Gas turbine engines are an incredible thing, and their applications are not limited to aircraft. We have selected for you ten of the most interesting ground vehicles powered by huge turbines.
Jet Corvette. Customizers love to take Corvette motors and put them on other cars to make them faster. Vince Granatelli approached the matter from a different angle. He, on the contrary, rid his Corvette of a V8 in favor of ... a Pratt & Whitney ST6B gas turbine engine. 880-horsepower turbo makes it the fastest road-legal Corvette common use. Acceleration to 100 km / h is carried out in just 3.2 seconds.
Thrust SSC. Incredible (but not yet completed) Bloodhound SSC is sure to take its record (1600 km/h planned), but the original Thrust SSC is still serious technical achievement. Thanks to 110,000 liters. With. powered by two Rolls-Royce turbojet engines, Thrust set the land speed record at 1,228 km/h in 1997 and became the first car to break the sound barrier.
Turbine motorcycle MTT. As if the bikes weren't scary enough... MTT fitted their bike with a Rolls-Royce turbo that puts out 286 horsepower. With. on rear wheel. One of these belongs to the American TV presenter Jay Leno, who describes him like this: "He's funny, but he can scare you to death."
Batmobile. Main transport from the movies "Batman" and "Batman Returns". Built on Chassis Chevrolet Impala. Today, there are companies that make replicas of this Batmobile with real gas turbine engines.
shockwave. This truck tractor The Peterbilt is powered by three Pratt & Whitney J34-48 jet engines and once reached 605 km/h. He drives a quarter mile in 6.63 seconds, accompanying his race with an amazing fiery spectacle!
bigwind. This ultimate fire extinguisher would be the perfect complement to the previous truck. What about fighting fire with fire? Big Wind does just that. It consists of two engines from the MIG-21 mounted on the Soviet T-34 tank. These things put out oil fires in Kuwait during the Gulf War. First, six hoses extinguish the fire, and then jet engines pump out a powerful jet of steam that literally blows the flames off the oil.
Lotus 56. This car had a helicopter gas turbine engine and was deprived of a gearbox, clutch and cooling system. In 1971 he made his debut in Formula 1. The most serious problem was the significant delay in the response of the turbine to pressing the gas - at first the delay was six seconds. This forced the pilot to open the throttle even in braking before the turn. Later, the delay was reduced to three seconds, but this increased fuel consumption and launch weight. At Silverstone the car was 11 laps behind and at Monza Emerson Fittipaldi managed to finish eighth, one lap back. Control weighing showed that the Lotus 56 is 101 kg heavier than the winner's car. Naturally, it had to be abandoned.
Chrysler gas turbine car. These experimental cars are called that because the model did not have its own name. They were developed from 1953 to 1979. During this time, Chrysler experienced 7 generations and built 77 prototypes. In the early 60s, they successfully passed tests on public roads, but the financial crisis at Chrysler and the introduction of new toxicity and fuel consumption standards prevented the launch of the model in mass production. Nine cars survived in museums and home collections, while the rest were destroyed.
GAZ M20 Snowmobile "Sever". In 1959, in the helicopter design bureau of N. I. Kamov, the snowmobile car "Sever" was developed. It was a Pobeda put on skis with an AI-14 aircraft engine with a power of 260 hp. With. It was used as a high-speed transport for the northern regions of the country in winter periods. average speed was 35 km/h. The routes passed through virgin snow and hummocky ice in frosts up to 50 degrees. Aerosleighs worked along the Amur, served the villages along the banks of the Lena, Ob and Pechora rivers.
Tractor. Americans love all sorts of fun, and tractor racing is one of them. The main competition is the transportation of a heavy platform by a tractor over a distance of 80-100 meters. And here, of course, powerful gas turbine engines come to the aid of the tractor.
On November 13, Russia celebrates the Day of the Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Troops. This year, the Russian troops of the RKhBZ turned 100 years old.
In honor of the centennial anniversary, the Russian Ministry of Defense released a video showing modern military equipment of this unit.
Reviewers of the American edition of "Drive" (The Drive), who watched the video, were delighted with what they saw. They dedicated a whole car chemical troops TMS-65U ( heat engine special). Military analyst and journalist Joseph Trevithick calls it one of the most unusual systems because of turbojet engine, which is installed on the Ural chassis.
Video: youtube.com/Russian Ministry of Defense
The TMS-65U is equipped with the VK-1 engine, which was previously used on the MiG-15 and MiG-17 fighters, the Tu-14 torpedo bomber, and the Il-28.
Joseph Trevithick writes that this technique can be used to clean vehicles covered in chemicals, as well as to create massive smokescreens that help hide friendly troops on the battlefield from enemy eyes. He also notes that the TMS-65U allows special processing much faster than using a hand tool.
