Wonder
Log in
Research Outline
Prepared for Majd | Delivered March 28, 2021
Aircraft Engine Research
Review your project details
Goals
Describe how an aircraft engine works.
View less
Early Findings
Jet Engine Basics
All jet engines utilize
thrust
to make planes fly very fast. Thrust was discovered by Sir Isaac Newton in his law that states
"for every
action there is an equal and opposite reaction."
The engines use a
fan to draw
air in the front of the engine. Then, that air is compressed (put under pressure) by a compressor. The compressor consists of many blades attached to a shaft that spin at high speeds to compress the air.
Once the air is
compressed i
n the engine, it is then sprayed with fuel and lit with an electric spark. As the gasses burn, they expand and burst through the nozzle at the back of the engine. As these gases shoot backwards, they thrust the aircraft forward.
Within the nozzle is another set of blades called the
turbine
, which is also attached to the same shaft as the compressor. The hot air going through the turbine causes the turbine blades to spin, which then powers the compressor.
The engine is also
designed
so that when cool air is sucked in to the front of the engine, only some of it passes into the core of the engine and is burned.
T
h
e
rest of the cool air passes through the engine and out the back, mixing with the hot air released from the engine and cooling it down again.
T
h
e
parts
of an engine include the fan, compressor, combustor, turbine, mixer and nozzle.
T
h
e
inside of the engine can heat up to
three thousand degrees.
Types of Engines
There are
five types
of aircraft engines: Turboprop Engines, Turbojet Engines, Turboshaft Engines, Turbofan Engines and Ramjet Engines.
Turboprop engines are a jet engine that use "
a gearing system
to connect to the aircraft propeller." Turboprop engines rotate at mid-range speeds of 250-400 knots, and offer fuel efficiency and efficiency at mid-altitudes, but their gearing system can also wear down quickly and their "
forward airspeed is limited"
.
View less