The Westinghouse J46 is an

afterburning 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 ...

turbojet The turbojet is an airbreathing jet engine which is typically used in aircraft. It consists of a gas turbine with a propelling nozzle. The gas turbine has an air inlet which includes inlet guide vanes, a compressor, a combustion chamber, and ...

engine developed by the

Westinghouse Aviation Gas Turbine Division The Westinghouse Aviation Gas Turbine Division (AGT) was established by Westinghouse Electric Corporation in 1945 to continue the development and production of its gas turbine engines for aircraft propulsion under contract to the US Navy Bureau o ...

for the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

in the 1950s. It was primarily employed in powering the

Convair F2Y Sea Dart The Convair F2Y Sea Dart is an American seaplane fighter aircraft that rode on twin hydro-skis during takeoff and landing. It flew only as a prototype, and never entered mass production. It is the only seaplane to have exceeded the speed of sou ...

and

Vought F7U Cutlass The Vought F7U Cutlass is a United States Navy aircraft carrier, carrier-based fighter aircraft, jet fighter and fighter-bomber designed and produced by the aircraft manufacturer Vought, Chance Vought. It was the first tailless aircraft, tailles ...

. The engine also powered the land speed-record car known as the

Wingfoot Express The Wingfoot Express was Walt Arfons and Tom Green's jet-powered land speed record car, driven by Green to a record on October 2, 1964, after Walt suffered a heart attack just prior. The Express was powered by a Westinghouse J46 engine and hit th ...

, designed by

Walt Arfons Walter Charles Arfons (December 10, 1916 – June 4, 2013) was the half brother of Art Arfons, his former partner in drag racing, and his competitor in jet-powered land speed record racing. Along with Art, he was a pioneer in the use of airc ...

and

Tom Green Michael Thomas Green (born July 30, 1971) is a Canadian and American comedian, show host, actor, filmmaker, podcaster, and rapper. After pursuing stand-up comedy and music as a young adult, Green created and hosted '' The Tom Green Show'', whi ...

It was intended to power the F3D-3, an improved,

swept-wing A swept wing is a wing angled either backward or occasionally forward from its root rather than perpendicular to the fuselage. Swept wings have been flown since the pioneer days of aviation. Wing sweep at high speeds was first investigated in Ge ...

variant of the

Douglas F3D Skyknight The Douglas F3D Skyknight ( later redesignated F-10 Skyknight) is an American twin-engined, mid-wing jet fighter aircraft designed and manufactured by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It was designed in response to a 1945 United States Navy req ...

, although this airframe was never built.

Design and development

The J46 engine was developed as a larger, more powerful version of Westinghouse's J34 engine, about 50% larger. The Westinghouse model number was a continuation of the "X24C" series of the J34. The model number assigned was X24C10, even though the J46 differed in many design features from the smaller J34. It was seen as a lower development risk than the

Westinghouse J40 The Westinghouse J40 was an early high-performance afterburning turbojet engine designed by Westinghouse Aviation Gas Turbine Division starting in 1946 to a US Navy Bureau of Aeronautics (BuAer) request. BuAer intended to use the design in sever ...

which was in parallel development at the same time. The development program ran into many problems with this engine, including the original electronic control system, compressor/turbine mismatches, combustion instability and control issues at altitude leading to compressor stalling The produced -8, -8A and -8B engines were all derated from the original design specification on both thrust and specific fuel consumption.Aero Engines 1954 (1954). ''Flight''. 9 Apr 1954. pg 461
/ref> The engine's 12-stage compressor was driven by two turbine stages on a single shaft. Early development engines included a simple "eyelid" afterburner, actuated by control rods that ran the length of the engine. By the time the engine reached production, the rear nozzle had an iris-type "petal" design. The same long control rods now pushed or pulled a ring that ran on rollers, which in turn opened or closed the iris. The original design, using an electronic control system, would have allowed continuous adjustment of afterburner thrust from minimum to maximum. This was abandoned when the electronic control could not be made acceptably reliable; the final afterburner was an "ON/OFF" unit.

Variants

;J46-WE-2: ;J46-WE-3: 3,980 lbf (18.15 kN) thrustRou
2007, pp. 237–238.
/ref> Was to be used the

Douglas X-3 Stiletto The Douglas X-3 Stiletto is a 1950s United States experimental jet aircraft with a slender fuselage and a long tapered nose, manufactured by the Douglas Aircraft Company. Its primary mission was to investigate the design features of an aircraft ...

. Failed to exit testing due to thrust shortfalls. ;J46-WE-4/-10: 3,980 lbf (20.02 kN) thrust The non-A/B version of the J46-WE-2/-8B. Intended for the Douglas F3D-3 SkyKnight but did not go into production because of schedule slippage and the F3D-3 cancellation. ;J46-WE-8: 3,980 lbf (20.46 kN) (5,800 lbf (27.13 kN) thrust with afterburner) This variant powered both the F7U-3 and F7U-3M, the missile-capable Cutlass. ;J46-WE-8A:This variant powered the F7U-3 Cutlass and produced 5,500/5,800 lbf of A/B thrust. All -8A engines were upgraded to the -8B build standard after being produced. ;J46-WE-8B:The F7U-3 was equipped with two J46-WE-8B turbojets giving a 680 mph (1,095 km/h) max speed. This variant also powered the Harvey Hustler, a speed boat designed to go faster than 275 mph. ;J46-WE-12:This variant powered the

F2Y Sea Dart The Convair F2Y Sea Dart is an American seaplane fighter aircraft that rode on twin hydro-skis during takeoff and landing. It flew only as a prototype, and never entered mass production. It is the only seaplane to have exceeded the speed of sou ...

hydroski aircraft. Basically identical to the -8/-8B, the aircraft was equipped with a fresh water spray system that flushed salt deposits out of the engine before takeoff and after shutdown.Aero Engines 1956 (1956). ''Flight''. 11 May 1956, p. 596
/ref> ;J46-WE-18:This variant produced an increased 6,100 lbf (27.1 kN) of A/B thrust for the proposed A2U-1 attack aircraft, an attack variant of the F7U. This variant was canceled with the aircraft program.

Applications

(intended) *

Surviving engines

* Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Exhibit 1971-0911, J46-WE-8B, Serial WE405773, 15 total running hours, including acceptance testing and 3 flights in an F7U-3. In storage. * Green Mamba dragster owned by Doug Rose in Tampa, Florida

Specifications (J46-WE-8)

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Roux, Élodie. ''Turbofan and Turbojet Engines: Database Handbook''. Raleigh, North Carolina: Éditions Élodie Roux, 2007. . {{USAF gas turbine engines 1950s turbojet engines J46