Technical paper 582
Paper 582:
The history of the
industrial gas turbine
Part 1 The first fifty years 1940-1990
A paper presented at an ordinary meeting of the Intstituion in Peterborough on 20 January 2011
Preamble
This history of the industrial gas turbine documents the
history of the development of gas turbines for land based,
locomotive and marine applications. A key part of the history
is the documentation of all manufacturers and gas turbine
models produced each year since 1940. The aircraft engine is
excluded from the scope of the work and only referred to in
as far as it related to the development of industrial machines’
gas turbines. It has not been possible, up to the time of
publication, to include every company who were active in the
development of the industrial gas turbine, however the
research work is continuing and it is planned to add to this
history in due course. See Figure 1.
This paper (Part 1) deals with the first fifty years of
development of the industrial gas turbine from 1940 to 1990.
It is planned that a second paper (Part 2) will be presented
later in 2011 covering the period 1990 onwards. The author
recognises that whilst there are already a number of
individual historical accounts concerning the development of
the industrial gas turbine, it is hoped that this work will add a
broader and more comprehensive perspective to the subject.
One published book [53] makes the comment that this is a
subject with as many opinions on who to credit
developments to as there are engineering historians. This
author endeavours to give a fair opinion on the credits due
and to give due recognition.
The author gratefully acknowledges the encouragement and
assistance of all the companies referred to for their
permission to publish the material. Sincere thanks and
appreciation is given to the many individual contributors for
this work and all who have given significant support to the
work and generously given of their time and experience,
providing data and reference material thus making this
historical account possible.
Special thanks are given to Steve Reed for his support and the
extensive research he has carried out. In addition, thanks are
given to the numerous librarians and archivists who responded
to so many enquiries and provided papers and documents on
the subject. A list of acknowledgements is attached.
The author wishes to thank the Council and Officers of the
Institution of Diesel and Gas Turbine Engineers (IDGTE)
for their support, encouragement and assistance in preparing
this history, especially members of the IDGTE gas turbine
committee and the IDGTE heritage committee.
6 Power Engineer June 2011
by Ronald J Hunt CEng FIMechE FIDGTE
Thermal Power Consultant
Power + Energy Associates
In preparing this historical review every effort has been made
to report the performance ratings at the time the various
models were introduced. It is recognised that all turbine
manufacturers are continuously improving gas turbine
products in line with ever changing market dynamics,
therefore the purpose of the history is to illustrate the
development history of gas turbines in general and not
current ratings. Updates will be included in a later edition
(Part 2).
It is planned that the full account of the history with
extensive tables and specifications, including fully detailed
contributions by the contributors, will be published in a book
in due course.
1. Introduction to the industrial gas turbine
It is clear that in the 19th century the concept of the gas
turbine became known to many engineers and the efforts of
all the early pioneers are in the main well documented. In the
early part of the 20th century a number of trials took place.
Early on it was recognised that this was a technological
concept with huge potential being limited only by the state of
art of associated technologies and the materials available at
the time. By the late 1930s the concept of the gas turbine
had already been around for decades with articles already
having being published, patents applied for up to 50 years
ahead of the realisation of the goal.
Experimental gas turbines had been around in various forms
since the early 1900s and in the following chapter the efforts
of the pioneers is given the credit that they deserve. The
question of who came first is also addressed. Those early
efforts to make the gas turbine work often resulted in
disappointment as the poor efficiencies initially achieved
meant that there was little incentive to take the idea further.
There was certainly no shortage of vision in the early 1900s,
as is exampled by Captain H Riall Sankey who, in his
outstanding lecture on Heat Engines given to the Institution
of Mechanical Engineers in November 1917 [1], predicted
the future role of the gas turbine. Sankey could see the
continued dominance and development of the steam turbine
for some time to come, which at that time had already
reached 45MW. In his discussion about the future of power
generation he says “…… steam turbines will hold the field for the
large units ….… until a satisfactory gas turbine has evolved.” He
also mentions that during the past 15 years (that is 1902-
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 The history of the industrial gas turbine: Part 1 The first fifty years 1940-1990
1917) “a few experimental turbines have been produced but so far there
has been no progress.”
Moving on then two decades something really quite
amazing was the effort of the British Government in the
early 1940s to promote the development of the gas
turbine. This effort was applied in so many gas turbine
related fields, industrial engines as well as aircraft engines.
It was at this time that, Harold Roxbee Cox, later to
become Sir, entered into the picture in his Government
role in charge of the Gas Turbine Collaboration
Committee and then Chief Scientific Officer. The
Government effectively created a race and pulled into the
fold all the established engineering companies pushing this
with great determination.
One of our contributors said that all companies had
representatives attending these meetings and ideas and
progress were exchanged.
There is no doubt that it is Brown Boveri in Switzerland
with their 4,000kW Neuchatel machine who needs to be
credited for producing the first practical industrial gas
turbine. The first industrial gas turbine to run in the
United Kingdom was the 500bhp experimental machine of
C A Parsons, which ran in 1945 [5]. The original Swiss
machine is on display in Baden and the original Parsons
machine is in storage at the Beamish Museum.
Figure 1 The pioneers
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2. The work of the pioneers
Tribute is given to all the pioneers for their true dedication to
the development of the industrial gas turbine and working
tirelessly to achieve success. There must have been so many
disappointments through all the trials and efforts but
perseverance eventually bore fruits.
The claim to the invention of the gas turbine is something
that has to date never been satisfactorily resolved. The
concept was certainly set out by John Barber in the late 18th
century (1791) then, incredibly, during the following 148
years so many attempts were made to solve the challenge. In
this time a number of other patents were lodged and
experimental machines were constructed with varying degrees
of success. Some of the problems encountered were due to
the availability of suitable materials at the time, compressor
technology and the construction of compressors of adequate
efficiency. In truth the achievement of a practical industrial
gas turbine is due to the work of many contributors. The
following are brief summary biographies of each of the
pioneers on this roll of honour:
1 John Barber (1734–1801) – British
Born in Nottinghamshire, he moved to Warwickshire
in the 1760s to manage collieries in the Nuneaton area.
He patented several inventions, the most remarkable
being one in 1791 “A Method of Rising Inflammable
Air for the Purposes of Procuring Motion”. This is the
patent of a gas turbine.
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Technical paper 582
2 John Dumbell – British
Credited with patenting a device in 1808 having “a
series of vanes, or fliers, within a cylinder, like the sails
of a windmill, causing them to rotate together with the
shaft to which they were fixed”. [3] [41] [71]
3 Bresson – French
In Paris in 1837 Bresson had the idea to heat and
compress air then deliver this to a combustion chamber
and to mix this with fuel gas and then burnt. The
combustion products were to be used to drive “a wheel
like a water wheel”. [41]
4 Franz Stolze (1836-1910) – German
Dr Stolze took out a patent for a gas turbine engine in
1872. This engine used a multi-stage reaction turbine
and a multi-stage axial flow compressor. He called this
a “Fire Turbine”. Tests were made in Berlin between
1900 and 1904 without success. [2]
5 Sir Charles Algernon Parsons (1854–1931) –
British
Along with his celebrated steam turbine patents,
Parsons patented his idea for the gas turbine, which he
called a Multiple Motor. By the early 1900s, in addition
to steam turbines, Parsons was designing and
manufacturing industrial compressors.
6 Rene Armengaud and Charles Lemale –
French
In 1903 they built and successfully tested the first of
several experimental gas turbines with internally water
cooled disks and blades. [50]
7 Dr Holzwarth - Germany
In 1905 Dr Holzwarth proposed an explosion
(constant volume) turbine. A prototype was built and
experiments were carried out between 1909 and 1913
[2]. This worked without a compressor. Several of
these were built but not put into commercial use.
8 Matthew Henry Phineas Riall Sankey (1853-
1925) – Irish
He was an Irish engineer from County Cork who
invented the Sankey Diagram. He became President of
the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and was able
to recognise the future role of the gas turbine in 1917.
9 Charles Gordon Curtis (1860-1953) – American
Born in Boston, Massachusetts he patented the first US
gas turbine in 1899. Among his other achievements
was the Curtis steam turbine of 1896. He sold the
rights to the turbine to GE in 1901.
10 Prof Aurel Boleslav Stodola (1859–1942) –
Swiss
Slovak by birth he was a pioneer in thermodynamics
and its applications. His 1903 published book had an
appendix on gas turbines. Brown Boveri asked him to
8 Power Engineer June 2011
commission and test the world’s first industrial gas
turbine at Neuchâtel in 1940.
11 Charles Brown (1863-1924) - British/Swiss
Co-Founder of the Brown Boveri Company in 1891 in
Baden, Switzerland. He was born in Winterthur and his
father was a British engineer who founded the SLM
Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works.
12 Walter Boveri (1865-1924) - German/Swiss
Co-founder of the Brown Boveri Company in 1891 in
Baden, Switzerland. He was born in Bamberg, Bavaria
and died in Baden, Switzerland.
13 Aegidius Elling (1861–1949) - Norwegian
Considered in some quarters to be the father of the
gas turbine. In 1903 he designed and constructed the
first constant pressure gas turbine. His first machine
had an output of 11hp and the second 44hp. [40]
14 Auguste Camille Rateau (1863–1930) -
French
Associated with the work of Lemale and Armengaud
and designed the compressor for their gas turbine. His
work was largely on compressors and founded Rateau
Industries.
15 Sanford Alexander Moss (1872–1946) -
American
After graduation Moss joined GE where he carried out
research into compressor design. Due to the low
overall efficiencies achieved at the time GE ended his
work on gas turbines in 1907. [40]
16 Jakob Ackeret (1898-1981) - Swiss
Worked at Escher Wyss AG in Zurich as Chief
Engineer of Hydraulics and was considered as an
expert on gas turbines; known for his research on axial
flow compressors, airfoil theory, aerodynamics and
high-speed propulsion problems. He is recognised as a
pioneer of modern aerodynamics. [58]
17 Sir Harold Roxbee Cox (1902–1997) - British
A British aeronautical engineer who became chief
scientific officer for the British Government. In 1944
he became both Chairman and Managing Director of
the then nationalised Power Jets. Power Jets was
restyled again in 1946 as the National Gas Turbine
Establishment with Roxbee Cox as its Director.
18 Alan Howard (1905–1966) - American
Worked for the GE Company in Schenectady, NY
and the steam turbine activities of the company. He
is considered as the key figure in GE efforts to
develop the gas turbine as he was appointed to a
wartime committee to develop gas turbines for
aircraft propulsion.
19 Basil Wood (1905–1992) - British
Worked with the consulting firm of Merz and
McLellan and highly respected as an engineer, regarded
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 The history of the industrial gas turbine: Part 1 The first fifty years 1940-1990
by many as an expert in all matters relating to gas
turbines. For many years he edited the gas turbine
section of Kemps Yearbook. In 1970 he became
President of the Diesel Engine Users Association
(IDGTE).
20 Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle (1907–1996)
- British
Known as the inventor of the jet engine, he was a
British Royal Air Force (RAF) engineer officer who
shared credit with Germany’s Dr Hans Von Ohain for
independently inventing the jet engine. Whittle is hailed
as the father of jet propulsion and the contribution he
made to the development of the industrial gas turbine
was significant.
21 Geoffrey Bertram Robert Feilden (1917–2004)
- British
Bob Feilden worked with Power Jets and after that he
moved to Ruston & Hornsby in Lincoln to produce
the first Ruston type TA gas turbine. Later in life he
was the author of a widely acclaimed work on
engineering design for which he is highly regarded.
22 Dr Waheeb Rizk (1921-2009)
Born and educated in Cairo he studied at Cambridge
University. After graduating he carried out research and
joined the English Electric Company in 1954. He became
a founder member of the Mechanical Engineering
Laboratory at Whetstone, Leicester and in 1957 was
made Chief Engineer of the Gas Turbine Division.
23 Prof Dr Rudolf Friedrich (1909-1998) -
German
He was employed by Siemens from 1948-1964 and was
Chief Technical Officer for gas turbines at Siemens -
Schuckert Works in Mülheim/Ruhr. From 1964-1976
he was Full Professor for turbine technology at
Karlsruhe Technical University. He has been given the
nickname “M. Siemens-Gas Turbine” by his colleagues.
24 Andrew T Bowden (-1968) - British
After graduating at Herriot-Watt, Edinburgh he
became Associate Professor of Mechanical
Engineering in Western Australia. In 1939 he returned
to the UK where he became Assistant Director of
Tank Design at the Ministry of Supply and after the
war he joined C A Parsons as Chief Research
Engineer. He set up the Gas Turbine Department and
recruited a team of engineers. In 1955 he became
Research Director.
25 Dr Claude Seippel (1900-1986) - Swiss
He was employed by Brown Boveri and in 1939 the
person in charge of conceptual design for the
Neuchatel gas turbine plant. Some sources refer to
Prof. Stodola as the Neuchatel designer, however the
evidence suggests that Dr. Sieppel should have the
credit. Brown Boveri honoured him by naming their
research centre at Daetwill, Baden after him.
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26 John Lamb (1890-1958) - British
He was a pioneer marine engineer who was Chief
Engineer of the Anglo Saxon Petroleum Company
[48]. In 1951 he arranged for one of the diesel-electric
engines on the tanker Auris to be replaced by a gas
turbine. He then carried out sea going trials with this
ship and presented the results to the Institute of
Marine Engineers in October 1953. [10] [48]
The list of deserving pioneers keeps growing and it is
intended to add to the above list the names of
A A Griffith and A R Howell for their work on the
development of the axial compressor.
3. Technology developments
3.1 Landmark technical papers
The development of the industrial gas turbine came about as
a result of the development of a large number of
technologies and research into materials enabling the
improvement in operating conditions. Over the years these
have been described in various landmark technical papers, a
few being mentioned below and others in the references.
In February 1939 Dr Adolf Meyer from Brown Boveri
presented his outstanding paper on The Combustion Gas
Turbine: Its History, Developments and Prospects [2] to the
Institution of Mechanical Engineers in London. This
presentation coincided with the introduction of the first
practical industrial gas turbine by that company in 1939.
At a meeting of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in
London in June 1948, A T Bowden and J L Jefferson of
C A Parsons presented their paper on the Design and Operation
of the Parsons Experimental Gas Turbine. [5] The Parsons’ paper
presents a detailed, no holds barred account of the gas
turbine experimental work carried out at the Heaton Works
of C A Parson in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Over the years the Diesel Engine Users Association, now the
Institution of Diesel and Gas Turbine Engineers (IDGTE),
has presented many milestone papers on the design,
development and application of the gas turbine. The first was
given by Mr R J Welsh of the English Electric Company,
presented in London in November 1948. Then in 1954
E A Kerez of Brown Boveri presented his paper on the
Beznau Power Station.
In 1951, at the time of The Festival of Britain, a document
was published by Power Jets (Research and Development)
called the The Story of the British Gas Turbine.
An account was presented by the British National Committee
at the World Power Conference in Rio de Janeiro in 1954. [13]
This started with the work of John Barber and Charles Parsons
and describes British gas turbine developments in power
generation, traction, automotive engines and aircraft engines.
Around 1965, as mentioned in the paper of Dr Seippel [15],
there appeared to have been a serious debate at that time as
to whether the industrial gas turbine was economically
viable. At the same time it was recognised that the climb in
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Technical paper 582

