PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Pratt & Whitney J58 vs General-Electric J93
Old 14th September 2011 | 13:54
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Tailspin Turtle
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Joined: Mar 2009
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From: Connecticut
Were it that easy...

Why don't you do your own research rather than asking others to do your leg work.
I spent some time looking for J58 stuff when I was writing my monograph on the Vought F8U-3 "Super Crusader", for which the original J58 was considered as a way to further increase its top speed and altitude. Mach 3 at 70,000 feet was the goal.

For pretty sure, I can say that the A3J was to use two J79s from the beginning. The J58 program was funded by the Navy in part to provide engines for a high-performance reconnaissance variant. It would have been powered by two non-afterburning J58s but only got as far as a mockup engine installation evaluation at North American. The F8U-3 design studies came later.

The Vought evaluation compared the J58-P-Adv to the J75 in early 1958. (The prototype had first run on Christmas Eve 1957.) Where it showed well was at altitude: much more thrust and lower SFC in afterburner. It was also intended to not have a time limit on afterburner operation, although that of course meant endurance would be badly affected.

One set of J58 specs available to Vought stated a weight of 5,900 lbs compared to the equivalent configuration of the J75 that was 50 lbs heavier. The uninstalled sea level static numbers were 300 lbs/sec air flow, Mil power thrust of 18,200 lbs at 0.925 SFC, and Combat thrust of 26,000 lbs at 2.10 SFC. Only a little better or worse than the J75. At speed and altitude, however, it was a different story. At Mach 2 and 35,000 feet at full grunt (a mass flow of 394 pounds per second), the J58 was projected by P&W to deliver 33,400 lbs of thrust (37% more than the J75 version it was being compared to) and a SFC of 2.03 (17% less).

The J58 engine diameter was stated as approximately 55 inches and the length, 18 feet with afterburner, making it four feet shorter but a little big bigger around than the J75.

The F8U-3 program was cancelled and the original version of the J58 was having development problems so the Navy lost interest in it. As noted, the A-12/SR-71 J58 was only the same engine when viewed externally in a dim light...
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