DIJKKIJK From France, joined Jul 2003, 1668 posts, RR: 5 Posted (6 years 6 months 2 days 23 hours ago) and read 16012 times:
Can airplane engines be used for other purposes, besides powering airplanes?
I did read in this forum, about someone who was planning to use Convair 880 engines to generate electricity on an oil drilling platform, but the plan was abandoned.
Are there other, more successful examples?
Never argue with idiots. They will bring you down to their level, and beat you with experience.
Curmudgeon From Australia, joined Oct 2006, 695 posts, RR: 22 Reply 1, posted (6 years 6 months 2 days 23 hours ago) and read 16015 times:
Allison 501-D13 (T-56) engines are used in oil pipeline pumping installations, or at least they were when the first Alaskan pipeline was built.
I will do more research to verify, but I believe the BAe-146 engines share a core with the powerplant in the M1-A1 Abrams tank.
4 cylinder piston engines are/were used on those air boats used in swampy areas. The engine would drive a caged propeller, and steering is via move able rudders in the airstream.
Some railroads in western North America bought some surplus jet engines (forget model number-the type that was used on the P-2V Neptune and C-119) and mounted them to snowplows. They apparently did a great job ob blowing the tracks clear of snow. I imagine it would have been as impressive as hell...one of those first generation turbojets screaming away, creating a huge rooster tail of snow!
Paris Charles de Gaulle used to have an array of jet engines beside the runway to dissipate fog. They were fired up on request, and the airlines got a hefty bill. That was used as late as 1974 I think.
After Gulf War 1, when the Kuwaiti oilfields were ablaze, there was an oil field fire control company using MiG engines to blow the fires out.
While I'm thinking about tanks, the WW ll American tanks had radial engines, Franklins and Jacobs and Lycomings that were also used in aircraft.
Some ships have gas turbine engines, but I will need to research the commonality with aircraft.
In the 60's Ford Motor Company produced a PT-6 powered transport truck prototype. I'll find a picture...
BA777ER236 From United Kingdom, joined Sep 2006, 277 posts, RR: 9 Reply 2, posted (6 years 6 months 2 days 23 hours ago) and read 16008 times:
Quoting Curmudgeon (Reply 1): Some ships have gas turbine engines, but I will need to research the commonality with aircraft.
I believe that some of the RN Destroyers are powered by a combination of RR Tyne and RR Olympus engines. IIRC the Tynes are used for normal ops and the Olympuses for hi-speed dashes.
Curmudgeon From Australia, joined Oct 2006, 695 posts, RR: 22 Reply 3, posted (6 years 6 months 2 days 23 hours ago) and read 16003 times:
Yeah, I was just reading some Google results, and was surprised to see the Spey mentioned as well.
I think I was wrong about the PT-6, BTW. The Ford history pages don't mention it by name. Chrysler also had some experimental cars-its worth googling "Chrysler turbine car" and "Ford Turbine Truck" to see some groovy Jetsons automotive styling.
Djw030468 From United States of America, joined Aug 2005, 50 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (6 years 6 months 2 days 22 hours ago) and read 15987 times:
Our USCG WHEC 378' Cutter used two old 707 gas turbines as alternative propulsion to our main diesel engines, when higher speeds were required in SAR or Law Enforcement engagements. Nothing got your heart up to speed faster when you were in your 'rack' and hearing the MGT's (Main Gas Turbines) come on line, you knew something was up.
KBFIspotter From United States of America, joined May 2005, 729 posts, RR: 1 Reply 5, posted (6 years 6 months 2 days 22 hours ago) and read 15983 times:
Several GE engines are used for power generation, as well as for propulsion in ships. For example, the USN Arleigh Burke class destroyers (DDG-51) use four GE LM2500 gas turbines, which, IIRC, are derived from the CF6 engine. I believe that the LM1500 is derived from the GE J-79, and is widely used in power generation.
