View Full Version : Oldest Gas-turbine (design) still in commercial Ops?
Lord Lucan
27th Jan 2008, 09:35
Am I correct in thinking that the Rolls Royce Dart in the F27 + HS748 is the oldest gas turbine engine design still flying in commercial operations?
Not only is it the oldest, it also was the first successful civil gas turbine engine.
An extremely reliable design, quite typical of RollsRoyce.
RollsRoyce turbine engines....don't leave home without one or two/three/four
virgo
27th Jan 2008, 19:08
Try "History and Nostalgia"................might get some old krinkly who'll come up with a Welland in commercial use somewhere as an oil-pump motor ! (Or to keep the frost off the grape-vines in California)
Disregard above............Sorry - didn't see the word "flying"
stellair
27th Jan 2008, 21:20
Not only the oldest but one of the best sounding gas turbine engines ever built :)
dusk2dawn
27th Jan 2008, 21:28
Yes, and after 6-8000 hrs you can hear it forever :rolleyes:
LowObservable
27th Jan 2008, 21:52
The real Methusaleh is the RR (nee Allison) T56... entered service four years after the Dart and still in production for the almost equally indestructible E-2.
pjvr99
28th Jan 2008, 02:14
RR Allison T56 was designed and built in the early 50's and first went airborne around 1954 with Lockheed - still production today
airsupport
28th Jan 2008, 07:21
The earliest record relating to the design and development of the Dart Turboprop is a technical drawing dated April 4 1945, before the hostilities of World War Two had ended, and the dust had settled, which was a very positive attitude for Rolls-Royce to take at that time.
Although the initial proposal for this engine originated at Barnoldswick, near Burnley in Lancashire, Ernest W Hives a director of Rolls-Royce decided that the project should be mainly based at Derby. Lord Hives became Managing Director in 1946 and Chairman in 1950 as Lord Hives of Duffield and retired in January 1957, having seen the Viscount enter service and the Dart become the most significant turboprop engine of its time and arguably of all time.
Initial detail drawings were issued to the production department on November 1 1945 and the final build of the RB.53 prototype as it was originally designated was completed on July 10 1946 resulting in an incredibly short manufacture and build time for such a revolutionary engine. The RB designation stood for R-R Barnoldswick.