Gas Turbine Development: More Than 50 Years Ago

Abstract

With the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Turbo Expo and 125 years of ASME, it would be appropriate to once again review a paper read at the meeting in London, UK, of The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (founded 1847) on the 24th of February, 1939. This Paper was titled, “The Combustion Gas Turbine, it’s History Development and Prospects” by Adolf Meyer [1]. At the time, the first Industrial Gas Turbine generating set of 4000kW was on order by the City of Neuchatel [2], and cycle improvements for future units were already being proposed, as well as new fields of applications, such as Locomotives, Ship Propulsion, Wind Tunnels, Blast Furnace Plants, as well as Combined Gas Turbine and Steam Plants. In the section “Glimpse into the Future,” the field in which much progress was expected was the improvement in compressor efficiency and increased turbine inlet temperatures. Raising the overall efficiency of compressor and turbine to 92% and the inlet temperature to 2200 F, thermal efficiencies of 50% at the shaft coupling were envisioned, with units capable of delivering 65MW. These were the topics for three generations of engineers in several disciplines. This promising technology success would not have been possible without the coordinated leadership of far sighted managers of different OEM’s, and the tremendous courage for the introduction by the end-users.