tur·bo·jet (tûr b -j t )n. 1. A jet engine having a turbine-driven compressor and developing thrust from the exhaust of hot gases. 2. An aircraft in which a turbojet is used. |
turbojet [ˌtɜːbəʊˈdʒɛt]
n
1. (Engineering / Aeronautics) short for turbojet engine
2. (Engineering / Aeronautics) an aircraft powered by one or more turbojet engines
| turbojet (tûrb-jt) 1. A type of gas turbine in which air, drawn into a combustion chamber by fans, is rapidly heated by combusted fuel, creating air pressure that drives turbines and provides jet propulsion. The turbines drive the fans, while the air and exhaust expelled from the rear of the engine provide the forward thrust. Compare rocket engineturbofan 2. An aircraft powered by an engine or engines of this type. A Closer Look Fully loaded, a jumbo-sized aircraft weighs nearly 800,000 pounds. Yet its jet propulsion engines are so powerful that it hurtles down the runway fast enough to lift it into the air and climb to 35,000 feet. The turbofan engines now so common on commercial aircraft are descendants of the turbojet, itself a descendant of the ramjet, and all three are remarkably simple devices. In each case, thrust comes from the backward propulsion of hot pressurized air, which  according to Newton's third law of motionproduces an equal and opposite reaction in the body from which it was propelled. The ramjet is a simple hollow cylinder with a central combustion chamber in which incoming air is sprayed with burning fuel and blasts out the rear of the cylinder at high pressure. In a turbojet, greater efficiency and control is obtained by having the escaping exhaust drive a turbine before leaving the engine and by having that turbine drive intake fans that compress the incoming air before it is ignited. Though only a small amount of air is accelerated by these engines, it is accelerated by a huge amount, and extremely high thrust, on the order of thousands of horsepower, can be achieved. The turbojet engine is used in high-performance fighter jets, but if speeds are kept down to a few hundred miles per hour, the aerodynamics of the propeller or fan offers certain advantages; for this reason, the turbofan was developed. The turbofan engine encloses the combustion chamber in a larger cylinder and uses larger intake fans to blow some of the incoming air in an outer path around the combustion chamber, straight out the rear of the engine, without the addition of burning fuel. This way, a good part of the thrust is achieved by accelerating a large quantity of "clean" air by a small amount. This makes the turbofan both more fuel-efficient and considerably quieter than the turbojet design. For the extra thrust needed at takeoff, fuel can even be injected into the outer air path of the turbofan so that all of the air takes part in combustion as in turbojet operation; this fuel flow can then be turned off when the extra power is no longer needed. |   |
A jet engine whose air is supplied by a turbine-driven compressor, the turbine being activated by exhaust gases.
ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
| Noun | 1. | turbojet - an airplane propelled by a fanjet engine fanjet engine, turbofan engine, turbojet engine, turbojet, turbofan, fan-jet, fanjet - a jet engine in which a fan driven by a turbine provides extra air to the burner and gives extra thrust |
| 2. |  turbojet - a jet engine in which a fan driven by a turbine provides extra air to the burner and gives extra thrustafterburner - a device injects fuel into a hot exhaust for extra thrust gas turbine - turbine that converts the chemical energy of a liquid fuel into mechanical energy by internal combustion; gaseous products of the fuel (which is burned in compressed air) are expanded through a turbine jet engine - a gas turbine produces a stream of hot gas that propels a jet plane by reaction propulsion propjet, turbo-propeller plane, turboprop - an airplane with an external propeller that is driven by a turbojet engine |
Translations
turbojet
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