Lockheed J37

The Lockheed J37 (company designation L-1000) was one of the first turbojet engines designed in the United States. It was not considered very important when its development was first begun in the 1930s, and it was allowed to languish. By the time it was developed enough for production use, other engines, some British-derived, had surpassed it in performance. The design was later converted to a turboprop, the T35 and still later sold to Wright Aeronautical, where it saw some interest for use on what would become the B-52 Stratofortress, before that design moved to jet power. The J37 and T35 were built to the extent of a number of testbed examples but never entered production.

Design and development

In 1930, Nathan C. Price joined Doble Steam Motors, a manufacturer of steam engines for cars and other uses. Over the next few years he worked on a number of projects and starting in autumn 1933 began working on a steam turbine power plant for aircraft use. Steam generation at high altitudes required air to be pressurized to sea level pressure and delivered at a constant rate to a steam generator's burners; Price proposed using a centrifugal compressor powered by a small gas turbine which was in turn driven by the hot gasses from a burner located between the compressor and turbine. Hot gasses exiting the turbine were then passed on to a steam generator, the output of which would then drive steam turbines connected to propellers (US Patent 2,223,856).

Price started work on his own turbojet design in 1938, although this initial design was far more complex than what eventually emerged as the J37.