TheWestinghouse J34, company designationWestinghouse 24C, was aturbojet engine developed byWestinghouse Aviation Gas Turbine Division in the late 1940s. Essentially an enlarged version of the earlierWestinghouse J30, the J34 produced 3,000 pounds of thrust, twice as much as the J30. Later models produced as much as 4,900 lb with the addition of anafterburner. It first flew in 1947. TheJ46 engine was developed as a larger, more powerful version of Westinghouse's J34 engine, about 50% larger.
Built in an era of rapidly advancinggas turbine engine technology, the J34 was largely obsolete before it saw service, and often served as an interim engine.[1] For instance, theDouglas X-3 Stiletto was equipped with two J34 engines when the intendedWestinghouse J46 engine proved to be unsuitable. The Stiletto was developed to investigate the design of an aircraft at sustained supersonic speeds. However, equipped with the J34 instead of its intended engines, it was seriously underpowered and could not exceed Mach 1 in level flight.[2]
Developed during the transition from piston-engined aircraft to jets, the J34 was sometimes fitted to aircraft as a supplement to other powerplants, as with theLockheed P-2 Neptune andDouglas D-558-2 Skyrocket (fitted with radial piston engines and a rocket engine, respectively).
The afterburner was developed bySolar Aircraft, the first U.S. company to produce a practical afterburner.[3]
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