South African technology innovation centre, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), is developing a small gas turbine engine for stand-off weapons, gliders and unmanned aerial vehicles. The 220lb-thrust class engine has been under development for the last three years and is due to undergo its first compressor test in the first half of this year. The compressor design is scalable, meaning that engines in the 130lb to 330lb class can be developed with minor changes to the basic design – the largest compressor design could form the high-pressure core of a larger engine family.
A shaft engine variant could also be developed to produce 100kW shaft horse power. The CSIR is funding development itself at present but is offering the engine to industry partners for commercial use. It emphasises that the engine is ITAR-free (International Traffic in Arms Regulations), which is a significant feature as there are few micro jet engine manufacturers because small jet engines can be used in stand-off weapons.
The CSIR has previous experience with gas turbine development, having worked on the 143lb-rated APA350 engine in the early 1990s, and improved the Atar 09K50 in the 1980s. Together with the University of Stellenbosch, the CSIR led to Cape Aerospace Technologies building three small gas turbines producing 25, 55 and 85lb of thrust. These have been in production for several years.
