General Electric J31

The General Electric J31 was the first jet engine to be mass-produced in the United States. It grew out of the I-A prototype, itself essentially based on the Power Jets W.2B/23 whose drawings reached the United States in 1941 together with a W.1X engine. Using their turbocharger expertise, General Electric raised the thrust first to 1,400 pounds-force in the I-14 and then to 1,600 pounds-force in the I-16, the version the United States Army Air Forces standardized as the J31. A single-stage double-sided centrifugal compressor fed ten reverse-flow combustion cans and a single-stage axial turbine. Production started for the Bell P-59 Airacomet in 1943, and 241 engines had been built when the lines shut down in 1945. The Ryan FR Fireball and the Ryan XF2R Dark Shark also used the engine.