gas turbine outputs had been spectacular. Dr Seippel The six ages of development for the industrial gas turbine
introduced the “combined gas-steam cycles” concept and are shown by Figure 2. These illustrate the stages of
this was immediately met by doubts as to the viability of development and the significant events which have all
such schemes. shaped the industrial gas turbine to the point we are at today.

Figure 2 The six ages of development

Figure 3 Growth in unit ratings

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 The history of the industrial gas turbine: Part 1 The first fifty years 1940-1990

3.2 Cycles and configurations
From the early stages of the development of the gas turbine
researchers have considered whether to adopt either the open
cycle or closed cycle with the primary proponents of the
closed cycle being the Swiss. The advantages seen for the
closed cycle included not having to have compressor intake
filtration and reduced gas path dimensions due to the higher
working pressures. The capability of the closed cycle to burn
otherwise unsuitable fuels was another big incentive. The
disadvantages turned out to be the cost of building these
complex plants, limitations on the gas circuit materials, lower
turbine inlet temperatures and lower efficiencies. The two
cycles were the closed cycle air cycle and the closed cycle
helium cycle.
Early developers of industrial gas turbines used every
possible means to improve efficiency and to make the gas
turbine economically viable. They looked into inter-cooling,
reheat, exhaust heat recovery and recuperation. Many
configurations were considered including open cycle single
shaft with/without exhaust heat recuperation, open cycle two
shafts with/without exhaust heat recuperation, open cycle
single shaft with exhaust heat recuperation and inter-cooling,
open cycle two shaft with exhaust heat recuperation and
inter-cooling, open cycle three shaft with exhaust heat
recuperation and inter-cooling, closed cycle air CLAGT,
closed cycle helium CLHGT and eventually combined cycle
steam and gas turbines CCGT.
The efforts of those keen to promote closed cycle plants
against open cycle lasted only until about 1975 and then
finally it was the merging of different companies that sealed
the fate of the closed cycle. By that time CCGT was already
getting well established and higher operating conditions for
the open cycle meant that the goal of beating the
conventional cycle would follow the CCGT route.
After a period of about 10-15 years (1940-1955), the general
industry trend for industrial gas turbine configurations was to
move to simple single shaft options without inter-cooling.
On the other hand, in the aero engine world, the trend was
towards inter-cooled and multiple shaft arrangements with
separate power turbines.
3.3 Unit outputs
Starting from only 4,000kW in 1939 the output of the
industrial gas turbine has grown in size phenomenally to
around 250,000kW by the late 1990s and to over 300,000kW
presently.
There are of course two groups of companies in the
industrial turbine world one being the group targeting the
small industrial market the size of these units being dictated
by use. The other group is the large machines group who
continue to seek to dominate the market for thermal power
generation and take over from conventional cycles as Riall
Sankey had predicted in 1917. See Figure 3.
3.4 Operational conditions
It was known from the earliest experiments and theory that
higher efficiency was linked to the achievable turbine inlet
temperatures. There is evidence of considerable discussion
amongst the early pioneers about the safely achievable inlet
temperature with the available heat resisting steels at the time.
This led to many ingenious and complicated schemes for
cooling of the hot gas path components initially with water
passages. It was always going to be a combination of materials,
cooling technologies and (eventually) thermal barrier coatings
that would push the industrial gas turbine forward and enable
higher and higher inlet temperatures to be achieved.

HISTORY OF THE INDUSTRIAL GAS TURBINE

TURBINE INLET TEMPERATURE TREND
1600

1500

1400
1310
1300
TURBINE INLET TEMPERATURE DEGC

1200 1149
1093
1100

1000
899
900
816
800 760

700

600 550

500

YEAR

Figure 4 Inlet temperature trend

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Technical paper 582

REFER TO DEBATE DEUA PAPER 234 E.A. KEREZ AND DISCUSSION 1954

HISTORY OF THE INDUSTRIAL GAS TURBINE

TURBINE INLET TEMPERATURE TREND
1800
1700

1600

1500
NLET TEMPERATURE DEGC

1400
1300 Aero Engines 1310

1200
1149
1100 1093
1000
TURBINE IN

900 899
Industrial Gas Turbine Research
800 816
760
700

600
550
500
1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
Boyce data Ͳ extracted from YEAR
Gas Turbine Engineering Handbook 3rd Edition
History Research Data Boyce Aero Boyce Industrial

Figure 5 Technology trends - temperature

HISTORY OF THE INDUSTRIAL GAS TURBINE

COMPRESSOR PRESSURE RATIO
35

30
30

25
PRESSOR PRESSURE RATIO

20
16
15 14.2

95
9.5
COMP

10
6.9
6.1
5 4.2

YEAR

Figure 6 Compressor pressure ratio trend

A review of the achieved turbine inlet temperatures from this
historical research shows that whilst industrial gas turbine
inlet temperatures have been consistently below those of aero
engines convergence is now taking place. When the Neuchatel
gas turbine power plant was put into service in 1940 the
operational conditions for the gas turbine cycle included a
turbine inlet temperature of 550°C and pressure ratio of 4.2:1.
In his 1939 paper Dr Meyer was comparing inlet conditions of
538°C (1,000°F), 649°C (1,200°F) and 816°C (1,500°F). He
stated that 1,000°F (538°C) was absolutely safe for uncooled

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 The history of the industrial gas turbine: Part 1 The first fifty years 1940-1990

HISTORY OF THE INDUSTRIAL GAS TURBINE

OVERALL THERMAL EFFICIENCY (SC)
45

40 38.6

34.6
35
31.5
OVERALL THERMAL EFFICIENCY (SC) %

30
27.3
25.8
25 24

20
17.4

15

10

YEAR

Figure 7 Technology trends - thermal efficiency

HISTORY OF THE INDUSTRIAL GAS TURBINE

MATERIAL TEMPERATURE LIMITS

1600
1400
1400 GENERALISED TREND
1300
1240
1200
TEMPERATURE DEG C

1050 1068
1000
Improvement in Cooling
1000 900
850
800
800 870 885 900
830 840 860
800 820
730
600 550

550 Improvement in Materials **

400

200

0
1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
YEAR
** Data extracted from GE Paper
GER 3569G P.W. Shilke Turbine Inlet Material Capability

Figure 8 Material temperature limits

blades made of the available heat resisting steel. Then he went
on to say that he could foresee the prospect of the gas turbine
inlet temperature being increased to 816°C (1,500°F).
It was not until the late 1950s that turbine inlet temperatures
for industrial gas turbines exceeded the 816°C (1,500°F) level.
It was Siemens who broke away from the trend with a short-
lived achievement in 1957. The whole field continued to
steadily increase inlet temperatures by roughly about 100°C
for every 10 years. By the late 1990s turbine inlet
temperatures of approximately 1,300°C were being achieved.
See Figure 5.

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Technical paper 582
3.5 Pressure ratios
Pressure ratios of the gas turbine compressor have increased
by about 2 units each decade from 1940, however since about
1985 there appears to be a convergence taking place as a
majority of machines large and small began to fall in to the
same band. Aero-engines operate at a higher pressure ratio
than industrial gas turbines and the modern turbofan aero
engines operate as high as 44:1. As a consequence aero-
derivative gas turbines modified for land based power
generation applications also operate with similarly high
pressure ratios. See Figure 6.
3.6 Thermal efficiencies
According to the reports of Brown Boveri, the Neuchatel
power plant achieved a noteworthy compressor efficiency of
88%, turbine efficiency of 89% and a thermal efficiency of
17.4 (18.6) %. Associated with increase in turbine inlet
temperatures the corresponding overall cycle efficiency was
foreseen in 1939 to rise from 18% to 26%. The achievement
of 26% overall efficiency actually took about 20 years. See
Figure 7.
At the time of the emergence of the practical industrial gas
turbine in 1939 the thermal efficiency was 17-18 % and this
was being compared with steam cycle efficiencies of
25-26% of that day. As we now know, over the following
years the steam cycle thermal efficiency continued to improve
always keeping ahead of the simple cycle gas turbine until the
late 1990s when advanced class gas turbines became
operational.
250
200
GT EXHAUST EMISSIONS NOx PPMV (15% O2)
150
100
80
50
0
1940 1950
Manufacturer1
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This race between the open cycle gas turbine and the
conventional steam cycle efficiency was effectively halted in
the 1960s when the combined gas turbine steam turbine cycle
(CCGT) started pushing plant thermal efficiencies over 40%
and beyond.
3.7 Materials and cooling
Owing to the complexity of the Metallurgy and Materials
sciences, it is only possible to touch briefly in this historical
review on the impact that these have had on gas turbine
technology and, in particular, on higher firing temperatures. As
with the steam turbine, the gas turbine stage 1 blade (bucket) has
to withstand the highest temperatures, stresses in the turbine,
and is therefore considered to be the limiting component.
In the early 1940s high grade heat-resisting steels were not
available therefore steel temperatures were limited to 1,050°F
(566°C) for continuous running. Advances in materials
accounted for the majority of the firing temperature increase
until air cooling was widely exploited in the 1970s. These
advances all enabled increased firing temperatures, increased
output and improved thermal efficiency. See Figure 8.
It is worth noting that during the early 1950s the National
Gas Turbine Establishment (NGTE) was carrying out
experiments into the air cooling of gas turbine blades. We
can see therefore that the present day methods of air
cooling were already being developed in 1953. In addition
to the limit on the material capability metal temperatures
above 870°C have resulted in the need to apply thermal
barrier coatings due to hot corrosion effects.
HISTORY OF THE INDUSTRIAL GAS TURBINE
EMISSIONS TREND NOx
200 200
125
80
55 55
25 25
15
1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
YEAR
Manufacturer 2 California Tokyo UK Ͳ Europe
Figure 9 Exhaust emissions trends
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 The history of the industrial gas turbine: Part 1 The first fifty years 1940-1990

