 | |
| Formerly | Williams Research Corporation |
|---|---|
| Industry | Aerospace |
| Founded | 1954 |
| Founder | Sam B. Williams |
| Headquarters | , United States |
| Website | williams-int |
Williams International is an American manufacturer of small gas turbine engines based in Pontiac, Michigan, United States. It produces jet engines for cruise missiles and small jet aircraft.
Dr. Sam B. Williams worked at Chrysler on their automotive turbine systems, but always imagined a wider set of applications for the small gas turbine engine. He left Chrysler to form Williams Research Corporation in Birmingham, Michigan, in 1954. [1] [2] In 1981, the company became Williams International. It has been building small turbofan engines since the 1950s for use in cruise missiles as well as target and reconnaissance drones.
Using the missile engines, Williams developed a series of personal VTOL flying craft, including a jet-powered belt in 1969, the Williams Aerial Systems Platform (WASP), also known as the "flying pulpit" in the 1970s, and the X-Jet, which was evaluated by the United States Army in the 1980s. [3] [4] The WASP platform was the only competitor to the Garrett STAMP in the United States Marine Corps STAMP (Small Tactical Aerial Mobility Platform) program of the early 1970s.
Also in the 1980s, Williams identified a need in the general aviation market for a small, light jet engine to power cost-effective personal and corporate jet aircraft. The company introduced the FJ44 engine, which in turn made possible the introduction of a number of small jet aircraft.
In 1992, NASA initiated its Advanced General Aviation Transport Experiments (AGATE) program to partner with manufacturers and help develop technologies that would revitalize the sagging general aviation industry. In 1996, Williams joined AGATE's General Aviation Propulsion program to develop a fuel-efficient turbofan engine that would be even smaller than the FJ44. The result was the FJX-2 engine. Williams then contracted with Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites to design and build the Williams V-Jet II, a Very Light Jet to use as a testbed and technology demonstrator to showcase the new engine. The aircraft and engine were debuted at the 1997 Oshkosh Airshow. The production version of the engine, the EJ22 flew on the prototype Eclipse 500 VLJ (which had evolved from the V-Jet II), but was subsequently replaced by a Pratt & Whitney engine.
| Model name | First flight | Number built | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Williams X-Jet | 1980 | 3 | Flying platform |
| Williams V-Jet II | 1997 | 1 | Twin jet engine monoplane business jet |
| Model name | Variant | US Military Designation (MIL-HDBK-1812) | Configuration | Power | First Flight | Used In |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Williams WR1 | WR1 | regenerative free turbine turboshaft | 75 shaft horsepower | 1954 | ||
| Williams Jet No. 1 | single-shaft, centrifugal/centrifugal-axial flow turbojet | 60 lbf | 1957 | |||
| Williams J400 | WR2 | single-shaft, centrifugal/centrifugal-axial flow turbojet | 125 lbf | 1960 | Canadair CL-89, | |
| Williams J400 | WR24 | J400-WR | single-shaft, centrifugal/centrifugal-axial flow turbojet | 240 lbf | Northrop MQM/BQM-74 Chukar | |
| Williams F107 | WR19 | F107-WR | Turbofan | 430 lbf | AGM-86, BGM-109 | |
| Williams F122 | WR19 | F122-WR | twin-shaft, axial-centrifugal-flow turbofan | 900 lbf | AGM-137 | |
| Williams F112 | F112-WR | twin-spool counter rotating turbofan | 732 lbf | 1985(?) | X-36, X-50, AGM-129 | |
| Williams EJ22 | 3-spool medium-bypass ratio turbofan | 770 lbf | 2000(?) | Eclipse 500 VLJ | ||
| Williams FJ33 | Turbofan | 1,846 lbf | 1998(?) | Cirrus Vision SF50 | ||
| Williams FJ44 | WR44 | F129-WR | Turbofan | 1,900 lbf | July 12, 1988 | Cessna CitationJet |
| Williams WR34 | WR34 | Turboshaft | ||||
| Williams F121 | WR36 | F121-WR | 1 stage axial fan, 6-stage axial compressor, single spool turbofan | 70 lbf | July 30, 1984 | AGM-136 Tacit Rainbow |
| Williams WST117 | ||||||
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A jet aircraft is an aircraft propelled by jet engines.
