Gas Turbines in Future Industrial Vehicles

In spite of dominance in aircraft and serious penetration of nonvehicle industrial markets, gas turbine powerplants are found only in a very few industrial vehicles. It has been necessary to evolve sophisticated turbines to challenge diesel and gasoline reciprocators on an economic basis, since no overwhelming functional advantages can be credited to vehicle turbines (in contrast with aircraft engines). With progress in recent years, this “break-even” point has been reached in some market areas, and the next decade, with continuing increases in gas temperature and stage pressure ratios, will see a rapid broadening of the turbine-powered vehicle market.