Pilotpip From United States of America, joined Sep 2003, 3081 posts, RR: 12 Reply 6, posted (6 years 6 months 2 days 21 hours ago) and read 15955 times:
Rotax sells airplane engines for use in snowmobilies and wave runners.
Vc10 From United Kingdom, joined Nov 2001, 1381 posts, RR: 17 Reply 7, posted (6 years 6 months 2 days 21 hours ago) and read 15959 times:
If you look at the following site then you will see that the Bristol Proteus engine was used in warships, hovercraft and power stations aswell as in aircraft. I have heard it said that it was better when not used on aircraft.
Curmudgeon From Australia, joined Oct 2006, 695 posts, RR: 22 Reply 8, posted (6 years 6 months 2 days 21 hours ago) and read 15947 times:
Quoting Djw030468 (Reply 4): Our USCG WHEC 378' Cutter used two old 707 gas turbines as alternative propulsion to our main diesel engines, when higher speeds were required in SAR or Law Enforcement engagements. Nothing got your heart up to speed faster when you were in your 'rack' and hearing the MGT's (Main Gas Turbines) come on line, you knew something was up.
I just got goosebumps reading that. Well done Coast Guard.
Erj-145mech From United States of America, joined Oct 2001, 306 posts, RR: 1 Reply 9, posted (6 years 6 months 2 days 21 hours ago) and read 15950 times:
I had an Allison V-1710 from a P-38 that was modified in the late 40's to run an irrigation water pump in west Texas.
SP90 From United States of America, joined May 2006, 386 posts, RR: 0 Reply 11, posted (6 years 6 months 2 days 19 hours ago) and read 15906 times:
IIRC, turbocharged models of Subaru's EJ20, EJ22 and EJ25 engines are sometimes used on small propeller planes. The compact design of the boxer engine makes it ideal for fitting into the small spaces. Keep in mind these engines are usually found in cars like the Impreza, Legacy and Forester.
DC8FriendShip From United States of America, joined Apr 2005, 242 posts, RR: 3 Reply 14, posted (6 years 6 months 2 days 15 hours ago) and read 15832 times:
I recall Union Pacific had turbine powered locomotives at one time. I've also seen them mounted on the rear of a truck to dry a wet racetrack.
Turbines are also widely used as as a ground air start unit for aircraft with inop or no APU's.
SlamClick From United States of America, joined Nov 2003, 10062 posts, RR: 71 Reply 15, posted (6 years 6 months 2 days 15 hours ago) and read 15824 times:
I remember a small "gyppo" sawmill in the Pacific northwest that was run by a single Allison V-1710.
I also saw an 18-wheel lumber truck powered by an Allison. IIRC it was about a 1950 or so, Stirling. He ran it with no side panels on the hood and you could see the big V-12 in there.
I know a USAF radar station that uses a British-made gas turbine engine to generate electricity. The small base uses electricity purchased from the local utility company. It constantly samples the incoming power and if a power loss is sensed, the engine is signalled to start. One hundred and ten 1-volt batteries, each bigger than the battery in your car, (beaucoup plate area!) connected in series, crank an electric starter on the turbine. When it comes up to speed and its output is stable the base unplugs from the power company and it takes over. It has surplus capacity sufficient to backfeed the power line to the nearby town.
Gas turbine engines in stationary use, like generators and pumping stations probably run a very long time between overhauls.
Happiness is not seeing another trite Ste. Maarten photo all week long.
2H4 From United States of America, joined Oct 2004, 8950 posts, RR: 62 Reply 18, posted (6 years 6 months 2 days 15 hours ago) and read 15803 times:
AIRLINERS.NET CREW HEAD DATABASE EDITOR
Quoting Pilotpip (Reply 6): Rotax sells airplane engines for use in snowmobilies and wave runners.
Or is it the other way around?
An old friend of mine uses a small jet engine to clear his corporation's private runway. The engine is mounted to a trailer...they fire it up, drive along the edge of the runway, and irritate the neighbors.
