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TURBINE ENGINES
All information on this page is my own work except some public domain photos, and thus is copyrighted information and may not be copied for use without my permission.
Copyright 2006-2012 ©
This page is dedicated to information and education about turbine engines. In my career, I have worked in various aspects of the turbine engine business. And although I do not claim to be an expert, I have studied or worked in the turbine engine busines in theory, operation, design, manufacturing, installation, maintenance, and quality assurance. Thus I have a broad enough knowledge of the topic to present information in this site to help the lay person who asks the question, "How does a turbine engine (or 'jet engine') work?", come to a basic understanding that answers that question.
I find the engine to be one of the most amazing inventions of the last decade.
MY INTRODUCTION TO TURBINE ENGINES
As a child I can remember the first time I heard the sound barrier being broken over my home. I remember hearing that faint 'soaring' or roaring sound overhead and being fascinated by it--stopping whatever I was doing and peering skyward to see if I could catch a glimpse of the source of that sound. My father had explained to me in those days that it was some new technology that was going to change our lives. He worked in a business that was one of the pioneers in early production of gas turbines--Allison. Allison, based in Indianapolis, later became Rolls-Royce North America. My father worked at Allison, and was sent to turbine engine school to learn all about the venture. I remember him bringing home class materials--specifically large 4-inch thick binders (three of them as I remember) full of information--including pictures, cross-sections, etc. about turbine engines. As I sat in the background at age 6, I watched and listened intently as he showed my less-enthusiastic mom the things he had been learning in the classes, and the pictures in the binders. I remember those binders in the top of our entry closet for years, and used to take them down and look through the pictures for hours.
MY CAREER IN THE BUSINESS
I ended up in the business completely by accident. In my 20's I had forgotten about those times in my youth when I was fascinated by the topic of turbine engines. Actually it may not be that I forgot as much as I dismissed the thought of ever being involved in such a progressive business, and saw it as something unreachable for me. If you've read my history, you would glean that my head was not "on straight" in those days. My focus was on getting by--not on achieving. Still, I landed a job in those days at Allison not purposely, but simply by happenstance. The story, again, is in my
biography. At age 25, I was running a machine, and had been doing so since I was 19. I made parts for turbine engines. I applied for a promotion to associate engineer, because I was bored, and was tired of going home every day smelling like machine coolant. Again, much of this is available in my bio, but a short summary follows. I became an associate production engineer at AiResearch, moved to Michigan with Williams International as a Manufacturing Engineer, moved back to Arizona and Allied-Signal (Garrett) as a development engineer (design), then within the company to senior manufacturing engineer in aluminum, magnesium, and exotic alloy part manufacturing, then to a small shop in Indiana as the production manager--in charge of turbine engine part production, then to Rolls-Royce as a senior manufacturing engineer, then to AlliedSignal (now Honeywell) as a supplier quality engineer, and to my current job as senior quality engineer in integrated supply chain. In that time I've been "around the block".
The following pages contain information, from a very basic viewpoint, about how a turbine engine works...including some brief interesting history, and comparisons to familiar objects found in the home.
THE THEORY--HOW IT WORKS
A SIMPLE VISUAL EXPLANATION
TERMINOLOGY AND VARIOUS KINDS OF ENGINES
RELATED LINKS
RELATED READING
"
Aircraft Gas Turbine Technology" by Irwin E. Treager, Professor Emeritus Purdue University, McGraw-Hill, Glencoe Division, 1979,
ISBN 0-07-065158-2. Although this book is dated 1979, it is still an excellent source of history and information on the gas turbine engine and is presented in an easy-to-understand format.