The Westinghouse J40 was an early high-performance afterburning

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 designed by

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 turbo-jet gas turbine engines for aircraft propulsion under contract to the US Navy ...

starting in 1946 to a

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

Bureau of Aeronautics The Bureau of Aeronautics (BuAer) was the U.S. Navy's material-support organization for naval aviation from 1921 to 1959. The bureau had "cognizance" (''i.e.'', responsibility) for the design, procurement, and support of naval aircraft and relate ...

(BuAer) request. BuAer intended to use the design in several fighter aircraft and a bomber. However, while an early low-power design was successful, attempts to scale it up to its full design power failed, and the design was finally abandoned, deemed a "fiasco" and a "flop". The design originally called for an engine of

thrust Thrust is a reaction force described quantitatively by Newton's third law. When a system expels or accelerates mass in one direction, the accelerated mass will cause a force of equal magnitude but opposite direction to be applied to that syst ...

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

static conditions without

afterburner An afterburner (or reheat in British English) is an additional combustion component used on some jet engines, mostly those on military supersonic aircraft. Its purpose is to increase thrust, usually for supersonic flight, takeoff, and comba ...

and 10,900 lbf thrust with afterburner. A more powerful model 9,500/13,700 lbf thrust version was intended to replace the earlier engines in the various airframes. In total, thirteen different variations were planned. The projected need for the higher-power engines led BuAer to place a second source production contract with Ford Motor Company, Lincoln Mercury Division for both J40-WE-10 and J40-WE-12 engines. The higher-powered versions proved to have a flawed compressor design and lacked a suitable control system. This left the Navy with only the earlier, lower-power engines. These were eventually used for early flight testing, but proved to be largely unusable. A particularly notorious use was in the McDonnell F3H-1N Demon, which proved to be dangerously underpowered with the smaller engines. The design was quickly grounded after repeated incidents caused by flying the now overweight airframe and a number of engine failures that led to the loss of the aircraft. A government investigation of the F3H-1N program issue failed to determine if pilots had been lost due solely to the engine issues. The grounded airframes were either scrapped or used for ground training. The F3H-2N used the

Allison J71 The Allison J71 was a single spool turbojet engine, designed and built in the United States. It began development in 1948 as a much modified J35, originally designated J35-A-23. Operational history The Allison J71 turbojet powered the Douglas B ...

engine. The J40 program was terminated in 1955, by which time all the aircraft it was to power were either grounded, cancelled or redesigned to use alternative engines. The J40's failure was among those that affected the most military programs. The program failure was primarily due to lack of investment in research and experimental resources by Westinghouse, leaving them unable to resolve the issues with the various models of the engines. In 1953 Westinghouse worked with

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 ...

to offer engines based on the Avon, which had similar performance but matured into an excellent design of even higher output. Westinghouse was out of the aircraft engine business by 1965 when their thrust, scaled-down version of the Avon 300-series engine, the XJ54, also failed to find a United States market.

Development

Westinghouse Electric Corporation The Westinghouse Electric Corporation was an American manufacturing company founded in 1886 by George Westinghouse. It was originally named "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company" and was renamed "Westinghouse Electric Corporation" in ...

established the

(AGT) in 1945. Along with

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...

, Westinghouse had extensive experience in turbine design that put them in the lead over established aviation engine manufacturers, who had little experience with these entirely new design concepts. While most early engines in the US were redesigned versions of British jets, the J30 was the first truly American-designed turbojet to run, and saw use in the

McDonnell FH Phantom The McDonnell FH Phantom is a twinjet fighter aircraft designed and first flown during World War II for the United States Navy. The Phantom was the first purely jet-powered aircraft to land on an American aircraft carrier and the first jet deplo ...

