Turbines, Gas
The aircraft gas turbine engine, developed more than sixty years ago, uses the principle of jet reaction and the turbine engine. The engine consists of three major elements: a compressor and a turbine expander, which are connected by a common shaft; and a combustor, located between the compressor and the turbine expander. The useful work of the engine is the difference between that produced by the turbine and that required by the compressor. For the simple cycle system shown in Figure 1, about twothirds of all the power produced by the turbine is used to drive the compressor.
Jet reaction used in the first steam-powered engine, the aeolipile, is attributed to Hero of Alexandria around the time of Christ. In his concept, a closed spherical vessel, mounted on bearings, carried steamfrom a cauldron with one or more people discharging tangentially at the vessel's periphery, and was driven around by the reaction of steam jets. According to the literature, the first gas turbine power plant patent was awarded to John Barber, an Englishman, in 1791. Intended to operate on distilled coal, wood, or oil, it incorporated an air compressor driven through chains and gears by a turbine operated by the combustion gases.
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