Schematic diagram showing the operation of a simplified turboshaft engine. The compressor spool is shown in green and the free / power spool is in purple.

A turboshaft engine is a form of gas turbine which is optimized to produce shaft power, rather than jet thrust. A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a rotary Engine that extracts energy from a flow of Combustion gas A jet aircraft is an Aircraft propelled by Jet engines Jet aircraft fly much faster than Propeller -powered aircraft and at higher altitudes -- as high as In principle a turboshaft engine is similar to a turbojet, except the former features additional turbine expansion to extract heat energy from the exhaust and convert it into output shaft power. TurboJET (噴射飛航 is the brand name for the operations of the Hong Kong -based Shun Tak-China Travel Ship Management Limited (信德中旅船務管理有限公司 Ideally there should be little residual thrust energy in the exhaust and the power turbine should be free to run at whatever speed the load demands.

Overview

The general layout of a turboshaft is similar to that of a turboprop, the main difference being the latter produces some residual propulsion thrust to supplement that produced by the shaft driven propeller. A turboprop engine is a type of aircraft powerplant that uses a Gas turbine engine to drive a Propeller. Another difference is that with a turboshaft the main gearbox is part of the vehicle (e. g. helicopter rotor reduction gearbox), not the engine. Virtually all turboshafts have a "free" power turbine, although this is also generally true for modern turboprop engines. At a given power output, compared to the equivalent piston engine, a turboshaft is extremely compact and, consequently, lightweight.

Uses

The name turboshaft is most commonly applied to engines driving:

• ships,
• helicopters,
• tanks,
• locomotives
• hovercraft
• stationary machines

History

The first true turboshaft engine was built by the French engine firm Turbomeca, led by the founder, Joseph Szydlowski. Vertical Launching System See also Vertical Launching System In addition to the added Radar capability the Ticonderoga class built after the For an overview of the whole Huey family of aircraft see Bell Huey WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. The M1 Abrams is a main battle tank produced in the United States. gas turbine-electric locomotive or GTEL is a Locomotive that uses a Gas turbine to drive an Electric generator or Alternator. A hovercraft, or air-cushion vehicle (ACV is an Amphibious vehicle or craft, designed to travel over any sufficiently smooth surface supported by This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Turbomeca is a French manufacturer of low- and medium-power Gas turbine Turboshaft engines for Helicopters The company also produces Joseph Szydlowski (born November 21 1896 Chełm, Poland; died July 16 1988 in Israel) was a Jewish-Polish-French-Israeli Aircraft engine In 1948 they built the first French-designed turbine engine, the 100shp 782. Year 1948 ( MCMXLVIII) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the 1948 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. In 1950 this work was used to develop the larger 280shp Artouste, which was widely used on the Aérospatiale Alouette II and other helicopters. Year 1950 ( MCML) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Applications Aérospatiale Alouette II Aérospatiale Alouette III Aerospatiale Lama Aerotécnica WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout

Modern engines

Today almost all engines are built so that power-take-off is independent of engine speed, using the free turbine stage. This has two advantages:

1. It allows a helicopter rotor or propeller to spin at any speed instead of being geared directly to the compressor turbine.
2. It allows the engine to be split into two sections, the "hot section" containing the majority of the engine, and the separate power-take-off, allowing the hot-section to be removed for easier maintenance.

This leads to slightly larger engines—compare the Pratt & Whitney PT-6 and similar models from Garrett Systems, for instance—but for the speed ranges served by these engines it is considered to be unimportant. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout Garrett by Honeywell is the consumer brand of Honeywell Turbo Technologies a subsidiary of Honeywell Corporation. Today practically all smaller turbine engines come in both turboprop and turboshaft versions, differing primarily in their accessory systems.

See also

• Jet Engine Performance
• Jet aircraft
• Jetboat
• Turbofan
• Turbojet
• Turboprop
• Jet Engine
• Ramjet
• Spacecraft propulsion
• Supercharger
• Turbocharger
• Gas turbine
• Kurt Schreckling who built practical jet engines for model aircraft
• MTT Turbine SUPERBIKE, a turboshaft-powered superbike
• Wikibooks: Jet propulsion