Curmudgeon From Australia, joined Oct 2006, 695 posts, RR: 22 Reply 20, posted (6 years 6 months 2 days 11 hours ago) and read 15732 times:
...And I just remembered that there were Allison V-12 powered air raid sirens back in the 50's / 60's. I grew up about 10 miles from a major city that tested them every Saturday at 13:00. Even ten miles away they were scary as hell.
DC8FriendShip From United States of America, joined Apr 2005, 242 posts, RR: 3 Reply 21, posted (6 years 6 months 2 days 11 hours ago) and read 15716 times:
Tucker used a six cylinder helicopter engine in the fifty examples of his car.
In the 1950's and 60's, the Union Pacific railroad also tried turbine-powered locomotives:
Because many of these locomotives were built by ALCO, and the electric components were supplied by GE, my guess is that it had a GE engine in it, but I am not sure on that. Supposedly, these were the most powerful locomotives ever built, developing 10,000 horsepower.
Jetstar From United States of America, joined exactly 10 years ago today! , 1523 posts, RR: 10 Reply 23, posted (6 years 6 months 2 days 10 hours ago) and read 15692 times:
Many years ago when I first started out in aviation, I was working at a repair station and one of our mechanics who had worked on J-47’s in the Air Force used to go to Yonkers Raceway every November to change the oil and fuel filters and start up for the winter season the J-47’s that the racetrack had mounted on trucks to clear snow from the track.
Also every once in a while during the winter he would also have to go and work on the engines when one of them would not start or run properly. This lasted for about 2 years when Yonkers decided to do their own maintenance.
Ryan h From Australia, joined Aug 2001, 1451 posts, RR: 1 Reply 24, posted (6 years 6 months 2 days 10 hours ago) and read 15679 times:
Down at Parafield airport which is a small GA airport here in Adelaide, there is a museum (Classic Jets Fighter Museum) that have an Allison that they run and some sort of jet engine that is run occasionally.
South Australian Spotter
25 Curmudgeon: No problem, anytime you need a blank photo, just give me a call. Beats me why the image won't load, and since I'm not an extra effort kind of person,
26 JetMech: What an awesome looking piece of machinery. It looks like it could almost blow the rails away as well! That beast would most certainly make some nois
27 MD11Engineer: A guy I know in the Netherlands owns a WW2 M-18 tank destroyer (fast, lighly armoured tracked vehicle armed with a powerfull A/T gun), which uses a Fr
28 Baroque: Two problems IIRC were the lag when the engine "waited" to spool up and awful fuel consumption. This latter in spite of heat recovery units being fit
29 StealthZ: The Queen Mary II has a combination of Diesel and Turbine powerplants both used for electricity generation. Propulsion is via 4 podded electric motors
30 KBFIspotter: I remember reading somewhere that the LM2500's are not for propulsion, but are to provide back up power for the ship if demand exceeds the primary ge
31 MrChips: Correct. if I recall correctly, many of the compressor stations along the Trans-Canada pipeline are powered by derivatives of RR engines - chiefly th
32 Lowrider: I believe that Lycoming produced an O-290G, specifically to power ground equipment. Does anyone know where Chevy got the idea for the Corvair engine?
33 AeroWeanie: The Trans Alaska Pipeline uses Rolls Royce Avon engines for pumping. For more info on their on-going replacement: http://www.alyeska-pipe.com/Strateg
35 Curmudgeon: And, while I know it has been discredited, the Darwin awards story about the Chevy Impala and the Jato rocket is in my hit parade of favourite all-tim
36 TrijetsRMissed: On the DC-10 the wing engines produce electricity for the CVR. This is why there is no CVR transcript for flight 191 following rotation.
