The Rolls-Royce RB.401 was a two-spool business jet engine which Rolls-Royce started to develop in the mid-1970s as a replacement for the Viper. RB.401-06 prototype engines were already being manufactured when a decision to develop the higher thrust RB.401-07 was taken. Although ground testing of both the -06 and -07 continued into the early 1980s, a lack of funds caused the project to be cancelled.
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Design and development
Although the basic configuration of both engines was almost identical, the -07 variant had a larger fan diameter. The -06 version HP compressor was based on the eight-stage version of the RC34B research compressor, unscaled, whereas the -07 was a scaled-up unit. A single stage fan, driven by a two-stage LP turbine, supercharged the HP compressor which was driven by the single stage transonic HP turbine. The combustor was annular and the co-annular exhaust featured a lightweight target type thrust reverser.