3.8 Emissions n 1968 A Bristol Siddeley Olympus was installed in the

RN vessel HMS Exmouth.
Over the years gas turbine emissions have gradually
become more important and in particular NOx. Until the n 1980 All propulsion power for the HMS Invincible,
early 1990s, the United Kingdom and the EU had no HMS Illustrious and HMS Ark Royal aircraft carriers
statutory requirements for gas turbine emissions. It was provided by four Olympus engines on each ship,
Tokyo and California that seem to have been leading the providing 72,000kW total shaft power. See Figure 10.
trend for lower and lower permissible limits. In 1970 a
value of 75 ppmv was considered acceptable, by 1980 this The 1967 decision of the Royal Navy to only use gas turbines
had been reduced to 50 ppmv for California and 15 ppmv for propulsion was quite a milestone in itself. Today all gas
for Tokyo, reference Figure 9. [36] turbine manufacturers have marine variants of their gas
turbines and aero derivatives have now found a real place in
marine propulsion.
4. Gas turbine applications and fuels
Although the prime area of interest in the gas turbine in the 4.2 Road vehicle engines
early years was land based power generation and aircraft The application of gas turbines to road vehicles was a real
engines, almost immediately the industrial gas turbine had quest in the late 1940s and 1950s. First off the mark was
become a reality the applications being exploited seemed Centrax, who designed and manufactured a 160hp engine in
limitless. Economics drove engineers to look at a wide range of 1948 for use as a truck engine. The Rover Company became
fuels and many different applications and alternative fuels were famous for producing the Rover gas turbine car. The Rover
being trialed. In addition to direct power generation the gas turbine car JET1 with 100bhp was first demonstrated to
applications for the industrial gas turbine in 1940 immediately the public in March 1950 achieving a speed of 85mph. The
included locomotive engines, blast furnace blowers, marine updated version with an engine of 230bhp went on to
propulsion, road vehicle engines and mechanical drives. achieve a speed of 152mph. This certainly gained public
attention. [74]
4.1 Marine propulsion
Work was started by Austin on the gas turbine in 1952 and
In 1947 a Metrovick F2 axial-flow jet engine, known as the their first unit ran in 1954 using a Rolls-Royce Merlin
Beryl engine, was installed in the MGB2009 to become the supercharger as a compressor. Leyland, the successor of
world’s first ever gas turbine propelled sea going vessel. Austin, developed a gas turbine powered truck. A specially
designed Parsons 1,000hp (746kW) gas turbine was installed
n 1951 The first ever merchant vessel to be fitted with a in the Conqueror tank in 1954.
gas turbine propulsion system was the Anglo Saxon
Petroleum Company Tanker “Auris” 12,000 tons dw
with a BTH 1,200hp gas turbine.
n 1953 Rolls-Royce designed the RM60 gas turbine rated
at 4,000kW; which was installed in the British Naval
vessel HMS Grey Goose. The world’s first ever solely
gas turbine propelled ship.
n 1956 A GE FS3 gas turbine of 6,000hp (4,500kW) was
installed in the US Maritime Administration vessel, the
John Sargent, to become the first US vessel to be gas
turbine powered.
n 1958 Three Bristol Proteus engines were employed in a
fast patrol boat. HMS Brave Borderer starts sea trials
fitted with the Rolls-Royce Proteus GT. Photo 1 Austin Sheerline car 1954
n 1967 The British Royal Navy decided to use gas turbine
propulsion for all future warships.
n 1969 The first GE LM2500 aero derivative enters
service with the US Navy.