37 KELPkid: Here's one possible alternate use of aircraft engines (in this case, three afterburning GE J79's): Les Schockley, and the world's fastest Peterbilt (A
38 2H4: A certain jet engine is also used (quite effectively, I might add) to completely destroy any shred of beauty and grace of a certain Waco biplane that
39 KELPkid: The Union Pacific "Big Blows" (yes, that's really what the crews called 'em ) were powered by a modified GE power generation turbine, which has very
40 Curmudgeon: ugh! I can't believe how ugly and graceless that Waco is. "Flying" had an achingly beautiful upf-7 on the cover of one of the 1969 issues-it was one
41 Erj-145mech: The designer owned a Beech Bonanza, that had a Continental E-225, and patterned the Corvair 140 after that. The 140 was used in the 1960 models, and
42 TheSorcerer: I've never heard of old jet engines being used on oil rigs. The rig that my dad did some work on, has GE turbines for electricity. I'm not sure which
43 N231YE: Oh, well, not a true aircraft-engine powered unit, but at least it had a gas turbine in it. I would have loved to hear that thing in operation..."wha
44 Chksix: The Stena Line HSS 1500 are powered by 4 GE turbines. Said to be similar to the ones on the 747. Swedish only: http://www.stenaline.com/stena_line/...
45 David L: Without a doubt, though there were also those in government departments who seemed determined to swipe everything away from Whittle. Perhaps that's w
46 SlamClick: I came into this a little too late. I was off looking for pictures of the original "Green Monster" that drag racing legend Art Arfons used to run bac
47 Dougloid: I don't believe Franklin (Aircooled Motors) ever built a radial of their own design. What your friend probably has is a Wright R975 or a Continental
49 Jetstar: 2H4 This is a little off of this thread, but this JetStar s/n 5101 brings back a lot of memories because it is the first JetStar I ever worked on. I s
50 Starlionblue: I don't know if you can do a straight conversion from kW on an electric train to hp on a turbine-electric, but if you can: Most TGV trains comfortabl
51 Ryan h: I think the boat Donald Campbell died in was powered by a jet engine.
52 Curmudgeon: In fact, the unlimited hydroplane series that used to be run had biggish boats all running RR Merlins. I think they tried Griffins as well back in the
53 Jamesbuk: Ask Richard Hammond They are used in alot of Jet cars, Track drying, Film set (wind) and many other weird and wonderful things. Rgds --James--
54 2H4: Thanks for the info, Jetstar. Your contributions always prove to be very educational and interesting. 2H4
55 BuyantUkhaa: The first TGV prototype (the TGV001) was propelled by gas turbines rather than electric engines: It was originally planned that the TGV, then standing
56 Zkpilot: I heard a couple of years ago about buses being powered by gasturbine engines. They were mounted in the rear and used to generate electricity for elec
57 KBFIspotter: I cannot believe I forgot about the Marine Turbine Technologies Superbike! The bike is powered by a Rolls Royce Allison A-250-C18 turboshaft from a Be
58 StealthZ: It was and the Bluebird LSR car that he gained the World Land Speed record on Australia's Lake Eyre in 1964 was powered by a Proteus Turbine engine d
