A gas turbine or gas turbine engine is a type of continuous flow internal

combustion engine.[1] The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-
producing part (known as the gas generator or core) and are, in the direction of flow:

 a rotating gas compressor

 a combustor
 a compressor-driving turbine.
Additional components have to be added to the gas generator to suit its application.
Common to all is an air inlet but with different configurations to suit the requirements of
marine use, land use or flight at speeds varying from stationary to supersonic. A
propelling nozzle is added to produce thrust for flight. An extra turbine is added to drive
a propeller (turboprop) or ducted fan (turbofan) to reduce fuel consumption (by
increasing propulsive efficiency) at subsonic flight speeds. An extra turbine is also
required to drive a helicopter rotor or land-vehicle transmission (turboshaft), marine
propeller or electrical generator (power turbine). Greater thrust-to-weight ratio for flight
is achieved with the addition of an afterburner.

The basic operation of the gas turbine is a Brayton cycle with air as the working fluid:
atmospheric air flows through the compressor that brings it to higher pressure; energy is
then added by spraying fuel into the air and igniting it so that the combustion generates
a high-temperature flow; this high-temperature pressurized gas enters a turbine,
producing a shaft work output in the process, used to drive the compressor; the unused
energy comes out in the exhaust gases that can be repurposed for external work, such
as directly producing thrust in a turbojet engine, or rotating a second, independent
turbine (known as a power turbine) that can be connected to a fan, propeller, or
electrical generator. The purpose of the gas turbine determines the design so that the
most desirable split of energy between the thrust and the shaft work is achieved. The
fourth step of the Brayton cycle (cooling of the working fluid) is omitted, as gas turbines
are open systems that do not reuse the same air.

Gas turbines are used to power aircraft, trains, ships, electrical generators, pumps, gas
compressors, and tanks.[2]

Timeline of development
[edit]
 Sketch of John Barber's gas turbine, from his patent

 50: Earliest records of Hero's engine (aeolipile). It most likely served no practical
purpose, and was rather more of a curiosity; nonetheless, it demonstrated an
important principle of physics that all modern turbine engines rely on.[3]
 1000: The "Trotting Horse Lamp" (Chinese: 走马灯, zŏumădēng) was used by the
Chinese at lantern fairs as early as the Northern Song dynasty. When the lamp is lit,
the heated airflow rises and drives an impeller with horse-riding figures attached on
it, whose shadows are then projected onto the outer screen of the lantern. [4]
 1500: The Smoke jack was drawn by Leonardo da Vinci: Hot air from a fire rises
through a single-stage axial turbine rotor mounted in the exhaust duct of the
fireplace and turns the roasting spit by gear-chain connection.
 1791: A patent was given to John Barber, an Englishman, for the first true gas
turbine. His invention had most of the elements present in the modern day gas
turbines. The turbine was designed to power a horseless carriage.[5][6]
 1894: Sir Charles Parsons patented the idea of propelling a ship with a steam
turbine, and built a demonstration vessel, the Turbinia, easily the fastest vessel
afloat at the time.
 1899: Charles Gordon Curtis patented the first gas turbine engine in the US.[7]
 1900: Sanford Alexander Moss submitted a thesis on gas turbines. In 1903, Moss
became an engineer for General Electric's Steam Turbine Department in Lynn,
Massachusetts.[8] While there, he applied some of his concepts in the development
of the turbocharger.[8]
 1903: A Norwegian, Ægidius Elling, built the first gas turbine that was able to
produce more power than needed to run its own components, which was considered
an achievement in a time when knowledge about aerodynamics was limited. Using
rotary compressors and turbines it produced 8 kW (11 hp).[9]
 1904: A gas turbine engine designed by Franz Stolze, based on his earlier 1873
patent application, is built and tested in Berlin. The Stolze gas turbine was too
inefficient to sustain its own operation.[3]
 1906: The Armengaud-Lemale gas turbine tested in France. This was a relatively
large machine which included a 25 stage centrifugal compressor designed
by Auguste Rateau and built by the Brown Boveri Company. The gas turbine could
sustain its own air compression but was too inefficient to produce useful work.[3]
 1910: The first operational Holzwarth gas turbine (pulse combustion) achieves an
output of 150 kW (200 hp). Planned output of the machine was 750 kW (1,000 hp)
and its efficiency is below that of contemporary reciprocating engines.[10]
 1920s The practical theory of gas flow through passages was developed into the
more formal (and applicable to turbines) theory of gas flow past airfoils by A. A.
Griffith resulting in the publishing in 1926 of An Aerodynamic Theory of Turbine
Design. Working testbed designs of axial turbines suitable for driving a propeller
were developed by the Royal Aeronautical Establishment.[11]
 1930: Having found no interest from the RAF for his idea, Frank
Whittle patented[12] the design for a centrifugal gas turbine for jet propulsion. The first
successful test run of his engine occurred in England in April 1937.[13]
 1932: The Brown Boveri Company of Switzerland starts selling axial
compressor and turbine turbosets as part of the turbocharged steam
generating Velox boiler. Following the gas turbine principle, the
steam evaporation tubes are arranged within the gas turbine combustion chamber;
the first Velox plant is erected at a French Steel mill in Mondeville, Calvados.[14]
 1936: The first constant flow industrial gas turbine is commissioned by the Brown
Boveri Company and goes into service at Sun Oil's Marcus Hook refinery
in Pennsylvania, US.[15]
 1937: Working proof-of-concept prototype turbojet engine runs in UK (Frank
Whittle's) and Germany (Hans von Ohain's Heinkel HeS 1). Henry Tizard secures
UK government funding for further development of Power Jets engine.[16]
 1939: The First 4 MW utility power generation gas turbine is built by the Brown
Boveri Company for an emergency power station in Neuchâtel, Switzerland.[17] The
turbojet powered Heinkel He 178, the world's first jet aircraft, makes its first flight.
 1940: Jendrassik Cs-1, a turboprop engine, made its first bench run. The Cs-1 was
designed by Hungarian engineer György Jendrassik, and was intended to power a
Hungarian twin-engine heavy fighter, the RMI-1. Work on the Cs-1 stopped in 1941
without the type having powered any aircraft.[18]
 1944: The Junkers Jumo 004 engine enters full production, powering the first
German military jets such as the Messerschmitt Me 262. This marks the beginning
of the reign of gas turbines in the sky.
 1946: National Gas Turbine Establishment formed from Power Jets and the RAE
turbine division to bring together Whittle and Hayne Constant's work.[19] In Beznau,
Switzerland the first commercial reheated/recuperated unit generating 27 MW was
commissioned.[20]
 1947: A Metropolitan Vickers G1 (Gatric) becomes the first marine gas turbine when
it completes sea trials on the Royal Navy's M.G.B 2009 vessel. The Gatric was an
aeroderivative gas turbine based on the Metropolitan Vickers F2 jet engine.[21][22]
 1995: Siemens becomes the first manufacturer of large electricity producing gas
turbines to incorporate single crystal turbine blade technology into their production
models, allowing higher operating temperatures and greater efficiency.[23]
 2011 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries tests the first >60% efficiency combined cycle gas
turbine (the M501J) at its Takasago, Hyōgo, works