Figure 10 Aircraft carrier Photo 2 Donald Campbell’s Bluebird 1956

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Technical paper 582
In 1956 Donald Campbell’s “Bluebird” was powered by a
Bristol Siddeley “Proteus” engine rated at 3,320kW. The
initial test in the USA did not succeed, but during a new
attempt in 1964 the car reached 429mph during tests at Lake
Eyre, Australia.
4.3 Locomotive engines
At a very early stage work was under way applying the gas
turbine to railway locomotive use. There was considerable
progress made, however eventually the ultimate fate of gas
turbine powered locomotives was to be sealed as soon as the
price of fuel oil became too high. One contributor says that
there were also some operational considerations, which
eventually went against the gas turbine locomotive.
Figure 11 Gas turbine locomotive
In 1939 Brown Boveri was already well advanced with the
design of gas turbine powered locomotives and their first gas
turbine powered locomotive at 1,620kW was actually
delivered in 1941. In the UK the first was the BR18000
1,800kW unit from Brown Boveri for the Great Western
Railway, delivered in 1949. See Figure 11. In 1951 Metrovick
built the BR18100 2,200kW engine based on an aircraft
engine. Then in 1961 English Electric built the GT3
locomotive with an EM27 engine. The last to be built in the
UK was the British Rail APT-E prototype using a British
Leyland gas turbine. Refer to Table 2.
Both Westinghouse and GE developed gas turbine
locomotives. In 1951 the Union Pacific Railroad had a GE
FS3 gas turbine powered locomotive rated at 8,500hp
(6,300kW). They succeeded with a large fleet of gas turbine
locomotives; operated by Union Pacific, these running
successfully from 1950 to 1969.
In July 1952 C A Parsons received an order from the
Ministry of Fuel & Power to design and construct a
prototype coal burning gas turbine locomotive for the
North British Railway. The testing of the gas turbine unit
mounted on the loco frame was carried out at Parsons’
Heaton Works, Newcastle. After trials the project closed
down in March 1959. [37]
The first version of the TGV in France was TGV 001 gas
turbine electric (GTEL) built by Alsthom and first
commissioned in 1969. The TGV rail trials were carried out
from 1972-1978 and the gas turbine powered unit achieved a
record 318km/h (200mph) on 8 December 1972. Only one
gas turbine set was built.
16 Power Engineer June 2011
4.4 Power station standby and peak lopping
A new application for gas turbines was found in 1962 when
CEGB decided to install fast start gas turbines using aero
engines as gas generators and free power turbines. In the
early 1960s a severe grid disturbance led to electricity black-
outs over the south east of England. This, together with the
predicted load growth at the time, made it necessary for the
Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) to install quick
starting gas turbines suitable for peaking duties. This is
described in the paper by R G Henbest delivered to DEUA
(IDGTE) in 1970. [30]
The gas generators used were the Bristol Siddeley
Olympus and Rolls-Royce Avon engines. The first
installation tested was a single Olympus engine installed at
Hams Hall power station in 1964. Following this trial a
major programme of installation got under way. A few
were built with Pratt & Whitney FT8 engines. There were
three main contractors at the time these being AEI, Bristol
Siddeley and English Electric/GEC all supplying either
Olympus or Avon based sets. It was not all plain sailing for
these peak load sets. Initially the aero engines were
installed as designed then it was found that the new
operational conditions faced by operating these engines in
a land based power station environment showed up
unforeseen problems.
4.5 Mechanical drive
Whilst a major part of industrial gas turbine development
activity has been directed to power generation and marine
applications, from the earliest days gas turbines have been
used for mechanical drive.
In 1946 Solar Turbines produced a 35kW portable gas
turbine driven pump for the US Navy, this was used for fire
fighting duties. The 1949 2,170bhp (2,022kW) air bleed unit
of C A Parsons was in fact a gas turbine driven
compressor. Rover gas turbines were manufactured for a
variety of stationary applications including emergency
pumps. The Austin engine was put on the market in 1961
as an independent prime mover and pump drive. Today
about 30% of the gas turbine market is for mechanical
drive applications.
4.6 Total energy – combined heat and power –
co-generation
In the 1960s total energy became popular. Today this is
better known as combined heat and power (CHP) and
in some parts of the world as co-generation. These
schemes usually mean the combined production of
electricity and heat for process or other uses. Today
co-generation has been extended to mean the combined
production of electricity and heat or cooling; and
occasionally “tri-generation”.
4.7 Combined cycle
A combined cycle power plant (CCGT) is a power plant
that produces electricity from a combination of gas and
steam turbines. The gas turbine drives an electrical
generator and the exhaust gas energy from the gas turbine
is used to generate steam in a heat recovery steam
generator (HRSG) which then produces electricity from a
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 The history of the industrial gas turbine: Part 1 The first fifty years 1940-1990
steam turbine. The advent of the combined gas and steam
cycle enabled the gas turbine to leap to prominence as a
primary power generator.
The combined cycle was foreseen by Dr Meyer in his 1939
paper and lots of applications were found to recover gas
turbine exhaust heat. It was not however until around 1965
that CCGT became a serious contender. The beginnings of
combined cycle are described in the 1970 paper of Basil
Wood. [19]
1960 BBC Korneuburg, Austria 75MW (2+1)
1963 Horsehoe Lake, Oklahoma
1965 Siemens – Hohe Wand Austria 12.8MW
1968 GE Wolverine Co-operative 21MW (1+1)
1979 Siemens Bang Pakong 250MW (2+1)
Since 1968 onwards the CCGT cycle has made steady
progress and together with CCGT the gas turbine has
overtaken the conventional cycle reaching unbelievably high
cycle thermal efficiencies. In the UK the first CCGT was the
Roosecote Station in Cumbria commissioned in 1991
producing 224,000kW with a thermal efficiency of 49%.
4.8 The educational units
A large number of small gas turbines were produced and sold
for educational purposes. Significant numbers went to
colleges and universities around the world. Between 1955 and
1965 the Rover Company manufactured more than 250 small
gas turbines (60hp) for educational establishments. In
addition to UK colleges and universities they went to 40
countries worldwide from Australia to Uruguay.
4.9 Gas turbine fuel options
Light oil and diesel started out as the preferred fuels for gas
turbines, however from very early in the life of the gas
turbine economics were pushing the need to burn a wide
range of fuels. All of the following have been tried with
varying success. What has changed since of course is the
availability of natural gas.
4.9.1 Heavy oil/crude
In trials of the 1940s gas oil was used as well as heavier
grades of fuel oil, some resulting in serious ash deposition
problems. [5] Since then various other liquid fuels including
heavy oil, crude, Naphtha and others have been used
extensively in gas turbines incurring penalties on maintenance
intervals and costs.
The oil producing states of the Middle East pushed the use
of crude oil for direct burning in gas turbines and from the
1970s this became quite normal, however the cost of
maintaining such turbines was high due to corrosion and
deposition. Degradation of output performance could be up
to 15%. Fuel treatment was found to be an effective means of
handling these fuels but again at a cost.
4.9.2 Coal
By 1939 work was already under way testing gas turbines
with coal. One paper stated that an experimental gas
turbine set had been run on pulverised fuel for many
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months at the Brown Boveri testing plant. In the UK
during the 1950s a great deal of effort was employed on
gas turbine coal burning trials; these being reported by
C A Parsons, Ruston, Metrovick and others. In Canada the
Government awarded a contract to McGill University in
1950 to construct an experimental coal burning locomotive.
In 1961 Union Pacific in the USA made trials with UP80 an
experimental coal burning gas turbine (GTEL) locomotive.
These were not successful.
The Escher Wyss closed cycle was much more successful in
burning coal in conjunction with the gas turbine. These closed
cycle plants burning coal were built in Germany, Russia and the
UK from 1950-1963. In 1999 the US DOE (Office of
Industrial Technologies Energy Efficiency) promoted a coal-
fired air turbine (CAT) cycle plant to deliver more than 40%
efficiency, currently at the feasibility study stage.
4.9.3 Peat
In the days before the dilemma on the depletion of peat
resources it was foreseen that peat could be used for power
generation. The concept was promoted by the British
Government for the North of Scotland Hydro Electric
Board. The process required the peat to be milled and then
passed to the combustors on the gas turbine. The first open
cycle gas turbine to run on peat was built by Ruston &
Hornsby [9] in 1949. A test facility was constructed in
Lincoln and tests carried out in 1952 and 1953. The systems
were developed to the extent that a full scale trial in Scotland
was envisaged.
At the same time, John Brown developed a gas turbine
using Escher Wyss closed cycle technology and carried out
trials in their works in 1950. They went on to install two
peat burning plants in Scotland, one at Altnabreac and the
other Dundee. Work was stopped on the peat plants around
1960 due to the relative cost of producing electricity from
peat being significantly higher than conventional methods.
4.9.4 Blast furnace gas
Gas turbines have been successfully modified to burn blast
furnace gas (BFG). This was known to be possible during the
1930s. Blast furnace gas has major drawbacks for gas turbines
as it is of low calorific value resulting in huge gas volumes
and contains significant amounts of dust. In 1955 a
Westinghouse W201 machine was modified as a blast furnace
gas blower and fired on blast furnace gas. There were 30
BFG fired gas turbines reported to be installed in Europe
from 1950 to 1965.
In 1958 MHI supplied their first BFG fired gas turbine, this
was an 850kW machine for Nippon Steel. Since then and up
to the present day MHI has been really successful in this field
supplying another 12 BFG fired gas turbines, the sizes
increasing to 180,000kW. [45]
4.9.5 Natural gas
Natural gas is widely considered as a clean fuel, easy to
burn and good for gas turbines. Until the early 1980s
natural gas was not available for power generation. The
Power Engineer June 2011 17
Technical paper 582
exception to this was the Middle East where oil producing
states had huge quantities of residual gas to burn. Until the
gas turbine came along this gas was just disposed of by
burning by flare. A memorable sight of the Gulf in the late
1970s was the large number of flares burning across the
Middle East. At that time even the gas turbine power plants
of the Middle East were either distillate or crude fired.
The oil crisis of 1973 became the driver for the petroleum
industry to develop new oil fields and the result of this was
natural gas becoming available in sufficient quantities to
burn in gas turbines.
5. British industrial gas turbine companies
By far the largest group of companies and organisations
active in the field of the industrial gas turbine during the
period 1940-1990 were British. The book “The Industrial
Gas Turbine” by Dr E C Roberson, published in 1951 [6],
has twelve British manufacturers listed as already active in
industrial gas turbine manufacture. The research for this
publication has shown that in the 1950s there were in fact
18 British companies directly involved in the design and
manufacture of the industrial gas turbine.
A code has been introduced to assist with the cataloguing and
listing of all the gas turbine manufacturing companies. Refer
to Table 1 below (note not all the manufacturers are included
in this version of the text).
A1 W H Allen
In 1947, in co-operation with Bristol Aero Engines,
W H Allen, based in Bedford, United Kingdom produced a
1,000kW set. This set was designed for the Admiralty as a
marine auxiliary unit and had a separate power turbine. [13] It
was the Admiralty that persuaded Allen’s to set up its own Gas
Turbine Department. This team was under the leadership of
Arthur Pope, a former member of the Power Jets team, then
working for the Bristol Aeroplane Company under Roy
Fedden. A Design Consultancy Agreement was concluded
with Bristol and almost immediately a contract was given by
the Admiralty to develop a 100kW and 125kW machine.
Design work on the Allen 1,000kW engine commenced early
in 1948 and the unit was successfully run at full speed and
power early in 1951. As conceived, the unit had an axial
compressor of 4.25/1 pressure ratio driven by a 2 stage
turbine; tubular combustion chambers disposed symmetrically
around the engine; an annular two-pass cross-flow heat
exchanger and a separate single stage power turbine. The
engine layout was determined largely by the Admiralty space
requirements. Due to changes in warship design only one
example was ever built.
Admiralty emergency generator of 125KW was a simple
engine designed for short term use, low cost and bulk being
more important than low fuel consumption. This engine had
a centrifugal compressor and radial turbine machined from a
common forging. A single large combustion chamber was
mounted vertically above the turbine volute. Output to the
epicyclic gear was taken from the compressor end.
During the early 1950s, following the satisfactory running of
the 1,000kW set and the review of Admiralty policy, a 500kW
18 Power Engineer June 2011
base load set was required for a weight of about 2 tons and a
thermal efficiency of not less than 20%. This challenging
specification resulted in a design study considering three
configurations in some detail. These were an intercooled
compound engine with alternator on HP spool, an
intercooled compound engine with heat exchanger and a
single shaft core + free power turbine + heat exchanger. The
selected compound intercooled engine had two spools.
The prototype engine was installed in HMS Llandaff, a new
diesel powered frigate. Production engines were installed in
the County Class destroyers, and in the Tribal Class frigates.
The Tribal Class frigates totalled seven in all and these were
commissioned between November 1961 and April 1967.
The 350kW machine was introduced in 1956 as a marine
auxiliary set. One of these units was installed on the cruise
ship SS Rotterdam in 1959 where it remained until 2007. The
SS Rotterdam had been moored for a number of years in
Freetown, Barbados. The ship was eventually purchased by
the Steamship Rotterdam Foundation and brought back to
Holland for restoration as a floating museum. Initially it was
thought that the Allen gas turbine was still on board
SS Rotterdam, however during this research a message was
received from the Foundation sincerely regretting that the
engine had been scrapped.
According to Michael Lane’s History of Queen’s Engineering
Works, the number of Allen gas turbines produced was no
more than about 35 sets in all. The Gas Turbine Department
was finally run down in 1964 on completion of the
generating sets for the County Class destroyers.
A8 Associated Electrical Industries
In 1926 Associated Electrical Industries (AEI) was created as
a holding company. They bought out both BTH and
Metropolitan Vickers in 1928 and increased the size of the
Rugby sites. The gas turbine story of AEI is therefore told
here primarily under the names of Metrovick and BTH.
In 1945, under the names Metrovick and BTH, AEI entered
the field of using gas turbines for electricity generation. In
the 1960s AEI licensed a number of companies to
manufacture marine gas turbines to their design including
Harland and Wolff, Thorneycroft, White, and Yarrow in the
UK; also Franco Tosi and Reggiana in Italy, and Werkspoor
in Holland.
AEI were a main contractor to CEGB for the peak lopping
gas turbines using aero engines as gas generators. Between
1964 and 1980 AEI installed 13 of these units totalling
445MW installed capacity for the CEGB. AEI also supplied a
further 42 units totalling 1,050MW to other countries. The
total worldwide for this type of installation by AEI came to
55 units produced with 1,450MW capacity.
AEI was bought by GEC in 1967 and in 1968 the gas turbine
business was merged into English Electric to form GEC
Alsthom.
A9 Austin Motor Company
The Austin Motor Company was based in Longbridge,
United Kingdom. The team working on gas turbines was led
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 The history of the industrial gas turbine: Part 1 The first fifty years 1940-1990
by Dr John Weaving and started work in 1952. They built the
Austin gas turbine car and a significant number of small gas
turbines for auxiliary power generation and pumping duties.
Work was started by Austin on the gas turbine in April 1952
and the first unit ran in 1954 using a Rolls-Royce Merlin
supercharger as a compressor. Austin went on to build the
Austin 250hp gas turbine engine and that went onto the
market in 1961. After several years of turbine development a
good product was being produced, it was marketed in the
USA as a total energy package incorporated into the AMF
Beaird Maxim heat recovery boiler.
Between 1962 and 1969 Austin manufactured over 70 gas
turbines all but one being the 250hp rated machine. Most of
these were sold in the UK however a few went to other
countries including Algeria, Australia, Canada, Burma,
Finland, Holland, Iran, Libya, Norway and the USA.
A 300hp model was also introduced in 1967, however, due to
the complexity of manufacture resulting in high production
costs, producing these machines was not a profitable venture
therefore after about nine years a decision was made to stop
production. The Austin Motor Company and the Nuffield
Organisation (Morris, MG, Riley and Wolseley) merged to
form the British Motor Corporation (BMC) in 1952 and then
in 1968 it became part of British Leyland.
B1 Bristol Siddeley
Bristol Siddeley was formed in 1959 as the result of the
merger of Bristol Aero Engines with Armstrong Siddeley
Motors. The technical office of the Bristol Siddeley Power
Division, Ansty, was set up in 1963 and was headed by Roxbee
Cox. The two BS engines that have had a major impact on the
industrial gas turbine field are the Proteus and the Olympus.
The Proteus engine was first introduced in 1946 and it became
the power plant of the Britannia aircraft. A version of the
engine (3,320kW) was used in 1960-64 to power the Bluebird,
Donald Campbell’s land speed record car. The Bluebird had a
drive shaft at each end of the engine, each connected to a
separate axle. This engine was also used in 1968 on the
Mountbatten class cross-channel hovercraft, which had four
“Marine Proteus” engines (3,000kW) in the rear of the craft.
Another use of the Proteus was for remotely operated power
generation of the South West of England in what were called
“Pocket Power Stations”. The first two pocket power stations
were installed at Princetown, Dartmoor in December 1959
and at the Bristol Siddeley Patchway site. A further four sets
were commissioned between 1960 and 1965, they were also
called “The Robot Power Stations”. It has been commented
that the running hours for the Proteus hovercraft engines
were quite significant, however, for the industrial units the
running hours were quite modest as their duty was not as
base load generators but as emergency supply/standby units.
Although the fleet of engines is now considerably reduced,
particularly with the closure of the Hoverspeed operation in
Dover some years ago, Proteus engines still form a vital
strategic role at the nuclear power stations and will retain on
operational duty to the end of this decade.
The Olympus engine was first introduced in 1950 and is
probably most well known as the Concorde engine. This
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engine was installed by the Royal Navy in the frigate HMS
Exmouth in a re-fit completed in 1968. Then in 1980/85
they were used as the most impressive marine power plant
being the engines for the HMS Invincible, HMS Illustrious
and HMS Ark Royal aircraft carriers, each ship being
powered by four Olympus engines. The TM3B engines
used on the aircraft carriers provide 97,000shp on two
shafts, this being 18,000kW each engine or 72,000kW total
shaft power.
At that time BS had a demonstrator Olympus generation set
in one of the bays in Hams Hall “A” power station.
Originally rated at 15MW it was uprated to 17.5MW in 1964.
The unit was based on an aero Olympus 201 (the 202 went
into the Vulcan) and had a heavy industrial style, two-stage
power turbine. Between 1962 and 1969 a significant number
of the Olympus engines were installed in power stations as
standby generating turbine sets for use in peak lopping.
Bristol Siddeley acted as main contractor on most of the
Olympus plants. The sets were rated at 17.5MW as individual
units or 70MW as multiple units. The power stations with
Olympus engines included Croydon, Rye House, Hams Hall,
Tilbury, Ferrybridge, Ratcliffe, Aberthaw, Fawley, Ironbridge,
Eggborough and Townhill. [20] The first of these was at
Hams Hall in 1965.
In 1966 Bristol Siddeley was bought by Rolls-Royce however
they have continued to develop and market Bristol-designed
engines. Between 1964 and 1980 BS/RR supplied the UK’s
CEGB with 32 units totalling 875MW installed capacity.
B2 British Thomson Houston (BTH)
British Thomson Houston, from 1928 part of AEI and based
in Rugby, United Kingdom played a significant role in the
development of the Whittle engine. The 1937 Power Jets’
first prototype jet engine was built and tested at the BTH
factory at Rugby. BTH had a major role in developing it.
The first ever merchant vessel to be fitted with a gas
turbine propulsion system was the Anglo Saxon Petroleum
Company Tanker GTV “Auris” 12,000 tons dw fitted with a
BTH 1,200hp gas turbine generating set for electrical
propulsion in 1951. In 1951 the owner replaced one of
four diesel engines with a 1,200hp gas turbine. The first
Atlantic crossing solely under the power of a marine gas
turbine was made with this British Thomson Houston gas
turbine in March 1952. [10]
In 1954 BTH manufactured two of the 2,000/2,500kW
class machines for Nairobi South Power Station in Kenya.
These were single line sets with the turbine driving the
compressor and the alternator, via speed reducing gears. It
had a single combustion chamber mounted vertically at the
side of the set and bolted to the bottom half of the casing.
In 1961 HMS Ashanti was fitted with an AEI gas turbine
for main propulsion.
Finally BTH, as part of AEI, was bought by GEC in 1967
and in 1968 the gas turbine business was merged into English
Electric to form GEC Alsthom. Recent acquired information
has revealed the range of machines made by BTH and will
enable further analysis.
Power Engineer June 2011 19
Technical paper 582
B4 Brush Electrical Engineering
The Brush Electrical Company is based in Loughborough,
United Kingdom. The original company was established in
Lambeth, London and in 1889 the works moved from
Lambeth to Loughborough. In 1970 it became part of
Hawker Siddeley Power Engineering.
Little information has been found about Brush gas turbines
other than in 1954 they made a 2,000/2,500kW class gas
turbine. The Brush machine was designed to run at either
3,000 or 3,600rpm, being directly coupled to an alternator
and was installed at Ashford Common in Middlesex and it is
now understood that this was the only gas turbine ever built
by Brush. [7] [14]
B6 Budworth Turbines
David Dutton Budworth was an ex Rover design engineer
who established his business in Harwich, Essex in 1947
producing small aero gas turbines and in 1952 he started
building small industrial gas turbines.
The Budworth 50hp industrial gas turbine was packaged and
marketed very successfully as an instructional unit. These
were sold to educational establishments, universities and
technical colleges worldwide. This is claimed as a great
achievement for such a relatively small company. There were
three different machines produced by Budworth, the Brill
50hp, the Puffin 180hp and the Blowfly 300hp. Between 1966
and 1971 there were 100 of these small gas turbines
produced. Most of them were the 50hp version supplied to
educational establishments around the world.
David Budworth died as a result of a flying accident on 25th
October 1974 and in 1975 the company was acquired by
Noel Penny and incorporated into his small aero engine
turbine business. Noel Penny was also a former designer at
Rover. That company stopped trading in the late 1980s.
C1 Centrax Gas Turbines
Centrax Limited is a privately-owned company based in
Newton Abbot, Devon in the south west of England, a
company founded in 1946 by Richard H Barr OBE and
Geoffrey R White. Towards the end of the Second World
War, Richard Barr who had worked for Frank Whittle on his
Power Jets team, went into the design and production of a
small 250hp aero turbine as he saw the market for industrial
turbines for road transport or possibly for industrial power
generation. In 1947/8 he began manufacturing a 160hp
industrial gas turbine designed for use in an automotive
environment, potentially for road transport. The engine was
