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Gas turbines are used on ships, locomotives, helicopters, and in tanks. A number of experiments have been conducted with gas turbine powered automobiles.
In 1950, designer F.R. Bell and Chief Engineer Maurice Wilks from British car manufacturers Rover unveiled the first car powered with a gas turbine engine. The two-seater JET1 had the engine positioned behind the seats, air intake grilles on either side of the car, and exhaust outlets on the top of the tail. During tests, the car reached top speeds of 140 km/h, at a turbine speed of 50,000 rpm. The car ran on petrol, paraffin or diesel oil, but fuel consumption problems proved insurmountable for a production car. It is currently on display at the London Science Museum. Rover and the BRM Formula One team joined forces to produce a gas turbine powered coupe, which entered the 1963 24 Hours of Le Mans, driven by Graham Hill and Richie Ginther. It averaged 107.8 mph (173 km/h) and had a top speed of 142 mph (229 km/h). In 1967, the revolutionary STP Oil Treatment Special four-wheel drive turbine-powered special fielded by racing and entrepreneurial legend Andy Granatelli and driven by Parnelli Jones nearly won the Indianapolis 500; the STP Pratt & Whitney powered turbine car was almost a lap ahead of the second place car when a gearbox bearing failed just three laps from the finish line. In 1971 Lotus principal Colin Chapman introduced the Lotus 56B F1 car, powered by a Pratt & Whitney gas turbine. Chapman had a reputation of building radical championship-winning cars, but had to abandon the project because there were too many problems with turbo lag.
The fictional Batmobile is often said to be powered by a gas turbine or a jet engine. In fact, in 1989’s filmed Batman, the production department built a working turbine vehicle for the Batmobile prop. Its fuel capacity, however, was reportedly only enough for 15 seconds of use at a time.
American car manufacturer Chrysler demonstrated several prototype gas turbine-powered cars from the early 1950s through the early 1980s. Chrysler built fifty Chrysler Turbine Cars in 1963 and conducted the only consumer trial of gas turbine-powered cars.
In 1993 General Motors introduced the first commercial gas turbine powered hybrid vehicle—as a limited production run of the EV-1 series hybrid. A Williams International 40 kW turbine drove an alternator which powered the battery-electric powertrain. The turbine design included a recuperator.
Arrival of Capstone Microturbine has led to several hybrid bus designs from US and New Zealand manufacturers, starting with HEV-1 by AVS of Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1999, and closely followed by Ebus and ISE Research in California, and Designline in New Zealand. AVS turbine hybrids were plagued with reliability and quality control problems, resulting in liquidation of AVS in 2003. Today, the most successful design by Designline is now operated in 5 cities in 6 countries, with over 30 buses in operation worldwide.
It is worth noting that a key advantage of jets and turboprops for aeroplane propulsion - their superior performance at high altitude compared to piston engines, particularly naturally-aspirated ones - is irrelevant in automobile applications. Their power-to-weight advantage is far less important.
Gas turbines offer a high-powered engine in a very small and light package. However, they are not as responsive and efficient as small piston engines over the wide range of RPMs and powers needed in vehicle applications. In hybrids, gas turbines reduce the responsiveness problem, and the emergence of the continuously variable transmission may also help alleviate this. A recent idea is the ‘Multi-Pressure’ turbine proposed by Robin Mackay of Agile Turbines. This concept is expected to provide three different power level ranges - each of them exhibiting high efficiency and low emission levels. The engine has two compressor spindles and an intercooler. By a system of three-way valves, it can be operated with both ‘wings’ in super atmospheric pressure mode (high power) or one ‘wing’ super atmospheric and the other sub atmospheric (cruising power) or both ‘wings’ in sub atmospheric mode (idling). Since there is no change in direction or speed of gas flow at transition from one power level to another (only mass flow changes) transition is almost instantaneous - thus overcoming the slow throttle response characteristic of gas turbines in land vehicle applications.
Turbines have historically been more expensive to produce than piston engines, though this is partly because piston engines have been mass-produced in huge quantities for decades, while small gas turbine engines are rarities; but turbines are mass produced in the closely related form of the turbocharger.
The MTT Turbine SUPERBIKE appeared in 2000 (hence the designation of Y2K Superbike by MTT) and is the first production motorcycle powered by a jet engine - specifically, a Rolls-Royce Allison model 250 turboshaft engine, producing about 283kW (380bhp). Speed-tested to 365km/h or 227mph (according to some stories, the testing team ran out of road during the test), it holds the Guinness World Records for most powerful production motorcycle and most expensive production motorcycle, with a price tag of US$185,000.
Use of gas turbines in military tanks has been more successful. In the 1950s, a Conqueror heavy tank was experimentally fitted with a Parsons 650-hp gas turbine, and they have been used as auxiliary power units in several other production models. The first production turbine tank was the Swedish Stridsvagn 103A. Today, the Soviet/Russian T-80 and U.S. M1 Abrams tanks use gas turbine engines. See tank for more details.
Several locomotive classes have been powered by gas turbines, the most recent incarnation being Bombardier’s JetTrain.
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