. The enlarged J34 was obsolete when introduced, but moderately successful. A new design following the rapid industry progress was needed. The J40 represented a big opportunity for Westinghouse to become a prominent player in the turbojet engine market. The U.S. Navy showed great confidence in the company when it bet the success or failure of a new generation of jets on Westinghouse over three other engine companies. It was in June 1947 that the Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics contracted for its development. The prototype engine first ran in November 1948. According to an article in the April 1949 edition of the ''Naval Aviation Confidential Bulletin'' by Lieutenant Commander Neil D. Harkleroad of the Bureau of Aeronautics Power Plant Division, "The engine has been operating successfully to date." As of that writing, the 50-hour flight substantiation test was to have been accomplished by June 1949 and the 150-hour qualification test by December 1949. The J40 was designed to deliver twice the thrust of engines currently in service, allowing the J40-WE-8 with

to power many of the new Navy carrier-based fighters with a single engine. These included the

Grumman XF10F Jaguar The Grumman XF10F Jaguar was a prototype swing-wing fighter aircraft offered to the United States Navy in the early 1950s. Although it never entered service, its research paved the way toward the later General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark, General Dyn ...

variable-sweep wing general-purpose fighter, the

McDonnell F3H Demon The McDonnell F3H Demon is a subsonic swept-wing United States Navy carrier-based jet fighter aircraft. The successor to the F2H Banshee, the Demon was originally designed to use the Westinghouse J40 engine, but had to be redesigned to accept ...

and

Douglas F4D Skyray The Douglas F4D Skyray (later redesignated F-6 Skyray) is an American carrier-based fighter/interceptor built by the Douglas Aircraft Company. Although it was in service for a relatively short time (1956–1964) and never entered combat, it w ...

interceptors. Growth to over of thrust in afterburner was projected. A version without afterburner, the J40-WE-6, was to power the Douglas A-3D Skywarrior twin-engine carrier-based bomber. The J40-8 was only a little over in diameter but long, with accessories and including the afterburner. It weighed almost , the -6 being almost shorter and about lighter, because it did not have an afterburner. In 1949, a higher-power J40-WE-12 non-afterburning version developing thrust, with better fuel consumption, was proposed for the A3D, and an afterburning version (J40-WE-10) developing thrust was proposed for the fighter projects. Both versions were accepted and became the engines the airframes were designed to use. The lower-powered early development models were now intended to be used only for ground and initial flight testing until the high-powered engines became available.

Decommission

Development of the big engine was protracted. The all-important 150-hour qualification test that was to have been accomplished in December 1949 was not completed until January 1951, a year behind schedule. The afterburner was particularly troublesome – the afterburning version of the engine, the J40-WE-8, did not pass its 150-hour qualification until August 1952. As a result, J40-WE-6 engines without afterburners had to be used for initial testing, causing delays in flight test programs. Early on even the low-powered versions of the engine were considered unusable because of reliability problems. The A3D would prove successful with alternate engines, but the F3H-1 was relegated to subsonic performance using the lower-powered engine and continued to be subsonic even after substitution of the higher-power Allison J71. It has been stated, that although considered failures, the F3H-1 could have been competitive with early supersonic Air Force's Century Series fighters had the original engines delivered on their design specifications. In fact, the Demon that emerged from development was a missile-armed all-weather fighter over heavier than the XF3H-1 had been, and even the high-powered J71 could not restore its performance. The F3H-1N Demon single-engine jet fighter was initially a severe disappointment, due to the unreliability of the J40 and the difficulties of flying the much heavier airframe with the lower-powered J40-WE-22A engines. The airframe design had assumed the higher-powered J40-WE-10 would be the power plant. These first production Demons were grounded for a redesign to accept the J71 engine after the loss of six aircraft and four pilots.Boeing.com: F3H/F-3 Demon Fighter
/ref> The decision to move the Demon to the J71 had occurred long before the initial production batch emerged and with the development of a suitable afterburner for the J71 being protracted, BuAer decided to accept the early aircraft with Westinghouse J40-WE-22A and -22 engines. This decision came under Congressional review in 1955 and drew sharp criticism from Congress. ''

Time Magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Mar ...