exhibited as an example of the application of gas turbines to
industry at the British Trade Fair in London in 1948.
Centrax began manufacturing a series of gas turbines mainly
for industrial roles, such as powering emergency standby
generator sets. The most successful gas turbine at this time
was the CS600-2, designed in the 1960s. It was a single-shaft,
constant speed unit designed for operation in arduous
conditions. The Centrax industrial turbines became successful
in many areas of industry including providing back-up power
for many banks and other companies using the early
computers of the 60s and 70s.
20 Power Engineer June 2011
The CS600 engine was introduced by Centrax in 1962 with a
rating of 600hp (450kW). This was then uprated to 730hp
(545kW) in 1962, then 914hp (680kW) in 1963 and 1,010hp
(750kW) in 1964. Centrax continues to manufacture gas
turbines in Newton Abbott, Devon to this day.
C2 C A Parsons & Co
The C A Parsons company was founded by Charles Algernon
Parsons in 1889 and was based in Newcastle upon Tyne,
United Kingdom. Until it was taken over by Rolls- Royce in
1989 it had been in existence for 100 years manufacturing
turbines, compressors and other machinery.
A new account of the Parsons’ gas turbine activity has been
specially written for this history project by John Bolter,
formerly the Chief Turbine Engineer and Engineering Director
of C A Parsons in Newcastle upon Tyne. This contribution
will be included in the published version of this work.
The involvement of Charles Parsons in the gas turbine story
began with his patent of 1884, where he described the
principles of his “multiple motor turbine”. From 1937 to
1942 the Parsons Company worked on various designs for an
industrial gas turbine with a rating of 500bhp. The results of
this work were presented to the IMechE in London during
February 1948 and published in June 1948. [5]
The contribution of Parsons to the development of the gas
turbine was most significant and is summarised as follows:
n In 1945 the first Parsons’ gas turbine was completed
and experiments carried out at the Heaton works of
C A Parsons. The design of this machine had started in
1938. This was the first British gas turbine to run.
n In 1948 a 15,000kW gas turbine was ordered for the
British Electricity Authority (BEA) at Dunston Power
Station, near Newcastle. It was commissioned in 1955.
This was a three shaft machine with reheat, inter-
cooling, heat exchanger, a pressure ratio of 8:1 and
overall thermal efficiency of 27.66%.
n In 1948 a 10,000kW gas turbine was produced for
the NGTE at Pyestock. This machine, which was
commissioned in 1951, had inter-cooling, a pressure
ratio of 5.5:1 and an overall thermal efficiency
of 27.2%.
n In 1949 a 2,170bhp (2,022kW) “air bleed” gas turbine
was ordered for the NGTE at Pyestock. This
machine was commissioned in 1956 and had a
pressure ratio of 4.05:1. It did not have any heat
exchangers and the output from the unit was in the
form of compressed air.
n In 1950 a 2,500kW class gas turbine was developed as
an advanced design with separate compressor and work
turbines. The turbine was directly coupled to the
alternator at 3,000rpm with or without a heat
exchanger. One machine was installed in Heaton Works
in 1954 and a second produced for Singapore and
installed at the Pasir Panjang power station.
n In 1952 at the request of the UK Government Parsons
also developed and tested a coal fired gas turbine
locomotive in conjunction with the North British
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 The history of the industrial gas turbine: Part 1 The first fifty years 1940-1990
Locomotive Company. This unit had a rating of
1,800hp but never went into service. [37]
n In 1954 the first use of a gas turbine in an armoured
fighting vehicle was when a unit specifically developed
for tanks by Parsons was installed and trialed in a
British Conqueror tank.
n In 1959 the company decided not to continue with the
small gas turbine market. They did however prepare
designs for a 30,000kW unit having a nine stage
compressor and a three stage turbine. This gas turbine
did not materialise.
In 1977 C A Parsons became part of Northern Engineering
Industries (NEI) and in 1989 part of Rolls-Royce. Then in
1997 the Power Generation Division of Siemens acquired the
business. Siemens continues manufacture of generator
spindles at the much-reduced ‘Parsons Works’ in Heaton,
Newcastle upon Tyne, although the Parsons name itself is no
longer used as a trade name.
E2 English Electric Company Heavy Industrial
The English Electric Company was formed in 1918 and it
took over the company Willans and Robinson of Rugby and
the Willans Works. The company’s gas turbine activities were
based initially at the Willans Works in Rugby and later moved
to Whetstone, Leicestershire, United Kingdom. In 1951
English Electric was already devoting considerable effort into
the production of gas turbines with a range from 2,000kW to
20,000kW being manufactured at Rugby and Whetstone.
In 1954 a 2,000/2,500kW class gas turbine with axial/
centrifugal compressor was developed. The first of these went
to Ashford Common. A 20,000kW unit was designed for
central power station use and differed from other machines at
the time by having no heat exchanger and the thermal
efficiency improved by using a higher pressure ratio. [13]
Between 1956 and 1964 there were 26 industrial (heavy duty)
gas turbines manufactured by English Electric. A number
went to Iraq for oil pumping duty. In 1960 one 2,750hp
(2,000kW) unit was used in an EE locomotive. The two
largest industrial gas turbine operating in the UK at that time
were the 20,000kW machines for RAE Bedford installed in
1955. These were of the twin shaft type with heat exchangers
and installed for power generation to drive the blowers at the
RAE Bedford aircraft research facility.
E3 English Electric Company
Gas Turbine Department, Whetstone
In 1955 the English Electric part of the gas turbine story
moved from Rugby to Whetstone about 20 miles north. The
Whetstone gas turbine facility had been established in 1942
by Power Jets as a jet engine factory and was the site where
most of the Whittle engine testing was carried out. This site
also became a research centre for the Gas Turbine Division
of GEC. The author is privileged to have a first hand account
of the work done at Whetstone from Steve Reed, who was
employed at Lincoln and Whetstone, worked with Dr Rizk
and has contributed to much of this history.
EE/GEC were a main contractor to the CEGB for the peak
lopping gas turbines using Avon aero engines as gas
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generators. Between 1964 and 1980 the UK’s CEGB installed
63 of the EE/GEC units totalling 2,260MW installed
capacity. EE/GEC supplied a further 21 units totalling
405MW to other countries. The total worldwide for this type
of installation by EE/GEC came to 84 units produced with
2,665MW capacity.
The record of gas turbines produced in Rugby and
Whetstone by English Electric and subsequently GEC/
Alsthom shows that in total some 595 machines were
produced for UK and overseas installation, including power
generation, mechanical drive and off-shore applications.
In 2003, at the time of the sale of the Alstom small gas turbine
business, this was designated as the Alstom Power Technology
Centre with manufacturing being carried out in Lincoln.
E2/E3 General Electric Company (GEC) UK
The Fraser and Chalmers Company had been started in the
USA by two young men from Scotland who formed a
company in London around 1890 at Erith, Kent. The British
company expanded into steam plant, milling machinery and
general engineering. Fraser and Chalmers factory was bought
by the General Electric Company (GEC). An earlier link to
Alsthom has been discovered being a licence agreement
between Fraser and Chalmers and Rateau.
In 1965 GEC sold out their turbo generator business to
C A Parsons as part of a rationalisation in the turbine industry
required by CEGB. In 1967 GEC acquired AEI then after
acquiring AEI, in 1968 GEC itself was merged with English
Electric and the gas turbine business, based at Whetstone,
Leicester became known as GEC Gas Turbines Limited.
J1 John Brown & Co/John Brown Engineering
The John Brown Company (JBE) was based in Clydebank,
Scotland. In 1948 John Brown entered the field of gas
turbines with an experimental machine based on a Pametrada
design. At the same time they had entered into a licence
agreement with Esher-Wyss of Switzerland allowing them to
market and to produce the Esher-Wyss closed cycle design
gas turbine. This relationship lasted until 1962 when they
temporarily abandoned gas turbine manufacture.
The initial phase of John Brown’s gas turbine business was
most interesting as they built closed cycle gas turbines to
run on peat. This work on closed cycle systems is closely
linked to that of Escher-Wyss of Switzerland. This work
was carried out for NOSHEB and the Scottish Peat
Committee throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s.
There was also a 12,500kW closed cycle machine installed
in the Carolina Port power station in Dundee and a
7,000kW closed cycle machine installed in the Foleshill
Coventry gas works.
There was a pause in the manufacture of gas turbines on
Clydebank as in 1962, due to the difficulties experienced in
Scotland, the manufacture of gas turbines stopped. In 1965
JBE resumed gas turbine manufacture under a new licence
arrangement with GE, USA. The GE manufacturing licence
resulted in some 552 GE machines being produced by John
Brown in Clydebank until it came to an end in 1999 when
GE bought back the gas turbine business.
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Technical paper 582
Initially the agreement with GE was for John Brown
Engineering to manufacture Frame 3 and Frame 5 gas
turbines for a period of 7 years. This was later extended by
10 years and finally lasted 34 years. This arrangement allowed
JBE to manufacture GE turbines for exportation to the USA
(called re-imports) and to other markets.
The first GE machines left Clydebank in 1967 and between 1967
and 1999 JBE supplied 90 - MS3002, 2 - MS5001 and 45 -
MS5002 gas turbines for mechanical drive applications. In the
same period the company manufactured 4 - MS3002, 265 -
MS5001, 1 - MS5002, 92 - MS6001, 4 - MS7001 and 49 -
MS9001 gas turbines for power generation. In total 552 GE gas
turbines were manufactured at Clydebank. In 1999 the gas
turbine business of John Brown Engineering was sold to GE and
manufacturing of turbines on Clydebank ceased after 51 years.
L1 Joseph Lucas (Gas Turbine Equipment)
The Joseph Lucas Company, in addition to their aero engine
work, has had quite an involvement in the development of
the industrial gas turbine starting from 1940. A company
named Joseph Lucas (Gas Turbine Equipment) designed
combustion chambers for gas turbines. In the 1948 paper of
C A Parsons [5] it is mentioned that a Lucas combustion
chamber had been included in the trials.
Lucas were involved in the manufacture of combustions
systems for Rover.
L2 British Leyland Gas Turbines
In 1968 the Leyland Motor Company absorbed both Austin
and Rover gas turbines to form the British Leyland Gas
Turbine Company. The leading design engineer was Noel
Penny, formerly at Rover. Leyland continued production of
the Austin 250hp engine until 1969. The Rover design was
much more successful and the manufacture of the Rover
designed gas turbines continued until 1973.
British Leyland introduced their gas turbine powered truck at
Earls Court in 1968, this had a 350/400hp engine. This was
followed by the gas turbine for the British Rail high speed
train (APT-E) which went on trial in 1972. In 1973 British
Leyland stopped the production of gas turbines mainly
because diesel engines were coming on stream producing
more power by the adoption of turbocharging, and were also
more economical. After this Noel Penny decided to establish
his own company and this would have been around 1973-74.
M1 Metropolitan Vickers (Metrovick)
Metropolitan Vickers, part of AEI, was based at Trafford
Park in Manchester, United Kingdom. This was known as
the Barton Dock Road site. Metrovick started work on gas
turbines around 1947 and one of the gas turbine team in
Trafford Park was Frank Harris. We are especially privileged
to have a first-hand written account of the work done in
those early days from Trevor Wick who was also employed in
the Gas Turbine Department in Trafford Park.
The first British axial-flow jet engine was the Metrovick F2
known as the Beryl engine. This engine was followed by the
Sapphire design. MV was eventually persuaded to hand over
the Beryl/Sapphire design to Armstrong Siddeley.
22 Power Engineer June 2011
In 1947 a Metrovick gas turbine installation in the MGB2009
became the world’s first ever gas turbine propelled ship. The
world’s first gas turbine ship was powered by a Metropolitan
Vickers engine. This Royal Navy vessel went to sea in July
1947 and was designated Motor Gun Boat 2009. The turbine,
rated at 2,500hp, was named the “Gatric”. [7]
A Metrovick gas turbine of 1948 was the first ever generating
set to run in parallel with the British National Grid System.
This was a turbo jet engine driving a power turbine for a
2,000kW generating set and known as the EGTP.
In 1952 Metrovick supplied a 15,000kW gas turbine, which
was installed in Trafford power station, becoming the first
to enter service for the BEA. This being one of two similar
gas turbines ordered at the time, the other being from
C A Parsons. This unit differed as it was a two shaft
arrangement; one driving the HP compressor and the other
the LP compressor and the alternator, the HP shaft ran at a
higher speed.
In 1952 Metrovick developed a 3,000hp version of their gas
turbine for locomotive traction and this was put into service by
British Railways in April 1952 using fuel oil. This unit, intended
for overseas railways, had considerably more power than
developed by current locomotives in use in the UK at the time.
In 1954 a 2,000/2,500kW class gas turbine was developed
and the first one was installed at the Metropolitan Water
Board Ashford Common pumping station. Another machine,
slightly lower output, was procured by a British oil company
and sent to Venezuela.
This Metrovick Gas Turbine Department worked
independently until 1958 when they were amalgamated with
the BTH team in Rugby as AEI, eventually becoming part of
GEC Gas Turbines.
P2 Power Jets
The Power Jets Company was formed in 1936 by Frank
Whittle, later to become Sir. The company was incorporated
and Whittle received permission from the Air Ministry to
serve as Honorary Chief Engineer and technical consultant
for five years. Whittle then went to BTH at Rugby and
contracted them to build a “WU” (Whittle Unit), his first
experimental jet engine.
The WU engine was built in Rugby and fired for the first time
on 12 April 1937 at the nearby Power Jets facility in
Lutterworth, Leicestershire. They then moved to a new site at
Whetstone. In 1944 Power Jets was nationalised and after that
they became a Government owned consulting group.
R2 Rolls-Royce
From the 1940s until the 1960s R-R and its original absorbed
companies did not get into industrial power generation. It was
left to English Electric, Ruston and AEI to develop industrial
machines as it was not R-R’s area of expertise. In 1953 Rolls
Royce developed the RM60 gas turbine for the marine
application with an output of 6,000hp. The machine was a
lightweight compound unit built from aero engine technology.
The RM60 was for the Royal Navy HMS Grey Goose, which
had 2 x RM60 engines. [13] No more were built.
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 The history of the industrial gas turbine: Part 1 The first fifty years 1940-1990
R-R consists of a number aero engine companies that, as a
result of political motivation were absorbed into BS and R-R
in 1960. Then in 1966 R-R absorbed BS. R-R however had an
entirely different approach to industrial gas turbines. They sold
only gas generators to main contractors such as AEI, English
Electric, GEC and Stal Laval. When R-R took over BS, Ansty
became the Industrial and Marine Division and main
contracting was dropped except for marine work for the MoD.
Rolls-Royce had become involved in rail propulsion on at least
two occasions, one with the M45 (a joint R-R/SNECMA
engine) at the time of the TGV. The other occasion was when
BR had problems with the Rover engines in their high speed
train. These two ventures were not pursued.
R-R industrialised the largest version of the Avon, the Mk
533, to become the Industrial Avon Mk 1533. The first unit
was installed in 1964 into gas pipeline duty by TransCanada at
their Caron Station, producing around 10MW. Most of the
power generation Avons were sold to the CEGB through the
previous mentioned main contract companies, when it
decided to overcome the grid weakness exposed by the east
Kent blackout in the early 1960s. There were many of these
sold outside of the UK by GEC. During the following 40
years or so the Avon has been uprated several times, but
mostly for the oil and gas industry rather than power
generation. The CEGB Avons were all Mk 1533B and
matched to an equivalent final nozzle diameter of 24.5 inches.
Sales to CEGB ran from 1963 to 1967.
The R-R 501 industrial gas turbine has a rating of 5,000kW.
The RB211 engine was originally developed for the TriStar
and entered service in 1972. It is a three shaft design. During
1974 the industrial version of the RB211 was launched but
with the oil and gas industry in mind. These units have also
been used for power generation and are rated 25,000 to
44,000kW. The RB211 is still being uprated and new models
are being marketed.
The Trent 800 is a three shaft engine that first went into
service in the Boeing 777 and first ran in August 1990. The
Industrial Trent gas turbine is a derivative of this engine and
is designed for power generation and mechanical drive. It
delivers up to 64,000kW of electricity at 42% efficiency. The
Marine Trent is a derivative of the Trent 800, with gearbox,
that produces 36,000kW for maritime applications. It will
power the Royal Navy’s next generation of aircraft carriers.
Rolls-Royce has supplied some 5,200 industrial gas turbines
worldwide.
The Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust and a number of former
Rolls-Royce engineers have all kindly provided information
and technical papers as their contribution to this history and
that is most appreciated.
R3 Rover Company
Rover was based in Solihull, West Midlands, United
Kingdom; being a British motor car manufacturing
company founded in 1878. The Rover Company did not,
as many may assume, only make gas turbines for
automobiles but they also manufactured industrial gas
turbines too. The Rover gas turbines were manufactured
for a variety of stationary applications for emergency
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pumps and marine use as a gas turbine is light and can be
run quickly up to power.
The Whittle “W2B” aero engine was designed by Power Jets,
and a complete set of drawings passed to several firms. The
first and second W2Bs to be tested by Power Jets were
actually manufactured by the Rover Company at the Rover
gas turbine plant at Barnoldswick in Lancashire in 1942.
Rover was involved in design changes to that engine, however
in early 1943 the W2 was transferred to Rolls-Royce.
Rover became famous for its Rover gas turbine car of the
1950s. In 1950 the Rover designer F R Bell and Chief
Engineer, Maurice Wilks, unveiled the first car powered with
a gas turbine engine. [74] The first prototype Rover gas
turbine engine was running by February 1947. The Rover gas
turbine car JET1 with 100bhp was demonstrated to the
public in March 1950 achieving a speed of 85mph. The
updated version with an engine of 230bhp went on to
achieve a speed of 152mph.
The gas turbine for JET1 consisted of a single stage
centrifugal compressor with a maximum speed of 52,000rpm,
driven by a single-stage axial turbine re-designed so that it
took only sufficient power from the gas stream to drive the
compressor, fuel and oil pumps. A second single-stage power
turbine was added to take the remaining power from the gas
stream to drive front and rear differential units.
Rover also had an educational set, which sold worldwide to all
major universities, institutes and colleges thus having a great
influence on future gas turbine use and applications.
In November 1950, a former RAF 60ft sea rescue launch
“Torquil” was modified to be driven by two Rover gas turbines.
In 1954 Rover made a unit of 60hp rating designated
“Neptune”. Rover also had marine gas turbines with their
120hp “Aurora” and 300hp “Snowdon” models. [13]
Between 1954 and 1973 a total of 1,052 Rover gas turbines
were produced, 777 of these being the 60hp rated units. Over
200 units were used for water pumping applications, 474 for
auxiliary power generation and over 250 were educational
units for colleges and universities. It is interesting to note that
the Royal Air Force purchased 199 Rover auxiliary generators.
In 1968 Rover became part of British Leyland combining
Austin turbines and Rover turbines into Leyland Gas
Turbines. They continued production of gas turbines at
Solihull for road vehicles, power generation, pumps and
rail traction. The production of Rover gas turbines
stopped in 1973.
R4 Ruston & Hornsby
The Ruston and Hornsby Company based in Lincoln, United
Kingdom was established in 1918 although with origins in a
much earlier company. From the time it was established,
Ruston has always been involved in the design and
manufacture of power units; steam, gas, and diesel, and since
1946, the gas turbine and so Ruston Gas Turbines.
In 1946 following on from the work of Frank Whittle on jet
engines and gas turbines, Ruston set up a small specialist
team, known as the Internal Combustion Development
Power Engineer June 2011 23
Technical paper 582
Group, to investigate the feasibility of designing a gas
turbine. It was shortly after Power Jets completed their work
that G B R “Bob” Feilden was invited to take charge of
Ruston work in the gas turbine field. A team of young
enthusiastic engineers was then created to design the first
Ruston industrial gas turbine.
It is believed that between 1954 and 1980 over 900 Ruston
gas turbines were produced. This sums up as almost
2,000,000bhp or 1,450MW of capacity.
n Ruston 3CT engine
This machine had initial trials in 1949. The 3CT was a
prototype two shaft open cycle engine. In 1950 the
engine was demonstrated to engineers of the leading
British and overseas technical press.
n Ruston TA engine
The Ruston TA was first introduced in 1954 with a
rating of 1,260bhp. Before design work was done on
the prototype turbine itself, considerable development
was carried out on the combustion chamber design.
The fuels tested included gas oil, residual fuels,
creosote (CTF 50), creosote pitch (CTF 200), washed
sewage gas, peat and water gas tar produced from
town gas. Full scale production of the TA engine
started in 1952 and in that same year the first order
was received for an oil field application for an oil
company in the Middle East.
n Ruston TD engine
In 1967 the design of a 3MW single shaft engine
known as the TD4000 (4,000bhp) was begun. It was
introduced in 1970 with a rating of 3,870bhp. During
its design, the concept of similarity envisaged at the
time the decision to build the larger development
vehicle was taken, was departed from to achieve a
reduction in bulk, particularly to the combustion
chamber layout and to achieve a reduction in cost,
which applied largely to the compressor.
An arrangement using four combustion chambers
angled back over the compressor casing was selected
for the TD4000 engine, which achieved a useful
reduction in the overall size of the engine. The
approach to the design of the compressor was to
achieve a reduction in production costs by reducing the
number of profiles from 14 to 4 thus a substantial
reduction in blade (bucket) costs was achieved with
virtually no loss in aerodynamic efficiency.
n Ruston TB engine
The TB was first introduced in 1969 with a rating of
3,000bhp. Although the technology used for the TB
was closely similar to the earlier engines provision was
made in the basic design to incorporate new materials
and technology at a later stage, and it was further
developed from its original rating of 3,000bhp in a
number of steps (ie 4,000bhp, 4,900bhp, 5,200bhp and
finally 5,400bhp) to its final rating of 5,400bhp in the
1990s and ceased production for new unit sales in the
early 2000s. These increases resulting from improved
metallurgy, higher firing temperatures, air cooled
blading etc many improvements being reverse
24 Power Engineer June 2011
engineered into the product based on technology
advances used in the Tornado (SGT200).
n Ruston TE engine: The TE was first introduced in
1960 with a rating of 430bhp.
n Ruston TF engine: The TF was first introduced in
1962 with a rating of 1,960bhp.
Today, Siemens still support all of the Ruston models identified
above and in 2010 even built an entirely ‘new’ TB5000 gas
generator (for an existing user) from 100% new parts.
6. The European companies
The European companies were in many ways the leaders in
the field. Those active during the period 1940-1990 included:
A6 Alsthom/Alstom
Alsthom commenced experimental work with free piston
engines as early as 1940. It is reported [6] that in 1951 they
had a 5,000kW open cycle gas turbine under construction.
This work was based at their factory in Belfort.
In 1968 Alsthom merged with GEC of the United Kingdom
to form GEC Alsthom. This included the gas turbine
