The Turbomeca Palouste is a French

gas turbine A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas generator or core) and are, in the directio ...

engine, first run in 1952. Designed purely as a compressed air generator, the Palouste was mainly used as a ground-based aircraft engine starter unit. Other uses included rotor tip propulsion for

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attribu ...

Design and development

Designed and built by Turbomeca, the Palouste was also built under license in Britain by

Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley, east of Preston and north-n ...

and Rolls-Royce. Originally conceived as an aircraft ground support equipment starter gas generator, it was used also as propulsion for the Sud-Ouest Djinn and other tip-jet powered helicopters. The Palouste was a very simple unit, its primary purpose being to supply a high flow rate of

compressed air Compressed air is air kept under a pressure that is greater than atmospheric pressure. Compressed air is an important medium for transfer of energy in industrial processes, and is used for power tools such as air hammers, drills, wrenches, an ...

to start larger jet engines such as the Rolls-Royce Spey as installed in the

Blackburn Buccaneer The Blackburn Buccaneer is a British carrier-capable attack aircraft designed in the 1950s for the Royal Navy (RN). Designed and initially produced by Blackburn Aircraft at Brough, it was later officially known as the Hawker Siddeley Buccane ...

(this aircraft having no onboard starting system). Air from the

centrifugal compressor Centrifugal compressors, sometimes called impeller compressors or radial compressors, are a sub-class of dynamic axisymmetric work-absorbing turbomachinery. They achieve pressure rise by adding energy to the continuous flow of fluid through t ...

was divided between external supply (known as

bleed air Bleed air is compressed air taken from the compressor stage of a gas turbine upstream of its fuel-burning sections. Automatic air supply and cabin pressure controller (ASCPCs) valves bleed air from high or low stage engine compressor sections. Lo ...

) and its own combustion chamber. Sea Vixen of 892 NAS on USS Forrestal (CVA-59) c1962

Several British naval aircraft were adapted to carry a Palouste in a wing-mounted

air starter The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing for ...

pod installation to facilitate engine starting when away from base. A novel use of a surplus Palouste engine was its installation in a custom-built

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle Steering, steered by a Motorcycle handlebar, handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: Long-distance ...

known as the ''Boost Palouste''. In 1986 this motorcycle broke an official ACU 1/4 mile speed record at . The builder modified the engine to include a primitive

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 c ...

device and noted that pitch changes which occurred during braking and acceleration caused gyroscopic precession handling effects due to the rotating mass of the engine.The ''Boost Palouste'' - jet-pack.co.uk
Retrieved: 24 July 2009

Variants

;Palouste IV:The gas generator used to power the Sud-Ouest S.O.1221 Djinn and other tip-jet helicopters. ;Palouste IVB: ;Palouste IVC: ;Palouste IVD: ;Palouste IVE: ;Palouste IVF: ;Palouste 502: (P.102 and P.104) Blackburn / Bristol Siddeley / Rolls-Royce production for air-starter units. ;Autan :A development of the Palouste delivering a higher mass flow of compressed air. ;Autan 2: 1 x axial + 1 x centrifugal compressor stages

Applications

* Bell Model 65 * Fairey Ultra-light Helicopter * Sud-Ouest Djinn

Specifications (Palouste 4)

Aerospatiale SO 1221 Djinn Antrieb Detail

References

External links

Turbomeca website
{{Turbomeca aeroengines Palouste Aircraft gas generator engines Centrifugal-flow gas turbine engines