“TMS-65U is a kind of impromptu mobile battlefield washer that quickly cleans equipment,” wrote a columnist for Drive.
The journalist believes that the thermal special machine- this is definitely efficient system. However, do not forget that the VK-1 engine was built back in the Soviet Union, so it consumes a lot of fuel.
In his article, Trevithick calls the TMS-65U a “crazy machine” that can not only carry out special gas or gas-drop treatment, but also put up huge smoke screens.
“The crew of the TMS-65U can fill the tank, which usually contains a decontamination solution, with a smoke-producing liquid such as fuel oil. Hot traffic fumes turn the liquid into a thick White smoke, which can hide friendly forces from the naked eye of the enemy and some sensors, ”the journalist notes.
Trevithick draws attention to the fact that if there are no special additives in the smoke-forming mixture, then it is impossible to hide troops from enemy infrared optics.
“The most interesting thing about this car is the continued use of the VK-1. This jet engine is antique,” Trevithick enthuses.
According to The Drive columnist, today there are no signs that Moscow is in soon intends to replace the "crazy" TMS-65U. These machines undoubtedly play important role in the military defense doctrine of the Russian army.
Photo source: wikipedia.org/Vitaly V. Kuzmin, wikipedia.org/Kogo
Piston engines were already considered an anachronism in the 60s of the last century, looking for their alternative. But until now, the vast majority of cars are powered by an engine. internal combustion. At one time, the world has already experienced euphoria about cars powered by electricity, but despite the general desire, the electric car has not become everyday vehicle. And the question is, will it happen now?
But then, in the middle of the last century, at some point the future was seen differently. Some have tried to bet on a jet engine. It was inspired by its use on aircraft, so it is not surprising that, with appropriate modifications, it seemed to many that it could be used on railway locomotives and cars.
They appeared on locomotives, but the car never had to use it in production models. Although some tried to introduce such a unit and even made prototypes. Most famous brand working on the jet car was the American Chrysler. Engineer George Huebner got excited about the idea and convinced the management team that a small turbine would be better. piston engine, in which large "pieces of metal fly back and forth" hundreds of times per second. And a jet engine, as it was then believed, can be refueled with almost any fuel - "from gasoline and diesel fuel to kitchen peanut butter and your wife's perfume."
Chrysler introduced the first car with a jet turbine in 1954. It was a Plymouth Belvedere called Turbine Cars. From 1963 to 1964, a whole fleet of such cars was produced, consisting of 55 copies. body produced by an Italian company Ghia, had a futuristic design with many jet-engine details and was painted orange-brown. The car was very different from the rest of the cars, which at that time were more similar to each other than today.
Under the hood was a gas turbine engine developed by Chrysler with the designation A831. Max RPM reached 44,600 rpm, and on Idling- 22,000 rpm. Despite the power of 130 hp, the torque was 576 Nm at the most low revs, but with their increase it fell. At the output was a gearbox that reduces the rotation speed to 5,000 rpm, and behind it - automatic transmission gears.
The main advantage of the jet engine was its reliability. It was much easier to maintain, the need for a cooling system disappeared, it had much fewer parts, and winding at low temperatures didn't cause problems. And also, he had no vibration at all (who bothers to watch the video in full, he will see how Jay Leno puts a glass of water on him). The car was controlled, like everyone else - with the help of two pedals, a steering wheel and a gear lever.
But there are also a number of disadvantages. As they say, the throttle response was terrible - you had to wait about a second, or even one and a half, for a response. The fuel consumption was huge, and the exhaust gases were so hot that, in order not to melt the asphalt, they needed special coolers. Although the turbine could run on any flammable liquid, drivers were discouraged from refueling the car with conventional gasoline, as at that time it had a high lead content, which was deposited on the turbine blades. But most main reason, why these cars never came out "into the people", was high level fuel consumption, which the automaker never announced and forbade all testers to do this. Added to this was the introduction of a restriction on harmful emissions in the United States.
True, Chrysler did not abandon the idea itself. The company made several more unsuccessful attempts to launch a "jet" car. But with the tank, she was more successful - created in the 1970s, the M1 Abrams became the main combat vehicle of the US Army.
Actually, interest in gas turbine vehicles never disappeared. In particular, in 2010, the Jaguar C-X75 concept, which was recently used in the new James Bond film, had two "microturbines" powered by diesel fuel. They rotated the generator, which fed the car's four electric motors. Such a solution may be more efficient than using it to rotate the car's transmission. Therefore, perhaps in the future we will be able to see cars with gas turbines on board.
