Many thanks to everyone for the educational replies. Sadly, it all seems
rather unlikely.
Still, there's one thing that continues to puzzle me (actually, there are
about a million things, but this one just happens to be foremost).
I think it's probably a general rule that when you reduce the stresses on
things, they tend to become simpler, cheaper and lighter. If something the
size of a 5-litre paint tin could drive a JetRanger, couldn't something of a
similar size drive a Europa with far fewer revs, friction and all those
other problems.
Maybe you could retain the compression efficiency but reduce the revs as a
function of the AoA of the compressor blades) and then use it drive a prop,
I guess via a reduction gear--is that something all turboprops use?
What about ceramics, frictionless oil and all those other wonderous things
that weren't around in Whittle's time?
Of course, none of this gets around the problem of needing a tanker on
standby.
Thanks again. I realise this isn't exactly on topic. I'd better go and do
some reading.
--
Stephen O'Brien
Quorum Creative
Australia
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