The General Electric YJ101 was an afterburning turbojet engine, as signified by its "J" designation, in the 15,000 lbf class. It was designed for the Northrop P-530 Cobra[1] but its initial application was the Northrop YF-17 entry in the Lightweight Fighter (LWF) competition. It was subsequently developed into the widely used General Electric F404.
YJ101 | |
---|---|
YJ101 | |
Type | Turbojet |
National origin | United States |
Manufacturer | General Electric Aircraft Engines |
Major applications | Northrop YF-17 |
Developed into | General Electric F404 |
Two essential requirements for the engine were reliability, which can be measured by the number of times a particular engine model has to be shutdown during flight (in-flight shut-down rate), and handling, which means stall-free operation throughout the flight envelope together with allowing the pilot to make unrestricted throttle movements anywhere between idle and maximum afterburner.[2]
The engine used continuous bypass bleed from the compressor to cool the afterburner liner and nozzle. The bypass air was not mixed with hot air from the turbine[3] as the afterburner was a simple turbojet style with no requirement for intentional mixing of the bypass flow with the turbine exhaust.[4] However, mixing is an important requirement for turbofan engines.
General Electric chose to describe the engine differently depending on circumstance. To emphasize simplicity it was a "leaky turbojet". For advanced technology it was "the world's first self-cooled turbojet".[5] This referred to using the compressor bypass air to cool the afterburner instead of using much hotter turbine exhaust gas.
Data from Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1975-76 [6]
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