royce Derwent, with a design target of 5,000 lbf (22 kN), making it the most powerful engine of its era. First run in 1944, it was Rolls-Royce's third jet engine to enter production, and first ran less than 6 months from the start of design. It was named after the River Nene in keeping with the company's tradition of naming its jet engines after rivers.
The Rolls-Royce RB.39 Clyde was Rolls-Royce's first purpose-designed turboprop engine and the first turboprop engine to pass its civil and military type-tests.
The Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire is a British turbojet engine that was produced by Armstrong Siddeley in the 1950s. It was the ultimate development of work that had started as the Metrovick F.2 in 1940, evolving into an advanced axial flow design with an annular combustion chamber that developed over 11,000 lbf (49 kN). It powered early versions of the Hawker Hunter and Handley Page Victor, and every Gloster Javelin. Production was also started under licence in the United States by Wright Aeronautical as the J65, powering a number of US designs. The Sapphire's primary competitor was the Rolls-Royce Avon.
The Pratt & Whitney J52 is an axial-flow dual-spool turbojet engine originally designed for the United States Navy, in the 40 kN class. It powered the A-6 Intruder and the AGM-28 Hound Dog cruise missile. As of 2021 the engine was still in use in models of the A-4 Skyhawk.
The Lyulka AL-7 was a turbojet designed by Arkhip Mikhailovich Lyulka and produced by his Lyulka design bureau. The engine was produced between 1954 and 1970.
The Klimov VK-1 was the first Soviet jet engine to see significant production. It was developed by Vladimir Yakovlevich Klimov and first produced by the GAZ 116 works. Derived from the Rolls-Royce Nene, the engine was also built under licence in China as the Wopen WP-5.
The de Havilland PS.23 or PS.52 Gyron, originally the Halford H-4, was Frank Halford's last turbojet design while working for de Havilland. Intended to outpower any design then under construction, the Gyron was the most powerful engine of its era, producing 20,000 lbf (89 kN) "dry", and 27,000 lbf (120 kN) with reheat.
The Bristol Orion aero engine is a two-shaft turboprop intended for use in later marks of the Bristol Britannia and the Canadair CL-44. Although the engine was built and underwent a development program, the BE.25 Orion project was cancelled in 1958 by the British Ministry of Supply in favour of the Rolls-Royce Tyne. In addition, interest in turboprop-powered aircraft was beginning to wane, because of the successful introduction of the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 jetliners into airline service.
The Rolls-Royce/JAEC RJ500 was a 20,000 lbf (89 kN) civil turbofan which Rolls-Royce and the Japanese Aero Engine Corporation (JAEC) consortium hoped to develop for aircraft like the Boeing 737-300 and the McDonnell Douglas MD-80.
The Rolls-Royce RB.401 was a British two-spool business jet engine which Rolls-Royce started to develop in the mid-1970s as a replacement for the Viper. RB.401-06 prototype engines were already being manufactured when a decision to develop the higher thrust RB.401-07 was taken.
The Rolls-Royce RB.50 Trent was the first Rolls-Royce turboprop engine.
The Rolls-Royce RB.108 was a British jet engine designed in the mid-1950s by Rolls-Royce specifically for use as a VTOL lift engine. It was also used to provide horizontal thrust in the Short SC.1.
The Napier Eland is a British turboshaft or turboprop gas-turbine engine built by Napier & Son in the early 1950s. Production of the Eland ceased in 1961 when the Napier company was taken over by Rolls-Royce.
The Soloviev D-20P, built by the Soloviev Design Bureau, was a low-bypass turbofan engine rated at 52.9 kN (11,900 lbf) thrust used on the Tupolev Tu-124. Elements of the design were used in the development of the larger Soloviev D-30 family of low and medium bypass engines.
The Rolls-Royce RB.162 is a lightweight British turbojet engine produced by Rolls-Royce Limited. Developed in the early 1960s, it was specially designed for use as a lift engine for VTOL aircraft but was also used in a later variant of the Hawker Siddeley Trident airliner as an auxiliary boost engine. A smaller related variant, the RB.181 remained a design project only, as did a turbofan version designated RB.175.
The Rolls-Royce RB.141 Medway was a large low-bypass turbofan engine designed, manufactured and tested in prototype form by Rolls-Royce in the early-1960s. The project was cancelled due to changes in market requirements that also led to the development and production of the smaller but similar Rolls-Royce Spey, and the cancellation of the Armstrong Whitworth AW.681 military transport aircraft project.
The Rolls-Royce RB.145 was a British jet engine designed in the early-1960s by Rolls-Royce for use as a lightweight VTOL lift and cruise engine. Developed from the Rolls-Royce RB108 the RB.145 featured more accessories and a higher thrust rating. Six engines developed by MAN Turbo were fitted to the first prototype of the EWR VJ 101 experimental German fighter aircraft, achieving supersonic flight by July 1964.
The STAL Dovern was a Swedish turbojet design of the early 1950s, named after a lake in Finspång municipality in Östergötland, Sweden. Intended to power the Saab 35 Draken, this aircraft was powered by the Rolls-Royce Avon instead. The Dovern did not enter production.