'' called the Navy's grounding of all Westinghouse-powered F3H-1 Demons a "fiasco", with 21 unflyable planes, that could be used only for Navy ground training at a loss of $200 million.Time Magazine "Demon on the Ground" Nov. 7, 1955
/ref> One high point of the J40 was the 1955 setting of an unofficial time-to-climb record, in a Demon, of in 71 seconds. A replacement engine could not be easily fitted into the grounded Demons, as the fuselage had to be redesigned and enlarged. When this redesign was done to accommodate the J71, the wing area was also enlarged to counter the increased weight of the all-weather aircraft. The F4D Skyray that had been designed to more easily accept different engines emerged in production powered by the

Pratt & Whitney J57 The Pratt & Whitney J57 (company designation: JT3C) is an axial-flow turbojet engine developed by Pratt & Whitney in the early 1950s. The J57 (first run January 1950) was the first 10,000 lbf (45 kN) thrust class engine in the United States ...

. The A3D emerged with non-afterburning J57 engines as well. The F10F-1 program was cancelled primarily due to unsolvable aerodynamic issues with the variable-sweep wing and the control systems. The J40 engine issues were of secondary importance during the prototype flight trials.

Variants

;XJ40-WE-2, XJ40-WE-4: In-house development engines. ;J40-WE-1: Air Force version of the J40-WE-8, powering the

North American X-10 The North American X-10 (originally designated RTV-A-5) was an unmanned technology demonstrator developed by North American Aviation. It was a subscale reusable design that included many of the design features of the SM-64 Navaho missile. The X- ...

UAVs. (Two engines extant in X-10 exhibit airframe at the United States Air Force Museum in Dayton, OH) ;XJ40-WE-3: Initial Air Force designation for the first proposed version of the XJ40-WE-12: ;XJ40-WE-5: Air Force designation for the derated Block II/Block III versions of the XJ40-WE-12: thrust ;J40-WE-6: Flight testing pre-production engines, powering the two

Douglas XA3D-1 Skywarrior The Douglas A-3 Skywarrior is a jet-powered strategic bomber that was developed and produced by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It was designed by Douglas on behalf of the United States Navy, which sought a carrier-capable strategic bomber. Durin ...

prototypes,

Douglas XF4D-1 Skyray The Douglas F4D Skyray (later redesignated F-6 Skyray) is an American carrier-based fighter/interceptor built by the Douglas Aircraft Company. Although it was in service for a relatively short time (1956–1964) and never entered combat, it wa ...

prototype,

prototypes,

prototypes: thrust ;J40-WE-8: Pre-production engine with after-burner replaced the -6 versions in the Skyray, Demon and Jaguar. (One engine extant in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum): thrust ;XJ40-WE-10: Experimental afterburning version of the XJ40-WE-12. As far as can be determined, none were actually constructed although the iris type afterburner was built: thrust ;XJ40-WE-12: Experimental higher-powered engine. Four destroyed in compressor failures on the test bed: thrust ;XJ40-WE-14: Two spool design, placed under contract but not developed: thrust ;XJ40-WE-16: Afterburning version of the J40-WE-14, placed under contract but not developed: thrust ;XJ40-WE-18: Modified afterburning version of the J40-WE-10 for the Convair Skate program, proposed but not accepted. Proposal later modified for the Martin Minelayer aircraft but not accepted for that either: thrust with most altitude capabilities removed. ;XJ40-WE-20: Modified J40-WE-10 with the afterburner to operate up to 50,000 feet, none built. ;J40-WE-22/-22A: Production version of the J40-WE-8, the two models using different control systems. (One -22A extant as a cutaway exhibit in the National Naval Aviation Museum): thrust ;XJ40-WE-24: Proposed derated early production of the J40-WE-10 engine: thrust ;XJ40-WE-26: Proposed derated early production of the J40-WE-12 engine: thrust

Applications

Grumman XF10F-1 Jaguar The Grumman XF10F Jaguar was a prototype swing-wing fighter aircraft offered to the United States Navy in the early 1950s. Although it never entered service, its research paved the way toward the later General Dynamics F-111 and Grumman's own F-1 ...

Specifications (J40-WE-8)

References

Bibliography

* * * * * {{US military gas turbine aeroengines 1940s turbojet engines J40 Engineering failures Abandoned military aircraft engine projects of the United States