Rolls-Royce Dart

The Rolls-Royce RB.53 Dart is a turboprop engine designed and made by Rolls-Royce Limited, first run in 1946 and named, like the other gas turbines of the company of its period, after a river. A team led by Lionel Haworth drew on experience with the larger Clyde turboprop, specifying a two-stage centrifugal compressor and a three-stage axial turbine that drove both the propeller, through a reduction gearbox, and the compressor. It powered the Vickers Viscount on its maiden flight in 1948, and the Viscount became the first turboprop airliner to enter airline service, with British European Airways in 1953. Power grew from an initial 890 shp to as much as 3,245 shp in later versions. About 7,100 were produced, flying some 170 million hours, and production continued until 1987, when the last Fokker F27 Friendship and Hawker Siddeley HS 748 aircraft were built.