W501 Milestones in Photographs
The major evolutionary milestones in the history of the W501 are depicted in the following series of photographs and images.
The design specification for the W501A was that it could ship fully assembled on a railcar. This has remained a design requirement despite growth of the technology. The rotor length of the W501A, just under 24 feet like the W301, remained the same through the W501D series. Note: linkages for inlet guide- vane control, introduced with the W501A for improved part load heat recovery performance and aid in start-up.
Executives pictured with early W501AA unit at the factory in Lester, Pennsylvania. Thos pictured include Small Steam & Gas Turbine (SS>) Division General Manager Steve Miketic, Marketing Manager Ted Anthony, and Engineering Manager Jim Stevens. A new compressor design raised the pressure ratio for higher efficiency.
100MW-class W501D, the first to operate at 2000F rotor inlet temperature in 1975.
104MW W501D5 on railcar at Lester Works around 1981. With the introduction of the D5 upgrade of the W501D in 1980, Westinghouse launched the "Ready Source of Power" advertising campaign.
120MW W501D5A at the plant in Pensacola, the former nuclear component facility joined Hamilton, Winston-Salem and Charlotte as the Westinghouse Power Generation's "Great North American Factory" around 1992. For several years prior, after the closing of the Lester plant in 1987, Westinghouse purchased gas turbines from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) to fill orders.
The chart below shows another way to depict the evolutionary growth of the Westinghouse gas turbine technology. It tracks the power rating of gas turbines products offered over the first 50 years, starting with the 10,000hp (~7MW) W101 in the 1950s through the 1990s to the 250MW class W501G and beyond, with the projected 300MW rating for the Advanced Turbine System (ATS) envisioned for 2000. Note MHI’s 50Hz 701D and 701F are included for completeness of products offered by Westinghouse prior to 1998.
