The Westinghouse Aviation Gas Turbine Division (AGT) was established by Westinghouse Electric Corporation in 1945 to continue the development and production of its gas turbine engines for aircraft propulsion under contract to the US Navy Bureau of Aeronautics. The AGT Division was headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, where it remained in operation until 1960 when Westinghouse decided to focus on industrial and electric utility gas turbines.
History
A concise history of Westinghouse jet engine development may be found in the ASME technical paper entitled "Evolution of Heavy-Duty Power Generation and Industrial Gas Turbines in the United States"[1] delivered at the ASME International Gas Turbine Conference, The Hague, June, 1994. This paper was compiled by Westinghouse engineers who had direct personal experience or close personal connections with the subject. The following summary is gleaned from that paper as well as from the Tommy Thomason reference also cited.
In March, 1943, the first US designed and manufactured jet engine went on test at Westinghouse, 15 months after the signing of a contract with the U.S. Navy Bureau of Aeronautics. This first engine, with a 19 in. intake diameter, was designated the Model 19A, had a thrust of 1130 lb. and weighed 827 lb. It had a combustor section with 20 tubes (not interconnected at first), a single stage turbine and an adjustable jet exhaust nozzle. It was configured as a booster engine, with only the accessories needed to start and control the engine. The second engine built was flown in 1944 under a Chance Vought FG-1 fighter as a boost engine on the center-line. It delivered 1,365 lb of static thrust at sea level, standard day conditions. The booster engine could be started with impingement air on the turbine blades or by propeller slip stream on the ground.