The Westinghouse J40 was an early high-performance afterburning turbojet engine designed by Westinghouse Aviation Gas Turbine Division starting in 1946 to a US Navy Bureau of Aeronautics (BuAer) request. BuAer intended to use the design in several fighter aircraft and a bomber. However, while an early low-power design was successful, attempts to scale it up to its full design power failed, and the design was finally abandoned, deemed a "fiasco" and a "flop". The design originally called for an engine of 7,500 lbf (33 kN) thrust at sea level static conditions without afterburner and 10,900 lbf thrust with afterburner. A more powerful model 9,500/13,700 lbf thrust version was intended to replace the earlier engines in the various airframes. In total, thirteen different variations were planned. The projected need for the higher-power engines led BuAer to place a second source production contract with Ford Motor Company, Lincoln Mercury Division for both J40-WE-10 and J40-WE-12 engines. The higher-powered versions proved to have a flawed compressor design and lacked a suitable control system. This left the Navy with only the earlier, lower-power engines. These were eventually used for early flight testing, but proved to be largely unusable. A particularly notorious use was in the McDonnell F3H-1N Demon, which proved to be dangerously underpowered with the smaller engines. The design was quickly grounded after repeated incidents caused by flying the now overweight airframe and a number of engine failures that led to the loss of the aircraft. A government investigation of the F3H-1N program issue failed to determine if pilots had been lost due solely to the engine issues. The grounded airframes were either scrapped or used for ground training. The F3H-2N used the Allison J71 engine. The J40 program was terminated in 1955, by which time all the aircraft it was to power were either grounded, cancelled or redesigned to use alternative engines. The J40's failure was among those that affected the most military programs. The program failure was primarily due to lack of investment in research and experimental resources by Westinghouse, leaving them unable to resolve the issues with the various models of the engines. In 1953 Westinghouse worked with Rolls-Royce to offer engines based on the Avon, which had similar performance but matured into an excellent design of even higher output. Westinghouse was out of the aircraft engine business by 1965 when their 6,200 lbf (28 kN) thrust, scaled-down version of the 12,000 lbf (53 kN) Avon 300-series engine, the XJ54, also failed to find a United States market.
The J57 would also replace, for the U.S. Navy, the disastrous Westinghouse J40 that never fully materialized in acceptable form
Development
Westinghouse Electric Corporation established the Westinghouse Aviation Gas Turbine Division (AGT) in 1945. Along with General Electric, Westinghouse had extensive experience in turbine design that put them in the lead over established aviation engine manufacturers, who had little experience with these entirely new design concepts. While most early engines in the US were redesigned versions of British jets, the J30 was the first truly American-designed turbojet to run, and saw use in the McDonnell FH Phantom. The enlarged J34 was obsolete when introduced, but moderately successful. A new design following the rapid industry progress was needed. The J40 represented a big opportunity for Westinghouse to become a prominent player in the turbojet engine market. The U.S. Navy showed great confidence in the company when it bet the success or failure of a new generation of jets on Westinghouse over three other engine companies. It was in June 1947 that the Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics contracted for its development. The prototype engine first ran in November 1948. According to an article in the April 1949 edition of the Naval Aviation Confidential Bulletin by Lieutenant Commander Neil D. Harkleroad of the Bureau of Aeronautics Power Plant Division, "The engine has been operating successfully to date." As of that writing, the 50-hour flight substantiation test was to have been accomplished by June 1949 and the 150-hour qualification test by December 1949. The J40 was designed to deliver twice the thrust of engines currently in service, allowing the J40-WE-8 with afterburner to power many of the new Navy carrier-based fighters with a single engine. These included the Grumman XF10F Jaguar variable-sweep wing general-purpose fighter, the McDonnell F3H Demon and Douglas F4D Skyray interceptors. Growth to over 15,000 lbf (67 kN) of thrust in afterburner was projected. A version without afterburner, the J40-WE-6, was to power the Douglas A3D Skywarrior twin-engine carrier-based bomber. The J40-8 was only a little over 40 inches (1,000 mm) in diameter but 25 feet (7.6 m) long, with accessories and including the afterburner. It weighed almost 3,500 pounds (1,600 kg), the -6 being almost 7 feet (2.1 m) shorter and about 600 pounds (270 kg) lighter, because it did not have an afterburner. In 1949, a higher-power J40-WE-12 non-afterburning version developing 9,500 lbf (42 kN) thrust, with better fuel consumption, was proposed for the A3D, and an afterburning version (J40-WE-10) developing 13,700 lbf (61 kN) thrust was proposed for the fighter projects. Both versions were accepted and became the engines the airframes were designed to use. The lower-powered early development models were now intended to be used only for ground and initial flight testing until the high-powered engines became available.
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