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Day: 25 October 2019

How does a jet engine work?!

How does a jet engine work?!

A new week of course means a new blog post and it is finally my turn to be writing it! Even for this week the days have been running away as we have been busy attending the last Training Days courses. A course most of us found it very interesting and valuable was Jet Engine Theory. It was a whole day course that went through the basics of how a jet engine works, especially the RM12 engine which is equipped on the Swedish fighter aircraft Gripen.

Some of you might already be wondering “how does such powerful engine actually work?”… But don’t worry! I am about to answer that question in a very simplified way. 😉

The first stage that the air passes through is the fan, which is mounted at the very front of the engine. It carries on to a low pressure compressor that is comprised of three turbine stages according to the picture below and then continues further to a high pressure compressor. The purpose with these stations is to compress the air, where both the pressure and temperature will be increased. Thereafter the air is directed to the combustion chamber, where it gets mixed with the fuel and then ignites, resulting in a very hot gas that exits the combustor. It then passes both a low and high pressure turbine (Recognizable?) that have the main function of powering the different compressors and the fan. In order to leave the engine the gas will have to flow through a convergent nozzle that accelerates the gases, providing thrust to propel the aircraft.

I hoped this post gave you a better understanding of jet engine. See you soon again! 😀