The Rolls-Royce RB.106 was an advanced military
turbojet engine design of the 1950s by
Rolls-Royce Limited
Rolls-Royce Limited was a British luxury car and later an aero-engine manufacturing business established in 1904 in Manchester by the partnership of Charles Rolls and Henry Royce. Building on Royce's good reputation established with his Crane ( ...
. The work was sponsored by the
Ministry of Supply. The RB.106 project was cancelled in March 1957, at a reported total cost of £100,000.
Design and development
The RB.106 was a two-shaft design with two axial flow compressors each driven by its own single stage turbine and
reheat
An afterburner (or reheat in British English) is an additional combustion component used on some jet engines, mostly those on military aircraft, military supersonic aircraft. Its purpose is to increase thrust, usually for supersonic flight, ta ...
. It was of similar size to the
Rolls-Royce Avon, allowing it to be used as a drop-in replacement, but it would have produced about twice the thrust (with reheat) at 21,750 lbf (96.7 kN). The two-shaft layout was relatively advanced for the era; the single-shaft
de Havilland Gyron matched it in power terms, while the two-spool
Bristol Olympus
The Rolls-Royce Olympus (originally the Bristol B.E.10 Olympus) was the world's second two-jet engine spool, spool axial-flow compressor, axial-flow turbojet aircraft engine design, first run in May 1950 and preceded only by the Pratt & Whitne ...
was much less powerful at its then-current state of development.
Apart from being expected to power British aircraft such as those competing for
Operational Requirement F.155, it was selected to be the powerplant for the
Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow. The American company
Westinghouse was reported in 1956 to be serious about acquiring a licence to build the RB.106. A scaled-up version of the RB.106 intended for F.155 was the
Rolls-Royce RB.122. The competing
Bristol
Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...
two-spool engine to the same specification was to have been the
Bristol Zeus
Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...
.
However funding was cut with the
1957 Defence White Paper
The 1957 White Paper on Defence (Cmnd. 124) was a British white paper issued in March 1957 setting forth the perceived future of the British military. It had profound effects on all aspects of the defence industry but probably the most affected wa ...
which terminated most aircraft development then under way. The Arrow moved to an indigenous two-spool design similar to the RB.106, the
Orenda Iroquois
The Orenda PS.13 Iroquois was an advanced turbojet engine designed for military use. It was developed by the Canadian aircraft engine manufacturer Orenda Engines, a part of the Avro Canada group. Intended for the CF-105 Arrow interceptor, ...
.
Applications (proposed)
*
Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow
*
Supermarine Type 553
The Supermarine Type 553 was a British Mach 2 research aircraft project from 1953 that never proceeded beyond the initial proposal.
Design and development
The difficulty of achieving Mach 2 flight was realised during the development of the 54 ...
Specifications (RB.106)
See also
References
External links
The initial announcement of the existence of the RB106in a 1956 edition of ''Flight''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rolls-Royce Rb106
1950s turbojet engines
RB106