National Gas Turbine Establishment
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (June 2012) |
51°16′59″N 0°48′26″W / 51.282957°N 0.807098°W The National Gas Turbine Establishment (NGTE Pyestock) in Farnborough,[1][2] part of the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE), was the prime site in the UK for design and development of gas turbine and jet engines. For over 50 years, Pyestock was at the forefront of gas turbine development.
The NGTE came into existence during the mid-1940s, its principal predecessors were
It was decided to base the turbine development site at Pyestock, a former
Following the end of the Cold War, the NGTE's activity dipped considerably. During 1995, the organisation was incorporated into the wider Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA). Five years later, NGTE Pyestock was permanently closed and the site itself was decommissioned; it has since been redeveloped into housing, known as Hartland Village.
History
During 1942, the
During 1951, the organisation received $4,000,000 (£1,428,600) from the US Government in advance payment for American use of some 200 Power Jets Whittle gas turbine
For over half a century, prototypes engines destined for the British military were designed and tested by the NGTE.
At its height, 1,600 staff worked at Pyestock while the site itself was of a similar size to that of a small town.
Even though Pyestock was intentionally kept at a distance from the general public as to better obscure its activities and maintain secrecy, local people would often become aware of the tests being undertaken; some residents that lived miles away from the site have claimed to have witnessed occasional low rumbling roars, and that the lights in their homes would occasionally go dim. and could be heard from up to several miles away.[7] Particularly demanding tests were typically performed at night due to the amount of electricity required, which was drawn from the National Grid.[7] As early as 1957, it is known that early computers, supplied by Elliott Brothers (London) Ltd, were an active component of the engine testing process. Typical data points of these tests included the temperature, fuel flow, and pressure at various points across an engine.[9]
The
The apparent value in the site declined over time, particularly following the end of the Cold War.
The Buildings
Air House
The Air House (1961) was a modernistic structure. Its eastern side is sheet glass; 8 large blue exhaust pipes rise the full length of the building, for the 8 compressor/exhauster sets inside. The pipes transported the fast moving air to/from the test cells.
The Air House had two functions: blowing or sucking air, at up to 2,000 mph (for Cell 4). There were eight identical
This is the final design for the compressor/exhauster sets from the late 1950s. They are made up of an in-line arrangement (from left to right) of an 8,000 horsepower steam turbine, then two low-pressure compressors, a high-pressure exhauster, a 27 MW 11 kV synchronous motor that provided 36,000 horsepower, and finally the barring gear and the exciter (a small generator that provides a current needed to start the main motor).
The 8,000 horsepower steam turbine, which was powered by the site's boiler house, gave the compressor sets a kick start before it was synced with the grid. They could also be used whilst they were being run, but this was expensive and only used on the supersonic tests.
Cell 3
Cell 3 was mostly underground and was a supersonic replacement of Cell 2, allowing for higher speeds and a greater engine temperature range. There was a fairly large building above ground. But that was just to allow engines to be lowered into the test chamber from a huge crane. The test chamber itself was almost entirely underground.
Cell 3 West
Cell 3 West was a comparatively small building, with a large blue and white round opening on the front of the test chamber. It was the last altitude test cell built on site. It was one of the largest cells internally, allowing icing tests (testing to see how ice affects a turbine's performance) to be carried out on engines and helicopter rotors. The engine or turbine was suspended from the roof of the cell.
Cell 4
The largest test cell on site, Cell 4 was built in 1965, at a cost of £6.5 million, as part of the Concorde programme but also to test other supersonic jet engines. The test cell, unique in the world, takes up most of the steel clad structure with its mass of pipes, blast doors and electronics. It is connected to the Air House by blue pipes and was designed to simulate Concorde's flying conditions - Mach 2 (1522 mph) at 61,000 feet, but could test Concorde's engines at a maximum wind speed of 2,000 mph.
The amount of energy required to run the air house (see below) at the speed needed was too great for the site's own power station, so electricity had to be taken from the National Grid. By the early 1970s, Pyestock had to negotiate with the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) to have enough electricity generated. So as not to strain the grid, Cell 4 could only be powered up at night.
Number 9 Exhauster
Pyestock's designers built the Air House on a large scale, thinking it could supply adequate suction for the supersonic test cells. But they could not have anticipated the phenomenal force required by Cell 4 - even with all eight exhausters running the suction was insufficient. The solution was to build another exhauster set directly next to Cell 4. As there are eight in the Air House, this one was named number 9.
It is a Parsons "multi-stage axial-flow exhauster". It was used mainly by Cell 4 but also occasionally by Cell 3 and Cell 3 West. It was driven by a 36,000 horsepower synchronous motor, with power being taken first from the site's power station, and then when 3,000 rpm was reached it was synchronised with the National Grid.
Filmography
Pyestock was used for several scenes in the 2005 film
See also
References
Citations
- ^ "Pyestock".
- ^ "Ministry of Aviation and predecessors: National Gas Turbine Establishment and predecessors: Reports and Notes". The National Archives. 1938–1983.
- ^ a b Buttler 2019, p. 7.
- ^ a b Lavington 2011, p. 236.
- ^ Wood 1975, p. 32.
- ^ "Test Pilot | Chief Test | Lord Ogmore | 1951 | 2094 | Flight Archive". www.flightglobal.com. Archived from the original on 14 March 2016.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Forgotten Heritage: Wind Tunnels of the Jet Age". atlasobscura.com. 8 June 2015.
- ^ Lavington 2011, p. 237.
- ^ Lavington 2011, pp. 236-237.
- ^ "Royal Naval Research and Development, Military Records Information 38". The National Archives. Retrieved 22 April 2010.
- ISSN 0262-4079.
- ^ Osborne, Tony; Burton, Chris (1996). Pyestock: A Celebration Of The Gas Turbine. Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA). Retrieved 9 February 2011.
Bibliography
- Buttler, Tony (2019). Jet Prototypes of World War II: Gloster, Heinkel, and Caproni Campini's Wartime Jet Programmes. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781472835994.
- Lavington, Simon (2011). Moving Targets: Elliott-Automation and the Dawn of the Computer Age in Britain, 1947 – 67. ISBN 9781848829336.
- Wood, Derek (1975). Project Cancelled. Indianapolis, US: The Bobbs-Merrill Company Inc. ISBN 0-672-52166-0.
External links
- Pyestock, the National Gas Turbine Establishment
- Information and photos from an ex employee
- Exploring NGTE Pyestock
- Booklet documenting the Pyestock services from ~1982
- Site in 2011
- "Gas Turbine Development" an excerpt from a Hayne Constant lecture in a 1957 issue of Flight - Part 1
- "Gas Turbine Development" an excerpt from a Hayne Constant lecture in a 1957 issue of Flight - Part 2
- "Open Days at the NGTE" a 1966 Flight article