Could a jet turbine engine be designed to power automobiles? It seems that it would get better fuel mileage.?

Question

jet turbine in a passenger car

burns fuel oil

fewer moving parts

more efficient

Answer 1

Yes, it can be done.

No, it's not more efficient.

Besides, jets have a nasty habit of sucking birds and other things in the intake and breaking the engine while killing stuff.  Anyone who didn't like someone could just throw a rock in the jet car intake when the car passed by and BLAM!

Answer 2

Gas turbines small enough to power a car are very INefficient.  The viscous drag of fluids causes greater losses in small passages, and gas turbines lose huge amounts of efficiency if they are run at less than full power.

Example:  Capstone microturbines are less than 30% efficient at their best, while medium-duty diesels can hit 40%.

Answer 3

Jet engine efficiency is dependent on the air-speed of the vehicle, therefore, at automobile-class speeds, a jet engine is very inefficient.

Answer 4

Yes i do agree, it sounds as if it should be more efficient. It is not and will more than likely never be. The turbine runs at around 36,000+ RPM at idle.it runs on kerosene which is slightly less expensive than gasoline, but its usage is very high and as much as %300 more. If the turbine could be run on a cheap fuel it may be viable, but cheap fuels are also usable in the combustion engines of today. Many companies in the 60~70's tried the gas turbine, but failed to overcome the tremendous emissions and heat produced. I am afraid we are stuck with the combustion engine for a long time to come as it is getting better with constant improvements on a weekly basis at present. Sorry to put you down on this one.

Keep your brain open as questions always help to find an answer. Cheers. G.

Answer 5

Jay Leno owns a jet car.

It runs on biodiesel.

Answer 6

Chrysler had a gas turbine car back in the '60s.  Fuel efficiency was not good, and it took too long for the jet turbine to spin up at startup.

http://www.allpar.com/mopar/turbine.html

http://www.turbinecar.com/top.swf

Answer 7

If you're interested to make yourself an other type of jet engine, you may find this article interesting: http://www.greenoptimistic.com/index.php...