Talk:Rolls-Royce RB.44 Tay

P&W contributions
I've generally heard the Pratt & Whitney J48 described as a licensed-built Tay, and it is treated as such in this article. Howerver, Bill Gunston, in his World Encyclopedia of Aero Engines (c.2006 edition) states that the Tay/J48 were developed by both PW and RR together, as an improvement on the Nene? (which PW did build under license as the J42). Gunston is generally reliable as a writer, and his usual pro-British bent (totally understandable!) lends credence to this being accurate. Are there any objections to my updating the article to reflect the role of PW as a co-developer, not a mere licensee? Please be prepared to submit reliable sources, especially since the article currently has none. Thanks. - BillCJ (talk) 12:00, 19 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Just did a quick search of the 'Flight' archive and found this which says it was a joint development. Maybe there was a license involved as well. Bit of a challenge finding info on these older engines, got a couple of books on the way that should help. Cheers Nimbus (talk) 12:44, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

OK, good. I'll add a few things on the joint development, and try to cite what I can in the rest of the article from Gunston and Flight. I won't change the "licensing" wording until we can find clarification on that; as you say, the J48 might still have had to be licensed. Thanks for the quick response. - BillCJ (talk) 13:02, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

After visiting the US in 1944, the Rolls Royce team led by Stanley Hooker saw for the first time how far engineers at General Electric were along the track to producing a Whittle derived 4,000Lb thrust turbojet, the I-40. On return to Britain they determined to produce a clean sheet design, the 5,000lb thrust RB.41 Nene. Since there were no British aircraft in prospect to utilise such a (then) powerful engine (it was only ever used in one production British aircraft, the Hawker Sea Hawk naval fighter), they scaled it down to produce a 0.855 "photocopy", the Derwent V sized to suit the Meteor's engine nacelles. This was accomplished in a bare six months, a remarkably short development time clearly demonstrating RR's mastery of the centrifugal turbojet format. If the Nene could be scaled down, it could also be scaled up. The impellor was inceased 12.7mm in radius to increased airflow from 90lb/s (Nene) to 130lb/s and the new 7,000 plus lb thrust engine the RB.44 named Tay. Again there was no prospect of a British aircraft using this engine. It was produced as the J48 by Pratt & Whitney in the US and used to power such aeroplanes as the and its swept-wing derivative of the F9F Panther (which used the P & W J42 Nene derivative), the Cougar by Grumman, the Lockheed F-94 Starfire all weather fighter, and in France by Hispano-Suiza as the Verdon. The 7,710lb thrust Verdon 350 was used to power the Dassault Mystere series including the transonic Mystere IV. Bibliography: Hooker, Sir Stanley, 1984, "Not Much of an Engineer", Airlife Publishing, London Green, W and Pollinger, G, 1955, "The Observer's Book of Aircraft", Frederick Warne, London Green, W and Punnet, D, 1963, "Macdonald World Airpower Guide", Macdonald & Co, London —Preceding unsigned comment added by 123.243.192.239 (talk) 02:15, 21 July 2010 (UTC)


 * It was an enlarged Nene, designed by a team consisting of engineers from both companies working at Derby, at the request of the US Navy. See quite comprehensive forum post on UK gas turbine engines here:  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.7.147.13 (talk) 18:48, 9 November 2012 (UTC)