Rolls-Royce RB Designations

[Hood]

@Apophenia
I have some further Adour entries for you!

RT.172-30
1974 project, upgrade option for Jaguar.

RT.172-58C
1978 project, a -58 with improved HP compressor blades; 5,260lbf dry, 8,470lbf reheated. Offered for 'Big Wing' Jaguar.

RT.172-63
1978 project, had all the features of the -69 but with a new afterburner developed from RB.199 technology; 5,540lbf dry, 10,100lbf reheated. Offered for 'Big Wing' Jaguar.

RT.172-69
1978 project, very similar to the -58C but with a 3-stage LP compressor and new turbine blades made by using a directionally solidified cast process. Digital fuel control system. 5,390lbf dry, 9,200lbf reheated. Offered for 'Big Wing' Jaguar.


I do have a mystery engine though.
An engine labelled "Rolls Royce 802"
It looks a bit like an RB.231 but equally could be an Adour with a fat reheat section. I don't know of any Adour Mk.802 however, and 802 would seem to indicate an export engine?

 

[zen]

Mild clarification required.
How is the RT.172-63 a development of RT.172-69?
Which is a development of
RT.172-58C?
Surely -69 comes after -63?

 

[Hood]

RT.172-58C was an improved -58 but was only a modest improvement, which is probably why it went no further.

The -60 series look more like a family of options and were another step along the evolutionary path with their new turbine blades and LP compressor section.
I think it would be fair to say that -63 was (at that time) considered the 'ultimate' Adour development with the -69 not having the RB.199-tech afterburner, probably as a lower-cost/risk option (and more compact too).
RT.172-66 for the Hawk would have been an unreheated version.

I suspect that the -69 was overtaken by the RB.231 which offered more power and more application of RB.199 know-how.

 

[Apophenia]

I've cleaned up the text in post #1 and added some very minor updates.

As before, I've left in all the dead links to old Flight pdfs. What do others think? Is hoping that Flight archives springs back from the dead a completely lost cause? Should all those old links be eliminated?

 

[Grey Havoc]

Keep them, you never know. Also, it is a good historical record of what has been lost.

 

[Hood]

Those Flight PDFs will never come back - a lost cause to even hope that now.

 

[Apophenia]

Those Flight PDFs will never come back - a lost cause to even hope that now.

After all this time, I strongly suspect that you are right.

As for historical records, I'm really wishing now that I'd recorded the actual issues/page numbers. But, at the time, I never dreamt that Flight would be so cavalier with its own archives