Thread: Turbine Time
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Old 09-29-2006, 08:36 AM
  #7  
rickair7777
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The term turbojet is often used to mean turbofan...most modern jet engines are turbo fans. A true turbojet takes 100% of the air through the engine and burns it with the fuel in the core...all of the thrust is from hot core air. Real turbojet are rarely used because they are very fuel ineffecient.

Modern jets of all sorts (military, airline, corporate) use turbofans...the guts of these engines are very similar to the free-spinning turboprop, it produces hot gas that is then used to drive a seperate turbine that drives a large fan on the front of the engine. Modern high-bypass turbofans take 100% of the air through the fan, but only 15% of that air then goes through the core section to get burned and produce thrust, the other 85% passes through the fan and then goes around the outside case of the core. This fan bypass air provides about 80-85% of the thrust, with the rest provided by leftover core air. Sounds complicated but it is more effecient than a real turbojet (but less effecient that a turboprop).

Basically we are flying turboprops...just with different propellors.
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