A business jet, private jet, or bizjet is a jet aircraft designed for transporting small groups of people, typically business executives and high-ranking associates. Business jets are generally designed for faster air travel and more personal comfort than commercial aircraft, and may be adapted for other roles, such as casualty evacuation or express parcel deliveries, and some are used by public bodies, government officials, VIPs, or even the armed forces.
The Williams X-Jet, created by Williams International, was a small, single-person, light-weight, Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft powered by a modified Williams F107 turbofan aircraft engine — designated WR-19-7 — after some minor modifications. The vehicle was nicknamed "The Flying Pulpit" for its shape. It was designed to carry one operator and to be controlled by leaning in the direction of desired travel and by modulating engine output power. It could move in any direction, accelerate rapidly, hover and rotate on its axis, stay aloft for up to 45 minutes and travel at speeds up to 60 miles per hour (97 km/h). It was evaluated by the United States Army in the 1980s, but was deemed inferior to the capabilities of helicopters and small, uncrewed aircraft, and so the development of the X-Jet was discontinued.
The Williams F107 is a small turbofan engine made by Williams International. The F107 was designed to propel cruise missiles. It has been used as the powerplant for the AGM-86 ALCM, and BGM-109 Tomahawk, as well as the experimental Kaman KSA-100 SAVER and Williams X-Jet flying platform.
The Williams FJ44 is a family of small, two-spool, turbofan engines produced by Williams International for the light business jet market. Until the recent boom in the very light jet market, the FJ44 was one of the smallest turbofans available for civilian applications. Although basically a Williams design, Rolls-Royce was brought into the project at an early stage to design, develop, and manufacture an air-cooled high-pressure (HP) turbine for the engine. The FJ44 first flew on July 12, 1988 on the Scaled Composites/Beechcraft Triumph aircraft.
The Williams EJ22 was a small turbofan engine that was being developed by Williams International for very light jet (VLJ) aircraft applications.
The Williams V-Jet II was designed and built by Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites for Williams International as a test bed and demonstrator aircraft for Williams' new FJX-1 turbofan engine.
The Scaled Composites Triumph is a twin-engine, business jet prototype designed and built by Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites for Beechcraft. It was known officially as the Model 143, and internally at Scaled as the "Tuna". The aircraft is a three lifting surface design, with both a small canard, and a small conventional horizontal stabilizer in a T-tail configuration.
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The SyberJet SJ30 is a light business jet built by American company SyberJet Aircraft. In October 1986, Ed Swearingen announced the new design, a 6 to 8 person aircraft powered by two Williams FJ44 turbofans. Initially backed by Gulfstream Aerospace from October 1988, the Jaffe Group took over in September 1989 and the first SJ-30 flew on February 13, 1991 but development halted afterwards. The Taiwan-based Sino Swearingen Aircraft Corporation rescued the program, the jet was stretched by 4.3 ft into the SJ30-2 with a wingspan increased by six feet.
The Cessna CitationJet/CJ/M2 are a series of light business jets built by Cessna, and are part of the Citation family. Launched in October 1989, the first flight of the Model 525 was on April 29, 1991. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification was awarded on October 16, 1992, and the first aircraft was delivered on March 30, 1993. The CJ series are powered by two Williams FJ44 engines; the design uses the Citation II's forward fuselage with a new carry-through section wing and a T-tail. The original CitationJet model has been updated into the CJ1/CJ1+/M2 variants; additionally, the CJ1 was stretched into the CJ2/CJ2+ which was built between 2000 and 2016. The design was then further developed into the CJ3/CJ3+, built from December 2004 to present, and finally into the CJ4 which has been built since 2010. By June 2017, 2,000 of all variants had been delivered.
The Garrett STAMP was a two-person aircraft prototype made by a division of AiResearch Manufacturing Co. of Phoenix, Arizona, for the United States Marine Corps STAMP program, in the early 1970s.
The Williams F112 is a small turbofan engine made by Williams International designed to power cruise missiles. It has been used as the powerplant for the AGM-129 Advanced Cruise Missile and the AGM-86B advanced cruise missile, as well as the experimental X-36 and X-50.
The Ivchenko AI-25 is a family of military and civilian twin-shaft medium bypass turbofan engines developed by Ivchenko OKB of the Soviet Union. It was the first bypass engine ever used on short haul aircraft in the USSR. The engine is still produced by Ukrainian based aircraft engine manufacturing company, Motor Sich.
