The Klimov RD-500 was an unlicensed Soviet copy of the

Rolls-Royce Derwent V The Rolls-Royce RB.37 Derwent is a 1940s British centrifugal compressor turbojet engine, the second Rolls-Royce jet engine to enter production. It was an improved version of the Rolls-Royce Welland, which itself was a renamed version of Frank ...

turbojet that was sold to the Soviet Union in 1947. The Klimov OKB adapted it for Soviet production methods and materials.

Development

Producing metric drawings and analyzing the materials used in the Derwent V went fairly quickly, but finding a substitute for the high-temperature,

creep Creep, Creeps or CREEP may refer to: People * Creep, a creepy person Politics * Committee for the Re-Election of the President (CRP), mockingly abbreviated as CREEP, an fundraising organization for Richard Nixon's 1972 re-election campaign Art ...

-resistant Nimonic 80 nickel-chromium alloy was a more difficult challenge. Eventually an alloy that matched Nimonic 80's high-temperature properties was found in KhN 80T, but it was not creep-resistant. The first Derwent V copy, designated as the RD-500 (''Reaktivnyy Dvigatel'' — jet engine) after Factory No. 500 where the engine was first produced, was being tested on 31 December 1947, but problems cropped up quickly. Combustion was uneven and this cracked the combustion chambers. This may have had something to do with the modifications made by the Soviets to the fuel, speed, and starter systems. But these problems were resolved by September 1948 when the engine passed its 100-hour State acceptance test. RD-500 was a close copy of the Derwent with a single-stage centrifugal compressor, nine combustion chambers, and a single-stage turbine. It matched the Derwent's thrust of and was only heavier. The main problem with the engine in service was with its turbine blades, 30% of which failed inspection due to recrystallization after casting. The poor creep resistance of the KhN 80T alloy resulted in dangerous elongation of the turbine blades. Up to 40% of the early production RD-500s had to be individually adjusted before delivery and the service life of the engine never approached the 100 hours demonstrated in the acceptance test. The Soviets had enormous problems building the engines to standard, as demonstrated in the 20,000 man-hours required to build a single engine in 1947. This figure dropped to a more reasonable 7,900 man-hours by November 1948 and declined further still to 4,734 man-hours by 1 March 1949, close to the target of 4,000 man-hours. Production by Factory No. 500 totaled 97 in 1948 and 462 in 1949. Factory No. 16 in Kazan was brought into the program and built 300 engines in 1949. Production was canceled around 1950 in favor of the superior Klimov VK-1 turbojet based on the Rolls-Royce Nene. The RD-500 was used in a number of early Soviet jet fighters including the

Lavochkin La-15 The Lavochkin La-15 ( Plant 21 product code Izdeliye 52, USAF reporting name Type 21, NATO reporting name Fantail), was an early Soviet jet fighter and a contemporary of the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15. Design and development Lavochkin had produced ...

, the Yakovlev Yak-25, and the Yakovlev Yak-30, but only the Yakovlev Yak-23, Yakovlev Yak-25 and

were accepted for service.Gunston, pp. 477–78 The RD-500 was copied and developed further in the People's Republic of China (PRC) at the Shenyang Aircraft Development Office PF-1A.

Applications

* Mikoyan-Gurevich KSK test plane * Raduga KS-1 Komet * Yakovlev Yak-23 * Yakovlev Yak-25 * Yakovlev Yak-30 * Yakovlev Yak-1000

Specifications (RD-500)

References

Notes

Bibliography

* * Gunston, Bill. ''The Osprey Encyclopaedia of Russian Aircraft 1875–1995''. London, Osprey, 1995 {{DEFAULTSORT:Klimov Rd-500 1940s turbojet engines RD-500 Centrifugal-flow turbojet engines