businesses of Ruston, English Electric, AEI, BTH and
Metrovick. The change of name from Alsthom to Alstom
took place in 1998.
From around 1965 until 1999 Alsthom were a manufacturing
associate of GE (General Electric, USA). GE had
Manufacturing Associate agreements with a number of
international suppliers. Under these agreements, the
international supplier purchased the rotor and hot gas path
parts from GE, USA. The international supplier then built
the rest of the machine, and it was sold as a GE designed gas
turbine. Alsthom was one of these international suppliers.
The Frame 9 machine was special as it was developed in
Belfort, France and first manufactured in Belfort and the first
unit installed in Paris during 1977.
B3 Brown Boveri & Co
The Brown Boveri Company (BBC) was founded in 1891 by
Charles Eugene Lancelot Brown and Walter Boveri and
originally based in Baden, Switzerland. An additional
manufacturing facility was built in Birr in the late 1950s. In
the first decades of its history BBC was the world leader in
the industrial gas turbine field and made some really
outstanding achievements including, in 1939, the first
commercial gas turbine for power production rated at
4,000kW for Neuchatel and in 1941 the first gas turbine
locomotive 2,200hp for the Swiss Federal Railways.
The first BBC gas turbine to enter service was in 1933, this
was the Holzwarth (explosion concept) fired on blast furnace
gas fuel at a German Steel Plant. [52] It is recorded,
however, that the efficiencies of compressors and turbines at
that time were too low for practical application. [52] Hans
Holzwarth of Germany had began a series of experiments in
1905, his design depending on an explosion of the fuel air
mixture in order to generate sufficient pressure rise to derive
useful work from the turbine. Air at a very low pressure of
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 The history of the industrial gas turbine: Part 1 The first fifty years 1940-1990
some 30 to 40psig (2-2.7barg) was used to scavenge the
turbine combustor in which fuel was subsequently sprayed
and allowed to burn raising the pressure to some 170 to
200psig (11.7-13.8barg).
In 1936 the Sun Oil Company of Philadelphia was
developing the Houdry cracking process for oil refineries and
asked Brown Boveri and Company to adapt their axial flow
compressor from the Velox boiler to this process. During the
shop testing it was necessary for Brown Boveri to provide a
combustion chamber in order to simulate the heat of the
carbon burning process within the Houdry process. This was
an expansion turbine and with this set up in their own shops,
Brown Boveri realised that the compressor, combustor, and
turbine provided the basis for a workable gas turbine, which
could be turned to power production. This was the event that
led Brown Boveri to produce a gas turbine that was installed
at Neuchatel in Switzerland for standby service in 1939. The
Neuchatel gas turbine had an output of 4,000kW with a
turbine inlet temperature of approximately 1,020°F (550°C)
and an efficiency of 17.4 percent. Professor Aurel Stodola
supervised the acceptance tests.
In 1939 the Swiss Federal Railways ordered a GTEL gas
turbine electric locomotive with a rating of 1,620kW
(2,170hp) from Brown Boveri. The BBC gas turbine
locomotive was completed in 1941 when it underwent testing
before entering regular service. In 1949 the Brown Boveri
completed the BR 18000, an 1,840kW (2,470hp) GTEL that
had been ordered by the Great Western Railway for express
passenger services in the UK.
In the space of 40 years from 1940 to 1980 Brown Boveri
and associates produced over 400 gas turbines, 310 being for
power generation, 17 compressor drives, 17 marine and 52
process applications. In 1946 a 27,000kW turbine was
supplied to the North Eastern Power Supply Co in
Switzerland. By 1966 a 55,000kW machine was under test at
Brown Boveri works in Mannheim, Germany. In 1975 the
largest unit rating had reached 118,000kW.
The company changed its name to ABB in 1988 on merger
with ASEA. In 1999 the ABB turbine business was taken
over by Alstom Power.
E4 Escher Wyss
Escher Wyss AG (EW) based in Zurich, Switzerland, was
an industrial company with a focus on engineering and
turbine construction. The company’s headquarters were
in Zurich until 1969 when it was taken over by Sulzer AG.
This company pioneered the development of the closed
air cycle gas turbine, which is attributed to Prof Dr
Ackeret of ETH Institute, Zurich and Prof Dr Keller of
Escher Wyss, Zurich. [58] The basic patent was registered
in Berne in July 1935. In 1939 when BBC in Baden was
installing the first open cycle gas turbine, Escher Wyss
in Zurich was putting a closed air cycle gas turbine into
operation.
The manufacturing licences and collaborators of Escher Wyss
included: John Brown Engineering, GHH Germany, Fuji
Electric and La Fleur Corporation all of whom constructed a
number of closed cycle gas turbines. The closed cycle plants
were used mainly in combined power and heating plants.
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Escher Wyss aimed to have a cycle operating as close as
possible to the Carnot cycle having two intercoolers with the
compressor and recuperation of the turbine waste heat used
to preheat the air to the compressor. The simple cycle of that
time achieved 17% efficiency with a turbine inlet temperature
at 540°C whilst the closed cycle with 700°C achieved an
efficiency of 31.6%. The Escher Wyss plant could be
operated at a constant 650°C.
The work of Escher Wyss on the closed cycle is described
in a paper published in 1967. [16] In that paper they report
on progress with seven closed cycle plants. The seven
machines were Ravensburg Germany (2,300kW), Toyatomi
Japan (2,000kW), Coburg Germany (6,600kW), Kashira
Russia (12,000kW), Nippon Kokan Japan (12,000kW),
Oberhaussen Germany (14,300kW) and Haus Aden
Germany (6,370kW). At that time the earliest CC gas
turbine had run for 60,000h and the more recent 30,000h.
They were being fired on coal, natural gas, blast furnace gas
and mine gas. The turbine inlet temperatures on these plants
were between 660 and 720°C. In 1966 the first ever closed
cycle helium gas turbine was produced.
In total 24 Escher Wyss closed cycle plants were built by
EW and its associated companies. According to one source
most of these operated successfully. This technology was
transferred to Sulzer in 1969, and then to Brown Boveri.
The name changed to ABB in 1988. The transfer of the
technology resulted in closed cycle gas turbines taking a
back seat as the successor companies had different ideas as
to the future of the gas turbine. No new activity resulted
after 1981.
K1 Kongsberg
Kongsberg manufacture the KG2 range (1,900kW) and the
KG5 (3,110kW) all radial gas turbine first introduced in 1968.
Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk AS (KV), founded in 1814, was
originally a small arms manufacturer wholly owned by the
Norwegian Government.
In 1968 the first KG2, rated at 1,200kW, had a simple cycle
thermal efficiency of 15.4%, and was delivered to the
Norwegian Water & Electricity Board. This was used as a
stand-by/emergency power generation set on the island of
Røst in Lofoten Norway. The “all radial” configuration is
unique to the KG2. The rotor consists of a single stage
centrifugal compressor mounted back to back with a single
stage radial inflow turbine. The overhung rotor is supported
by hydrodynamic bearings at the cold end. Both radial
bearings and the thrust bearing are of the tilting pad type.
The manufacturing technology in the 1960s was such that both
the compressor and the turbine stage had to be split in 2
pieces. The compressor had an investment cast inducer section
and a forged and machined impeller section with straight radial
blades. Both were made from a precipitation hardening
stainless steel. Likewise the turbine consisted of a forged and
machined impeller section and an investment cast Exducer
section. The Exducer is made from Inconel 713LC and the
turbine from Nimonic 90. The compressor diffuser has 3
stages of precision cast vanes mounted between the side walls.
The combustor is of the reverse flow can type with a centre
tube to achieve even temperature distribution. The fuel
Power Engineer June 2011 25
Technical paper 582
nozzles could be pure liquid or gas, but a dual fuel version
was early introduced. The combustor is tangentially mounted
to the centreline and hot gases from the combustor are
directed into the nozzle guide vanes via a scroll or volute.
The nozzle guide vanes are made from a precision cast cobalt
alloy and are uncooled.
A special feature with the radial inflow turbine compared
with an axial multi-stage turbine is that for a given turbine
inlet temperature (TIT) and efficiency, it will have a lower
average metal temperature. This is utilised by running the
radial turbine with a higher TIT for the same metal
temperature. A temperature difference in the order of 120 to
130°C is typical.
Initially the turbine impeller was made from Nimonic 90, but
in the first upgrade in 1972 the material was changed to
Waspaloy and this has been kept since. The new cycle
parameters involved increasing the nominal speed to
18,000rpm thereby increasing the mass flow to 12.5 kg/s and
the pressure ratio to 3.9. The TIT could also be raised due to
the new impeller material, giving a nominal rating of
1,530kW at base load.
The last upgrade of the KG2 was done in 1987 when a
new compressor stage was introduced. It was a modern,
backward curved compressor made from a single piece
Titanium forging. It raised the PR to 4.5 and the mass flow
to 15 kg/s, thus increasing the power to 1,930kW. Since
1987 Kongsberg have been part of Dresser-Rand and it
continues to develop, market and manufacture Kongsberg
designed gas turbines.
S1 Siemens
The Siemens Company resumed gas turbine activities in
Mülheim/Ruhr, Germany in 1948. The project was described
as “P1” and initially was exclusively theoretical activities,
which yielded the statement that an open-cycle gas turbine
for commercial power plant operation should be designed for
turbine inlet temperatures of 620 to 640°C and a pressure
ratio 4.0:1. Compressor efficiency was then estimated as 86%
and turbine efficiency as 89%. Based on this data, the overall
efficiency of such an open cycle gas turbine was estimated to
be 17.6% in base load operation. At a pressure ratio of 12.5:1
the efficiency was estimated to be 24.3%, however such a
compressor was too expensive.
Based on the calculations performed by Friedrich, two
concepts for heavy-duty gas turbines were proposed to the
board members of Siemens-Schuckert Werke at the end of
1948. These were the open-cycle gas turbine in the size of 2 to
30MW and the closed-cycle gas turbine - based on the Ackeret-
Keller-Process - in the output range of 30 to 100MW.
1956 - The first Siemens gas turbine was named VM 1 and
designed for an output of 1.5MW at the turbine coupling.
Design work began on this turbine in 1954 concurrent with
the compressor and combustion chamber test runs. It was
decided to build a turbine for driving a compressor only and
to use a nozzle to simulate the influence of the turbine for
driving a generator. The 3-stage compressor turbine itself was
26 Power Engineer June 2011
designed for a 620°C turbine inlet temperature. In 1956, all
components were assembled and the first Siemens gas turbine
made its first test run. [38]
1957 - VM 3 gas turbine with recuperator: While the first
VM 1 test machine was still being manufactured in 1952, the
possibility of using an additional kWe machine to supply
electric power to the Siemens-Schuckert Werke plant in
Nuremberg was considered. This gas turbine was to be very
similar to the VM1 but equipped with a recuperator for the
purpose of improving thermodynamic efficiency. Ultimately
this gas turbine was set up in the testing lab at the Mülheim
turbine plant. Despite its modest turbine inlet temperature of
only 650°C, necessitated by its uncooled blading, it achieved
an efficiency of 26%. [38]
1958 - VM 5 - First commercial gas turbine: Siemens began
planning work on the construction of a 5,600kW gas turbine
for commercial operation on blast-furnace gas. Construction of
the compressor had already begun when a contract was signed
in 1958 by the Siemens-Schuckert Werke and the smelting
plant operated by Dortmund-Hörder-Hütten-Union for the
supply of this gas turbine to drive a blast furnace blower. The
VM 5 gas turbine used to drive a blast furnace blower lives on
as according to a statement by Thyssen-Krupp, this machine
was operated from 1960 until March 1998. [38]
In 1959 Series VM 80 and VM 51. Since it had been
demonstrated that the Siemens-Schuckert Werke could
build functional gas turbines, the question arose as to how
one could establish a position on the market. The proven
VM 3 mechanical design was used as the basis for
developing a larger machine within the prevailing technical
limits. This initially involved adherence to a two-casing
design, however with dimensions increased as far as
possible. A gas turbine was produced that had a
compressor mass flow of 184kg/s, a pressure ratio of
6.0:1, a turbine inlet temperature of 720°C, and uncooled
turbine blading. In terms of performance, this machine
produced an electric output of MWe at an efficiency of
32%, measured at the generator terminals.
In 1959 the first order for the construction of such a gas
turbine, known as the VM 80, was placed by the Munich
Utility Stadtwerke München where it began commercial
operation in September 1961. [38]
In 1961 the transition was made to the key design features,
which have been retained until the present by Siemens gas
turbines; a common rotor shared by the compressor and
turbine, supported in two bearings and a single casing.
These developments included:
1970 V93 51MW, 1970 V94 86MW, 1977 V93.2 73MW and in
1985 V94.2 148MW.
S5 Sulzer/Brown Boveri Sulzer (BST)
Boveri Sulzer Turbomachinery Co (BST) was a temporary
joint venture created between Brown Boveri and Sulzer
for the manufacture of turbo machinery during the 1960s
and 1970s. This ended when the two parent companies
separated the joint venture, leaving Sulzer retaining the
capacity to manufacture the smaller turbines.
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 The history of the industrial gas turbine: Part 1 The first fifty years 1940-1990
7. American industrial gas turbine
companies
American companies active in the field of the industrial gas
turbine during the period 1940-1980 have included amongst
others:
A4 Allison
According to Allison, because General Electric lacked the
resources to turn out the huge number of jet engines forecast
in World War II (WWII), it enlisted Allison as a manufacturer.
WWII ended before GE could get a jet engine into
production, but it maintained its subcontracting arrangement
with Allison. Allison entered the industrial gas turbine market
in the 1960s and produced a large number of machines. A
significant new contribution has recently been received from
the Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust in relation to Allison and is
yet to be included.
A5 Allis Chalmers (USA)
This company has its origins in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.
In 1941 the US Durand Committee awarded a contract to
Allis Chalmers and Westinghouse but Allis Chalmers dropped
out of the gas turbine race in 1943. A 3,500hp Allis Chalmers
gas turbine was tested during World War II at the
Engineering Experiment Station, but this gas turbine was not
ready for application until after the war. It was reported that
in 1951 Allis Chalmers were developing both a rail traction
gas turbine and an experimental marine gas turbine both to
be operated on coal.
E1 Elliott Turbomachinery (USA)
William Swan Elliott was the founder of the original
Elliott Company in 1910. Elliott Turbomachinery
Company Inc was formed in 1981 when they became part
of the Carrier Corporation. Elliott had five gas turbine
developments under way in 1951 and the range of sizes
were from 2,379- 3,910bhp (1,775-2,920kW). Two of these
turbines were for rail traction projects and the other three
were for marine applications. Since 2000 Elliott
Turbomachinery has been part of Ebara. Today they
manufacture compressors.
G1 General Electric (Heavy Duty)
The General Electric Company (GE) Heavy Duty Gas
Turbine Division is based in Schenectady, New York, USA. In
1918 GE had started a gas turbine division when
Dr Stanford A Moss developed the GE turbo-supercharger
engine during WWI. [62]
A 3,500kW gas turbine was installed by GE in Belle Island
plant of Oklahoma Gas and Electric in 1949. The key paper
describing the start of the GE work in the field of the
industrial gas turbine is the ASME “Belle Island” paper
presented in November 1984. [31] A similar 3,500kW gas
turbine was installed at El Paso in 1953 and was still in
operation 50 years later.
In 1949 the first GE gas turbine locomotive went into service
on a number of American railroads. Work had actually started
on the locomotive engines before WWII under
J K Salisbury. One of these locomotive engines was a slightly
www.idgte.org
modified 3,500kW GE gas turbine as installed at the Belle
Isle Station. Union Pacific was the only railroad in the United
States to own and operate the gas turbine locomotives. The
turbine drove an alternator/generator to supply electricity to
electric motors mounted on the axles. Union Pacific’s gas
turbine fleet totalled 55 locomotives. [63]
In the 1950s GE introduced their frame gas turbines scaled in
size and units appeared with ratings of 16,000kW and
23,200kW. By 1965 there were further developments with
increased firing temperatures and higher pressure ratios
appearing. The first ever GE combined cycle plants were the
City of Ottawa 11MW FS3 and the Wolverine Electric 21MW
FS5 installed in 1967.
In 1970 the Frame 7 gas turbine appeared with a rating of
47,200kW and a turbine inlet temperature of 900°C. Then
very quickly after that in 1972 the 7B with a rating of
51,800kW appeared. GE entered into a joint venture with
Alsthom in the early 1970s to develop the Frame 9 single
shaft machine to operate at 50 cycles. The first F9 machine
was installed by EDF in Paris during 1975 it had a rating of
80,700kW but this was only used for peak lopping duty. Five
further units were built in 1979 (model 9B) these being for
the Dubai Aluminium Smelter and thus the Frame 9 was used
at base load for the first time in Dubai. The base load duty of
the aluminium smelter proved to be an important testing
ground for the Frame 9 machine.
The Model E gas turbines started to appear in 1980 onwards
and the unit ratings increased above 100MW. By 1988 the
F7F arrived and that had a rating of 147,000kW with a
pressure ratio of 13.5 and turbine inlet temperature of
1,260°C. In the 1990s the “E” range of machines continued
to develop and were widely used but with inlet temperatures
around 1,120°C.
A major difference in design approach was introduced as the
GE older B and E class gas turbines had a hot end drive
requiring an exhaust collector to the side or vertically
upwards. These gas turbines were designed with simple cycle
duty in mind since they were developed before combined
cycles came into vogue, but later applied in this duty. The F
class gas turbines were developed with the combined cycle
specifically in mind and had cold end drive to allow for an
axial exhaust to heat recovery (HRSG).
G2 General Electric Company (Aero
Derivatives)
GE started work on the aero jet engine in 1941 based on the
Whittle design. The aero engine company is based in
Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. Their first engine TG180 test flight
was in 1942. The present day aero-derivatives all have their
origins in the work during WWII.
Between 1959 and 1970 GE developed the LM series of
aero-derivative engines. The first LM turbine appeared in
1968 and was the LM1500 rated at 13.3MW. This was
designated as the first 60 second start engine and installed
at Millstone Point Nuclear Station, CT, USA. The LM2500
aero-derivative was first used in 1969 in a marine
application for the US Navy. This engine was then used for
a pipeline application in 1971 and in 1979 the LM2500 with
Power Engineer June 2011 27
Technical paper 582
an output of 20,515kW was installed on the Statfjord B
platform in Norway.
These engines are widely used today in power generation,
mechanical drive and marine applications. The range includes:
LM500 Powers military patrol boat and commercial fast
ferries, LM1600 powers high-speed ferries and high-speed
yachts, LM2500 fast ferries, coast guard cutters, supply and
cruise ships and the LM6000 used on offshore platforms in
marine environments.
There is a huge and ongoing discussion in the industry about
maintenance aspects and overall economics of aero-
derivatives versus heavy industrial. Aero-derivatives however
do have two advantages over heavy industrial types, these
being performance in simple cycle mode and fast start.
A recent survey has shown that aero-derivatives of all
manufacturers have now taken 21% of the total market for
industrial gas turbines.
S3 Solar Turbines
Solar Turbines Inc is based in San Diego, USA and was
formerly the Solar Aircraft Company formed in 1929. In
the late 1940s, Solar won a US Navy contract to develop
and manufacture a 35kW (45hp) gas turbine to power
portable pump units for fighting fires aboard ships. After
that they were awarded another Navy contract to build a
300kW (400hp) gas turbine to generate shipboard
electrical power. Then in the 1950s they earned another
contract for the US Navy calling for development of a
750kW (1,000hp) engine for high-speed boat propulsion.
The result was the Saturn gas turbine, which entered
production in 1960.
The Saturn engine went on to become the world’s most
widely used industrial gas turbine with some 4,800 units in 80
countries. It remains in production today in two up-rated and
enhanced configurations. Solar recognised that to win over
customers from reciprocating equipment, the company would
have to offer fully factory-assembled-and-tested turbo
machinery packages, such as complete gas compressor sets,
pump-drive packages and generator sets, rather than bare gas
turbine engines.
Work began in the mid-1960s on the Centaur gas turbine,
which entered service in 1968 at 2,015kW (2,700hp). Today’s
Centaur 40 gas turbine delivers 3,520kW (4,700hp). In 1973,
after 46 years, Solar left the aircraft/aerospace industry to
concentrate its resources on industrial gas turbines, turbo
machinery systems and support services. [64] Since 1981
Solar Turbines has been part of Caterpillar. The company
continues to design and manufacture Solar gas turbines today.
W1 Westinghouse
The contribution of Westinghouse in the development of the
industrial gas turbine is really most remarkable. Westinghouse
was originally based in Pennsylvania, USA and the
Westinghouse Combustion Turbine Systems Division (CTSD)
originally located, along with the Steam Turbine Systems
28 Power Engineer June 2011
Division (STSD) in Tinicum Township (Delaware County,
Pennsylvania), near the Philadelphia International Airport.
Westinghouse innovations included “the first combustion
turbine used commercially in the United States, first use of
cooled blades and vanes in an industrial unit, and the World’s
largest and most efficient combined cycle plant”. The first
commercial unit (2,000hp W21) was fuelled by natural gas,
and installed in 1949 at the Mississippi River Fuel
Corporation and became “the first in the world to operate for
more than 100,000 hours”.
In 1943 the first American designed and manufactured jet
engine went on test at Westinghouse. They were the only
American company to develop their own aero gas turbine
without access to the work done by Whittle.
In 1945 Westinghouse developed the W21 industrial gas
turbine having a 2,000hp (1,500kW) rating. By 1948
Westinghouse had built a 4,000hp (3,000kW) gas turbine
locomotive for the Union Railroad using two W21 engines.
When the railway decided to scrap the locomotive and to go
the diesel route these two engines were used for gas pipeline
pumping and a power plant for peaking power generation.
In 1952 the single shaft W81 was introduced with an output
of 5,700kW and 21% thermal efficiency. At that time a whole
fleet of gas turbine designs was investigated. The W31
(2,200kW) was introduced in 1956 and the W121 (9,000kW)
introduced in 1959. In the early 1960s the 18,000kW W191
having a PR of 7:1 sold over 182 machines. The W191
evolved to become the W251 rated at 40,000kW.
In 1976 the Westinghouse Development Centre had the
capability of full-scale testing of compressor, combustor,
turbine, and auxiliary system components over the entire
range of operating conditions (exhaust system designs were
developed at reduced scale). It was sized to enable full-scale
combustion testing, which required a large, motor-driven air
compressor. It also required a gas-fired heater to simulate
combustor inlet conditions. The lab included a high-bay area
to accommodate a full-size gas turbine, for testing and
development purposes, as well as other facilities needed to
support the staff who operated the facility. [65]
The Westinghouse 501 series of gas turbines was introduced
from 1968-1998. These included:
1968 501A 45,000kW
1973 501B 80,000kW
1976 501D 95,000kW
1982 501D5 107,000kW
1995 501D5A 121,000kW
1992 501F 186,000kW
1998 501G 249,000kW
Up to 1992 Westinghouse had built some 915 gas turbines
of their design including 227 of their Model 501 rated at
159 MW. n
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 The history of the industrial gas turbine: Part 1 The first fifty years 1940-1990

