Pratt & Whitney XT57
Aircraft turboprop engine
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Pratt & Whitney XT57 (company designation: PT5) was an axial-flow turboprop engine developed by Pratt & Whitney in the mid-1950s. The XT57 was developed from the Pratt & Whitney J57 turbojet.[2]
- Douglas JC-124C Globemaster II
- Douglas C-132 (intended)
| XT57 / PT5 | |
|---|---|
| Artist's concept of the C-132 powered by 4 T57 turboprops | |
| Type | Turboprop |
| National origin | United States |
| Manufacturer | Pratt & Whitney |
| Major applications |
|
| Number built | 6[1] |
| Developed from | Pratt & Whitney J57 |
Design and development
One XT57 (PT5), a turboprop development of the J57, was installed in the nose of a JC-124C (BuNo 52-1069), and tested in 1956.[3][4]
Rated at 15,000 shaft horsepower (11,000 kW), the XT57 was the most powerful turboprop engine in existence at the time,[5] and it remains the most powerful turboprop ever built in the United States.[2] The engine had a split-compressor (also known as "two-spool") design.[6]
Intended for use on the Douglas C-132 aircraft, the XT57 turboprop used a Hamilton Standard Model B48P6A propeller with a diameter of 20 feet (6.1 meters), which was the largest diameter propeller to be used in flight at the time.[7] The single-rotation propeller had four hollow steel blades,[8] a maximum blade chord of 22 inches (56 centimeters), a length of 5 ft 6 in (1.7 m), and a weight of 3,600 pounds (1,600 kilograms).[9]
In the late 1950s, the XT57 was studied for use in a United States Navy-proposed, nuclear-powered conversion of a Saunders-Roe Princess flying boat.[10][11] Despite not having entered service, the engine was selected because it had passed a Pratt & Whitney 150-hour testing program, which involved running the engine for 5,000–7,000 hours.[12]
Variants
- T57/PT5
- A turboprop engine driving a 20 ft diameter (6.1 m) Hamilton Standard Turbo-Hydromatic propeller,[13] 15,000 hp (11,185 kW) turboprop to be used on the Douglas C-132, a Mach 0.8 speed military transport aircraft.[14]
Applications
- Douglas JC-124C Globemaster II testbed
- Douglas C-132 (not built)
Engines on display
The XT57 engine is on display at the Pratt & Whitney museum in East Hartford, Connecticut.[15]
Specifications (XT57-P-1)
See also
Related development
- Pratt & Whitney J52/JT8A
- Pratt & Whitney J57/JT3C
- Pratt & Whitney J75/JT4A
- Pratt & Whitney TF33/JT3D
Comparable engines
Related lists