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The Armstrong Siddeley Double Mamba is a
turboprop A turboprop is a turbine engine that drives an aircraft propeller. A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction gearbox, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propelling nozzle. Air enters the intake and is compressed by the compressor. ...
engine design developed in the late 1940s of around . It was used mostly on the Fairey Gannet
anti-submarine An anti-submarine weapon (ASW) is any one of a number of devices that are intended to act against a submarine and its crew, to destroy (sink) the vessel or reduce its capability as a weapon of war. In its simplest sense, an anti-submarine weapo ...
aircraft developed for the
Fleet Air Arm The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy and is responsible for the delivery of naval air power both from land and at sea. The Fleet Air Arm operates the F-35 Lightning II for maritime strike, the AW159 Wi ...
of the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...
.


Design and development

The Double Mamba (rarely known as the Twin Mamba) was a development of the
Armstrong Siddeley Mamba The Armstrong Siddeley Mamba was a British turboprop engine produced by Armstrong Siddeley in the late 1940s and 1950s, producing around 1,500 effective horsepower (1,100 kW). Armstrong Siddeley gas turbine engines were named after snak ...
with two Mambas driving contra-rotating propellers through a combining
gearbox Propulsion transmission is the mode of transmitting and controlling propulsion power of a machine. The term ''transmission'' properly refers to the whole drivetrain, including clutch, gearbox, prop shaft (for rear-wheel drive vehicles), diff ...
.Gunston 1989, p.20. Engine starting was by cartridge, however, forced air restart was achieved in flight. One engine could be shut down in flight to conserve fuel. Shutting down one engine also stopped one of the propellers.


Variants

;ASMD.1: (2 x ASMa.3) used on Fairey Gannet A.S. Mk.1 and
Blackburn B-88 The Blackburn B-54 and B-88 were prototype carrier-borne anti-submarine warfare aircraft of the immediate post- Second World War era developed for the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm (FAA). They shared a conventional monoplane design with a mid-mount ...
;ASMD.3: (2 x ASMa.5) used on Fairey Gannet A.S. Mk.4 ;ASMD.4: (2 x ASMa.6) used on Fairey Gannet AEW Mk.3 ;ASMD.8: (2 x ASMa.6) used on Fairey Gannet AEW Mk.3


Applications

*
Blackburn B-88 The Blackburn B-54 and B-88 were prototype carrier-borne anti-submarine warfare aircraft of the immediate post- Second World War era developed for the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm (FAA). They shared a conventional monoplane design with a mid-mount ...
* Fairey Gannet The Double Mamba engine was also proposed for the Westland Westminster, a 30-seat helicopter that was later built as a prototype powered by a pair of Napier Eland E220 turboshaft engines.


Engines on display

Preserved Double Mamba engines are on public display at the: *
Australian National Aviation Museum The Moorabbin Air Museum is an aviation museum at Moorabbin Airport in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It was founded in 1962 as the Australian Aircraft Restoration Group, in an attempt to maintain a World War II-era Bristol Beaufighter aircr ...
* Deutsches Museum Flugwerft Schleissheim * Gatwick Aviation Museum * Imperial War Museum Duxford * Midland Air Museum * Queensland Air Museum *
East Midlands Aeropark East Midlands Airport is an international airport in the East Midlands of England, close to Castle Donington in northwestern Leicestershire, between Loughborough (), Derby () and Nottingham (); Leicester is () to the south and Lincoln () no ...
* Museum of Berkshire Aviation


Specifications (ASMD.3)


See also


References


Notes


Bibliography

* Gunston, Bill. ''World Encyclopedia of Aero Engines''. Cambridge, England. Patrick Stephens Limited, 1989.


External links


Original Armstrong Siddeley Double Mamba advertisement - ''Flight'', 29 June 1950
{{Armstrong Siddeley aeroengines 1940s turboprop engines Double Mamba