59 Domokun: Jet engines were also used to power the Soviet Ekranoplan's. Sort of an 'alternative use.'
60 KELPkid: Well, in the US at least, diesel locomotives have been diesel-electric locomotives since the 1920's, when GE proved the reliability of the concept. A
61 Brenintw: There's a guy who has a Ford Capri with very stretched hood and RR grille that has a de-rated RR Merlin Aero Engine tucked under it. In the mid-70's i
62 KELPkid: In the US, RR Merlins (and even Griffons!) have been popular choices for tractor pull competitors, who modify farm tractors to try to outpull their c
63 L-188: Other then the mentioned airboat motors a couple of other uses. Lycoming 0-290's where used in military ground power units The 220 Horse Continential
64 Speedracer1407: I thought I might add the Howmet turbine LeMans racer of the late 60s. When I was 15 and a raging car nut, a family friend who worked for the independ
65 BAe146QT: Bizarre - I was talking with my father in law about this very thing last night. The Centurion tank used a de-rated Merlin engine with the supercharger
66 Starlionblue: Yepp. Have seen a few of those rumble by in the Swedish Army. Also the Swedish S Tank uses a diesel AND a turbine for propulsion. The turbine is eith
67 BAe146QT: That is kind of odd, yes. Apropos of nothing, you have to admire the Swedish military. If a piece of hardware doesn't exist already, they just go out
68 Baroque: It is a while since I read Whittle, but there were really three phases of difficulty. The first with his own Ministry mostly before WWII which seemed
69 N231YE: Wasn't EMD's 710 engine the most popular? Nice, so I take it you're a railroad guy too? Of course, deviations are allowed on A.Net
70 Starlionblue: Yeah. But nowadays the MBT is german. The APC/IFV is still Swedish though. This site has lots of snide comments about that: http://www.thunder-and-li
71 Dougloid: I think that a certain amount of what you refer to happened because there was a real question in a lot of people's minds as to whether Britain would
72 KELPkid: Nope. Just the most recent design... The most prolific EMD engine would be the EMD 567E series-it was built in the most numbers, and is used in many
73 AeroWeanie: I forgot another alternative use of aircraft engines. Racing hydroplanes have long used aircraft engines. In the old days, it was Merlins, Allisons an
74 N231YE: Thanks for the info. You know when you're a railroad guy when you can tell the sound difference between EMD's 2-stoke diesels to GE's 4-stroke diesel
75 KELPkid: They were before my time I've heard the McIntosh & Seymour prime mover employed by the ALCO's (4-stroke) makes a sound all it's own. I've heard that
76 KELPkid: It is also worthy of note that the US Sherman Tank (of World War II fame) used a 9-cylinder Continental radial (adapted from an aircraft design) as it
77 N231YE: Same here, at that scenic railroad I mentioned, when the C420 gets going from being still, it spews out black smoke like crazy as the engine tries ha
78 AeroWeanie: Some Shermans did have Continental R975 radial engines. Others had a range of engines, including 500 hp Ford V-8s, Chrysler A57 multibank 30-cylinder
79 StealthZ: Is that the one the good Captain Click was referring to in reply 22 of this thread... http://www1.airliners.net/discussions/military/read.main/57564/
80 AeroWeanie: Yup, that's the monster. Five inline 6's joined with a single driveshaft:
81 Baroque: Good grief Charlie Brown - how long did that thing run before something awful happened?
82 EssentialPowr: One of the reasons they were canned, in addition to noise, is that when stopped under highway overpasses, the exhaust temp "desolidified" ashphalt ov
83 Starlionblue: Indeed. German tank and tank killer guns were pretty good. Seriously though, until a few decades ago tracked military vehicles had abysmal reliabilit
84 Baroque: The dreaded Ronsons. Does anyone know if the diesel Shermans were any better when hit?
85 Tod: The only boat that ran the Griffin seriously was an early 80's version of the Miss Budweiser designed by Ron Jones. (see photo in post 73). The owner
86 Tod: Traveling about 300 mph in 1967. The current record is 317. It has not increased to anywhere it's potential because none of the top notch hydroplane
87 Dougloid: There's an interesting book called "The Business of Tanks" by George McLeod Ross. He was a member of the British purchasing commission and he has man
88 KELPkid: The EMD 710 is the prime mover for the SD70/SD75/SD80 (the SD-80 uses the 20 cylinder version of it ) series locomotives...however, since the railroa
89 N231YE: It is very interesting, and what an interesting company...everything from GE90-115s, to 60W light bulbs, medical equipment and, locomotives. I have t
90 EssentialPowr: "American Iron" this month has a chopper powered by a radial built in AUS... hey Jetmech, know the company??
