Pratt & Whitney TF30

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The TF30, produced by Pratt & Whitney was the world's first afterburning turbofan. It was proposed for the F6D Missileer missile carrier and eventually powered the F-111 and the F-14A Tomcat as well as some versions of the A-7 Corsair II without an afterburner.

First flight of the TF30 was in 1964 and production continued until 1986.

Supersonic jets before the introduction of the TF30 all used afterburning turbojet engines as opposed to turbofan engines. A turbojet engine's entire volume of intake air is directed through the engine core, whereas in a turbofan design, a significant percentage of the intake air is routed around the core. Turbofan engines deliver much improved fuel burn efficiencies over turbojets. An afterburning turbofan combines the fuel economy of a turbofan with the greatly increased thrust produced by an afterburner.

Contents 1 F-111 2 F-14A 3 References 4 External links

[edit] F-111

The F-111A/E used the TF30-P103 (aka P-3) turbofan.^[1] The F-111 would have problems with inlet compatibility, which many faulted the placement of the intakes behind the disturbed air of the wing. The F-111 would go through several different intake configurations. D and F models used redesigned inlets and improved engines. The F-111D used TF30-P-9, and the F-111F used TF30-P-100. The F-111 has a very long range/large payload due to its variable geometry wings, and the use of the TF30.

[edit] F-14A

The F-14 Tomcat with the TF30-P-414A^[2] was often called "underpowered", although combining the same engines of the F-111 with a much lighter airframe still yielded a higher thrust-weight (T/W) ratio than the F-4 Phantom and Mach 2.4 performance. The TF30 was found to be ill-adapted to the demands of air combat, and was prone to stalls at high angle of attack and above 30,000 feet if the throttles were moved aggressively. Though the F-14A entered service with the Navy powered by Pratt & Whitney TF30, by the end of the decade, following numerous problems with the original engine, the Department of Defense began procuring F110-GE-400 engines and installed them in the F-14A Plus (later redesignated to F-14B in 1991), which entered service with the fleet in 1988. These engines solved the reliability problems and provided nearly 30% more thrust. Although thrust specific fuel economy was reported as improved during operational testing, overall fuel economy was essentially unchanged from the TF30 during fleet operations.^{[citation needed]} The F-14B and D were equipped with more powerful F110-GE-400 engines achieving better than a 1:1 thrust to weight ratio. The F-15 Eagle would wait until the development of the F100 turbofan which gave it a 1:1 T/W. The TF30 is not considered to be a high-bypass turbofan.

[edit] References

1. ^ Federation of American Scientists. F-111.
2. ^ Federation of American Scientists. F-14 Tomcat.

[edit] External links

• Pratt & Whitney historical information page on the TF30 [1]