Avon Turbojet startup

Rolls Royce Avon at S&S Turbines test cell in Fort St John, BC.

The aero version of this engine was used to power the English Electric Lightning, a mach 2.5 interceptor in the 60's, and also the DeHavilland Comet airliner of the 50's.

An on-board electric starter is powered by 11 car batteries to bring the engine up to light-off.
When I hit the third position on the switch, that's 132VDC and 1000 Amps.

The current quickly drops to 50A, and stays there until I am signalled by Brian Maddigan, the operator, to cut power to the starter.
This test went well, and we made 23,000 Hp today.
All running footage here is of the engine at idle.
The roar of this thing is so tremendous that the vibration caused the camera to shut down. Unfortunately, much footage was lost.

I hope to have some full power footage in the future.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• Startup
• Turbo
• Jet
• Turbine
• Engine
• compressor
• bleed
• valve
• Turbojet
• Power
• Electric
• Lightning
• Rolls
• Royce
• Comet
• Hawker
• Hunter
• S&S
• Maddigan
• start
• test
• turbojet
• FSJ
• Jay
• Curry

[badjohnbad]

@kaaitj almost, the internal resistance of a battery describes how much current it can source. typical 12v car battery is about 0.001 ohms, so it will put half its voltage across a 0.001 ohm load (because the effective resistance across the battery terminals is halved). 6v across 0.001 ohm is 6 kA. nice. for 1kA the battery should be outputting about 11v (0.001 ohm internal + 0.011 ohm load) so the voltage across the lot should be 121vdc. actually you were pretty much right

[AgentJayZ]

@badjohnbad I knew I was oversimplifuing it by just adding up battery voltages. Thanks for the info.

I'm not as good with electrons as I am with heatilons.

[dtiydr]

1:40 isnt that hot?

And whats the amperage drawn at the different stages?

[AgentJayZ]

@dtiydr Hell yeah, it's hot! It gets hotter as you move closer and as the engine slows down, because cooling airflow decreases. But it gets cooler the longer that airflow goes thru the engine without fuel being burned. I only spend a few seconds in there, because it's as hot as an oven.

I make those sacrifices for you, my audience... gladly, because you are my reason for doing this!

The amperage peaks at 1000 and drops to 50.

[dtiydr]

@AgentJayZ yea i starting to wonder if it was hot that close you got. :D And 1kA thats insane but guess its needed to spin that turbine, lot of weight. Btw what the voltage?

[AgentJayZ]

@dtiydr From a comment a year ago:

"The first position connects 24VDC, the second, 60V, and the third, 132VDC.

The meter is an ammeter. The current starts out at about 1000 Amps, and when it drops to 50, it's time to move the switch to the next position."

[theoriginaloldblue]

Your a idiot... go play video games...

[depolle13]

AWESOME SOUND!!!!!!

[TheCorollagti]

I would love to do that just once, to sit there with that control and just listen to that thing fire up.... the sound is foreplay! <3

[kaaitj]

Well, if you are using batteries and the amps would increase, the voltage will drop due to the internal electrical resistor build in the batteries. So, the 1000A will not be by 132VDC. But I can be wrong. Those internal electrical resistors are build into every battery as far as I know.

[koolbossjock]

I put this beautifull sound on a CD and use it as an alarm clock.Great sound to wake up to.

[DavoCitizen]

gotta love the sound as it starts