91 N231YE: I do! But if this was a question geared towards JetMech, then I won't answer it
92 2H4: I've seen two. The first is built by JRL cycles: The other is allegedly built by Jesse James: I believe both of those engines are built by Rotec in A
93 KELPkid: Makes sense...the Harley engine is designed like a two-cylinder radial, there is only one journal on the crankshaft. That's also the reason for the e
94 BAe146QT: ...or throw a piston like my Dad's racing MGB-GT did at full chat. That car had a big iron head in the way but shrapnel still dented the hood from in
95 2H4: I wonder what the torque must feel like on that second one. I've spent some time on a BMW R1200GS (flat twin), and cracking the throttle while sittin
96 EssentialPowr: Thanks for the pics, 2h4. The top one was the bike I saw!
97 BAe146QT: People don't believe it when you tell them. But dad ended up on the hard shoulder of the M1 after his engine decided to try to leave its bay at the t
98 Curmudgeon: I blew the #1 cylinder clean off a Pratt R-985 on take-off years and years ago on a Be-18. The engine still made some power before I caged it. The cyl
99 Dougloid: The old man worked for Curtiss Wright during the war and one of his jobs was to do failure analysis on engines that had been removed for one reason o
100 Baroque: But you would have needed to reverse engineer the tank crew too, I don't know that western troops would have survived inside a T34 even though wester
101 Dougloid: Well, I don't know whether there are any ex tankers with time in type who could make that comparison....I shall put it on my list of things to figure
102 2H4: What's the advantage of a dry clutch in such an application? 2H4
103 Prebennorholm: This is how a Rolls-Royce Trent looks like when mounted in a ship... http://www.rolls-royce.com/marine/pr..._gas_turbine/gas_turbines/mt30.jsp
104 Dougloid: Probably cheap to make and doesn't have problems in cold weather like a wet clutch might. Here's some in person stuff about driving a T34....it's gre
105 Baroque: My book on the T34 has been archived, which means it is up in the roof and I don't know where it are! And that was much better than the Wiki article,
106 Xv408: We could add Richard Noble's record-breaking cars Thrust 2 (RR Avon powered) and Thrust SSC (Reheated RR Spey powered). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T
107 KBFIspotter: In that case, the North American Eagle is also worthy of mention... It actually makes use of two aviation components, the fuselage of an F-104A (S/N
108 Francoflier: a Turbomeca engineer, when working on an engine in my former airline, told me the Turbomeca Bastan engines (those pointy shiny engines on that weird a
109 Dougloid: See the above. There are also a large number of gas turbine engines from people like Alsthom and many other makers that are used to produce shaft hor
110 WSOY: This was I believe one of the largest gas turbine powered passenger ships, engine data are as follows: Gas Turbines: 2x Pratt & Whitney FT 4C-1DLF Pow
111 Dougloid: As a kid I watched them use J47s with afterburners and turned down stacks to dry out the runways at EWR
112 MD11Engineer: The same design was used by Junkers for some of their aero diesels in the 1920s-1930s. A few months ago Russia was selling them for about $10,000 a p
113 Dougloid: As a practical matter, the M3 Grant and M4 Sherman were prewar medium (light-heavy?) tank designs that were considerably lighter than anything that t
114 Tod: As a kid, I worked at a machine shop that was developing a three cylinder, six piston version of this for an Indy car application. It ran, but was ne
115 Starlionblue: Ok explain to me how a three cylinder engine can have six pistons. I have given it some thought but clearly I don't get it.
116 N231YE: There are engines out there, that had two pistons per cylinder, each opposing each other. I will try to find some photos off of the internet with exa
117 N231YE: I told you I'd find an example. An example includes Fairbanks-Morse opposed piston diesel engines, as found on the submarine USS Pampanito. Here is a
118 KELPkid: Also found on the Faribanks Morse H24-66 "Trainmaster" locomotive, H16-66, and H16-44 locomotives BTW, if anyone is curious, opposed piston diesels a
119 N231YE: Gotta put the railroad twist to it, for railroad guys like you and I! Naaa, let's somehow put poppet-valves in that thing and see if it becomes a fou
120 Starlionblue: You certainly learn something new every day here in tech_ops. Wow. Opposed pistons. Had no idea.
121 Wrldwndrer: Check out Mark Nye's website: http://www.gas-turbines.com/projects/index.html He's built a snow melter, 2 jet boats, and bunch of other neat stuff.
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