Codes for Gas Turbine Manufacturers (not all these names are included in the text)
Code Name of Gas Turbine Manufacturer Country
A1 W H Allen Engineering UK
A2 ACEC Ateliers Belgium
A3 AEG Kanis Germany
A4 Allison Gas Turbine Division USA
A5 Allis Chalmers USA
A6 Alsthom/Alstom France
A7 Anslado Energia Italy
A8 Associated Electrical Industries UK
A9 Austin Motor Company UK
B1 Bristol Siddeley UK
B2 British Thomson Houston (BTH) UK
B3 Brown Boveri /ABB - Baden Switzerland
B4 Brush Electrical UK
B5 BMW Munich Germany
B6 Budworth Turbines UK
C1 Centrax Gas Turbines UK
C2 C A Parsons & Co UK
E1 Elliott Turbomachinery USA
E2 English Electric CompanyGeneral Electric Company (GEC) – Heavy Ind UK
E3 English ElectricCompany/General Electric Company (GEC) – Aero Deriv UK
E4 Escher Wyss Switzerland
F1 Fiat Termomeccanica Italy
F2 Ford USA
F3 Fuji Japan
G1 General Electric (USA) Heavy Industrial USA
G2 General Electric (USA) Aero Derivatives USA
G3 Garrett USA
H1 Hitachi Japan
I1 IHI Japan
I2 Ingersoll Rand USA
J1 John Brown Engineering UK
K1 Kongsberg/ Dresser-Rand Norway
K2 Kawasaki Japan
K3 KHD Deutz Germany
L1 Joseph Lucas (Gas Turbine Equipment) UK
L2 Leyland Gas Turbines UK
L3 Lycoming USA
M1 Metropolitan Vickers (Metrovick) UK
M2 Mercier (Societe COMET) France
M3 Mitsubishi Heavy industries (MHI) Japan
M4 Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Japan
N1 Nuovo Pignone Italy
P1 Noel Penny UK
P2 Power Jets UK
R1 Rateau France
R2 Rolls-Royce UK
R3 Rover Company UK
R4 Ruston & Hornsby (R&H) - Ruston UK
R5 Russian/Soviet States Russia
S1 Siemens - Schuckert Werke Germany
S2 Skoda Czech
S3 Solar USA
S4 Stal-Laval/ ASEA Sweden
S5 Sulzer/Brown Boveri Sulzer (BST) Switzerland
T1 Thomassen Holland
T2 Toshiba Corporation Japan
T3 Turbomeca France
U1 United Technologies/Turbo Power & Marine/ Pratt & Whitney USA
U2 US Turbine USA
W1 Westinghouse USA
W2 Waukesha Motor USA

