The Rolls-Royce RB.53 Dart is a turboprop engine designed and manufactured by Rolls-Royce Limited. First run in 1946, it powered the Vickers Viscount on its maiden flight in 1948. A flight on July 29 of that year, which carried 14 paying passengers between Northolt and Paris–Le Bourget Airport in a Dart-powered Viscount, was the first regularly scheduled airline flight by a turbine-powered aircraft. The Viscount was the first turboprop-powered aircraft to enter airline service - British European Airways (BEA) in 1953.
Rolls-Royce Dart
A Rolls-Royce Dart mounted on a Fokker F27 Friendship
Rolls-Royce Darts on a Vickers Viscount
Rolls Royce Dart Engine on Display at the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona
A turboprop is a turbine engine that drives an aircraft propeller.
GE T64 turboprop, with the propeller on the left, the gearbox with accessories in the middle, and the gas generator (turbine) on the right
A Rolls-Royce RB.50 Trent on a test rig at Hucknall, in March 1945
The Kuznetsov NK-12 is the most powerful turboprop to enter service
A military transport aircraft, over 2,500 Lockheed C-130 Hercules have been built