General Electric J47


The General Electric J47 turbojet was developed by General Electric from its earlier J35. It first flew in May 1948. The J47 was the first axial-flow turbojet approved for commercial use in the United States. It was used in many types of aircraft, and more than 30,000 were manufactured before production ceased in 1956. It saw continued service in the US military until 1978. Packard built 3,025 of the engines under license.

Design and development

The J47 design used experience from the TG-180/J35 engine which was described by Flight magazine in 1948 as the most widely used American-conceived turbojet.
Overhaul life for the J47 ranged from 15 hours to a theoretical 1,200 hours in 1956. For example, the J47-GE-23 was rated to run 225 hours time between overhauls. As installed on the F-86F, it experienced one in-flight shutdown every 33,000 hours in 1955 and 1956.

Variants

;J47-GE-1: thrust.
;J47-GE-2: at 7,950 rpm, powered the North American FJ-2 Fury
;J47-GE-3: thrust.
;J47-GE-7: thrust.
;J47-GE-9: thrust.
;J47-GE-11: Powered the Boeing B-47A and B-47B
;J47-GE-13:Powered the North American F-86E Sabre & North American B-45C tornado
;J47-GE-15: Powered the North American B-45C tornado
;J47-GE-17: at 7,950 rpm dry, at 7,950 rpm wet, powered the North American F-86D Sabre
;J47-GE-17B: thrust
;J47-GE-19:, powered the Convair B-36D & B-36F
;J47-GE-23: , powered the Boeing B-47B and RB-47B
;J47-GE-25: thrust dry,, powered the Boeing B-47E and RB-47E
;J47-PM-25: Production by Packard Motor Car Company
;J47-ST-25: Production by Studebaker Corp.
;J47-GE-27: thrust, powered the North American F-86F Sabre
;J47-GE-29: Similar to -27
;J47-GE-33: thrust, powered the F-86F & F-86K

Applications

Ground-based vehicles that used the engine include:
In the 1950s, interest in the development of nuclear-powered aircraft led GE to experiment with two nuclear-powered gas turbine designs, one based on the J47, and another new and much larger engine called the X211.
The design based on the J47 became the X39 program. This system consisted of two modified J47 engines which, instead of combusting jet fuel, received their heated, compressed air from a heat exchanger that was part of the Heat Transfer Reactor Experiment reactor. The X-39 was successfully operated in conjunction with three different reactors, the HTRE-1, HTRE-2 and HTRE-3. Had the program not been cancelled, these engines would have been used to power the proposed Convair X-6.

Specifications (J47-GE-25)