The General Electric J79 is an axial-flow turbojet engine built for use in a variety of fighter and bomber aircraft and a supersonic cruise missile.

Among its major uses was the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, Convair B-58 Hustler, McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, North American A-5 Vigilante and IAI Kfir.

[6] An experimental 12-stage compressor was built with the inlet guide vanes and first four rows of stator blades adjustable to lower the air incidence angles while running at low speed.

[7] By 1950 General Electric was focussing on supersonic engines with variable stators as a result of design studies which compared them with dual-rotor types.

[9] GE won the Air Force contract for a new engine with approximately 14,000 pounds-force (62,000 N), with afterburning, to power a new supersonic bomber, which became the Convair B-58 Hustler.

[11] The first flight after the 50-hour qualification test, required for a new engine that is the sole source of thrust for a flying testbed, was on 8 December 1955, powering the second pre-production Douglas F4D Skyray, with the J79 in place of its original Westinghouse J40 engine as part of the General Electric development and qualification program.

The YF-104 was the next airplane to fly with the J79 followed by a re-engined Grumman F11F Tiger in a Navy-sponsored program to gain experience with the engine before the first flight of the F4H (F-4).

A downgraded version of the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon with a J79 was proposed as a low-cost fighter for export, and though a prototype aircraft was flown, it found no customers.

For their part in designing the J79, Gerhard Neumann and Neil Burgess of General Electric Aircraft Engines were jointly awarded the Collier Trophy in 1958, also sharing the honor with Clarence Johnson (Lockheed F-104) and the US Air Force (Flight Records).

[14] Early engines also produced noticeable quantities of smoke, especially at mid-throttle/cruise settings, a disadvantage in combat aircraft making them vulnerable to visual detection.