The Rolls-Royce RB.39 Clyde was

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

's first purpose-designed

turboprop A turboprop is a Gas turbine, gas turbine engine that drives an aircraft Propeller (aeronautics), propeller. A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction drive, reduction gearbox, gas compressor, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propellin ...

engine and the first turboprop engine to pass its civil and military type-tests. As with subsequent Rolls-Royce gas turbines, it was named after a river, the

River Clyde The River Clyde (, ) is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde, in the west of Scotland. It is the eighth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the second longest in Scotland after the River Tay. It runs through the city of Glasgow. Th ...

Design and development

The Clyde used a two-shaft design, with an axial compressor based on that of the Metrovick F.2"World Encyclopedia of Aero Engines – 5th edition" by Bill Gunston, Sutton Publishing, 2006, P.195 for the low-pressure section, and a single-sided centrifugal compressor scaled up from the

Merlin The Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) is an interferometer array of radio telescopes spread across England. The array is run from Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire by the University of Manchester on behalf of UK Re ...

46 supercharger as the high-pressure stage, both mounted on the HP shaft and driven by a single stage HP turbine. A single stage power turbine drove the front mounted propeller reduction gearbox via the concentric LP shaft. A fairly novel feature of this compact gearbox was the power output to contra-rotating propellers."Not much of an Engineer" by Sir Stanley Hooker, Airlife Publishing Ltd, 1984, P.227 The Clyde was a long engine with the axial LP compressor in front of what was, in effect, a scaled-down Derwent engine. Accessories were grouped around the axial compressor which conveniently narrowed towards the rear. Cooling for turbines and turbine bearings came from a small impeller on the main shaft as well as air taken from the axial and centrifugal compressors. Testing of the development engines exceeded expectations with the engine soon being rated at 4,030 eshp. During testing potentially destructive vibrations were found originating in the straight-cut spur gears in the reduction gearbox. The engine was selected as the main engine of the Westland Wyvern TF Mk.2 strike aircraft. However, despite the promising performance of the test engines Ernest Hives felt that pure-jets such as the Avon were the future and the Clyde programme was terminated, forcing Westland to use the less than satisfactory Armstrong Siddeley Python on the production Wyverns. and so Rolls-Royce's first production turboprop would be the Dart.

Engines on display

A part sectioned example is on display at the Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust, (Derby).

Specifications (Clyde)

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Gunston, Bill. ''World Encyclopedia of Aero Engines''. Cambridge, England. Patrick Stephens Limited, 1989. * * King, H. F
"The Two R's: A Commemorative History of Rolls-Royce Aero Engines. (article and images).
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Flight Flight or flying is the motion (physics), motion of an Physical object, object through an atmosphere, or through the vacuum of Outer space, space, without contacting any planetary surface. This can be achieved by generating aerodynamic lift ass ...