The Klimov RD-500 was an unlicensed

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the 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 Fran ...

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 ...

that was sold to the Soviet Union in 1947. The

Klimov UEC-Klimov () is a Russian manufacturer of gas turbine engines, main gearboxes and accessory drive gearboxes for transport aircraft. Originally established as ''Kirill Klimov Experimental Design Bureau'' in Saint-Petersburg under the directio ...

OKB OKB () is a transliteration of the Russian initials for "" (), which translates to "Experimental Design Bureau." It could also mean or "Special Design Bureau" in english. During the Soviet era, OKBs were closed institutions working on design and ...

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-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 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 th ...

, nine

combustion chamber A combustion chamber is part of an internal combustion engine in which the air–fuel ratio, fuel/air mix is burned. For steam engines, the term has also been used for an extension of the Firebox (steam engine), firebox which is used to allow a mo ...

s, and a single-stage

turbine A turbine ( or ) (from the Greek , ''tyrbē'', or Latin ''turbo'', meaning vortex) is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work. The work produced can be used for generating electrical ...

. 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 Kazan; , IPA: Help:IPA/Tatar, ɑzanis the largest city and capital city, capital of Tatarstan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka (river), Kazanka Rivers, covering an area of , with a population of over 1. ...

was brought into the program and built 300 engines in 1949. Production was canceled around 1950 in favor of the superior

Klimov VK-1 The Klimov VK-1 was the first Soviet jet engine to see significant production. It was developed by and first produced by the GAZ 116 works. Derived from the Rolls-Royce Nene, the engine was also built under licence in China as the Wopen WP-5. ...

turbojet based on the

Rolls-Royce Nene The Rolls-Royce RB.41 Nene is a 1940s British centrifugal compressor turbojet engine. The Nene was a complete redesign, rather than a scaled-up Rolls-Royce Derwent,"Rolls-Royce Aero Engines" Bill Gunston, Patrick Stephens Limited 1989, , p.111 ...

. The RD-500 was used in a number of early Soviet jet fighters including the

Lavochkin La-15 The Lavochkin La-15 (Sokol plant, Plant 21 product code Izdeliye 52, USAF reporting name Type 21, NATO reporting name Fantail), was an early Soviet Union, Soviet Fighter aircraft, jet fighter and a contemporary of the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 whic ...

, the

Yakovlev Yak-25 The Yakovlev Yak-25 (List of NATO reporting names for fighters, NATO designation Flashlight-A/Mandrake) is a swept wing, turbojet-powered interceptor aircraft, interceptor and reconnaissance aircraft built by Yakovlev and used by the Soviet Un ...

, and the Yakovlev Yak-30, but only the

Yakovlev Yak-23 The Yakovlev Yak-23 (; USAF/DoD reporting name Type 28, NATO reporting name Flora) is an early Soviet jet fighter with a straight wing. It was developed from the Yak-17 in the late 1940s and used a reverse-engineered copy of a British engine. It ...

and

were accepted for service.Gunston, pp. 477–78 The RD-500 was copied and developed further in the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

(PRC) at the Shenyang Aircraft Development Office PF-1A.

Applications

* Mikoyan-Gurevich KSK test plane *

Raduga KS-1 Komet The Raduga KS-1 Comet ( (Крылатый Снаряд: winged projectile), NATO reporting name: AS-1 Kennel) was a Soviet short range air-to-surface missile, primarily developed for anti-ship missions. It was carried on two aircraft, the Tupole ...

* Yakovlev Yak-30 *

Yakovlev Yak-1000 The Yakovlev Yak-1000 was a Soviet supersonic technology demonstrator intended to evaluate the aerodynamic layout and field performance of the cropped delta wing discussed in captured German documents in combination with the new Lyulka AL-5 turb ...

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