Table 1 Gas turbine manufacturers

www.idgte.org Power Engineer June 2011 29

Technical paper 582

List of Figures 17. Focus on Small Gas Turbines up to 1200hp.

DEUA/IDGTE paper 323 - C.R. Simmons. English
Figure 1 The Pioneers Electric Diesels. 1968
Figure 2 The Six Ages of Development 18. Gas Turbines and the Total Energy Concept.
Figure 3 Growth in Unit Ratings DEUA/IDGTE paper 325 - K A Bray and J R Tyler.
Figure 4 Technology Trends - Inlet Temperature 1 Ruston Turbine Division, English Electric. 1969
Figure 5 Technology Trends - Inlet Temperature 2
19. Gas Turbine Developments. DEUA/IDGTE paper 336 -
Figure 6 Technology Trends - Compressor Pressure Ratio
B. Wood. Merz and McLellan. 1970
Figure 7 Technology Trends - Thermal Efficiency
20. Operating Experience with Gas Turbines within the C.E.G.B.
Figure 8 Material Temperature Limits
DEUA/IDGTE paper 339 - R.G. Henbest. Earley
Figure 9 Exhaust Emissions Trend (NOx)
Power Station. 1970
Figure 10 HMS Ark Royal – Aircraft Carrier
21. The Selection of Gas Turbines for Electric Power Generation.
Figure 11 Gas Turbine Locomotive - BR18000 DEUA/IDGTE paper 349 - A.H. Eynstone. Kennedy
& Donkin. 1972
The References 22. Land Gas Turbines 10-80 MW. DEUA/IDGTE paper
1. Thomas Hawksley Lecture. Address by Captain H. Riall 355 - O R Schmoch. Kraftwerk Union
Sankey on Heat Engines to the Institution of Mechanical Aktiengesellschaft. 1973
Engineers in November 1917. 23. Small Industrial Gas Turbine Developments. DEUA/IDGTE
2. The Combustion Gas Turbine: Its History, Development and paper 368 – W J R Stocks. Ruston Gas Turbines Ltd.
Prospects. Dr. Adolf Meyer. Brown Boveri Company. Lincoln. 1975
The Institution of Mechanical Engineers. London. 24. The Combined Gas/Steam Total Energy Cycle. DEUA/
February 1939. IDGTE paper 369 – Prof. R.W. Stuart Mitchell. Delft
3. New Steam Age, The Magazine of Modern Steam Power, University, Holland. 1975
Vol. 1 No. 1, Jan. 1942 25. Ruston and the Gas Turbine. A Publication by Ruston Gas
4. Gas Turbines for Industrial Power - An Introduction for the Turbines. Lincoln. C1975
Prospective User. DEUA/ IDGTE paper 201 - R.J. 26. Sawyers Gas Turbine Catalogues (published annually).
Welsh. English Electric Company, Rugby. London 1948 1963 to 1976 edition. Publisher Gas Turbine
5. The Design and Operation of the Parsons Experimental Gas Publications Inc. 80 Lincoln Avenue, Stamford. Conn.
Turbine. Presented by A.T. Bowden and J.L. Jefferson. USA.
C.A. Parsons. Newcastle upon Tyne. IMechE 27. The Design and Application of All Radial Industrial Gas Turbine.
Proceedings 454-471. June 1948 DEUA/IDGTE paper 376 – Simon Dunton. A/S
6. The Industrial gas Turbine by E.C. Roberson PhD. Book Kongsberg Vapenfabrikk. Kongsberg, Norway. 1977
published by Temple Press 1951 28. Land Based and Offshore Applications of High Power
7. The Story of the British Gas Turbine. A Festival Survey. Industrial Gas Turbines. DEUA/IDGTE paper 376 – R.
Power Jets Research and Development. 1951 Coates. Constructors John Brown. Glasgow. 1978
8. Rover Gas Turbine Car. BBC News 8-March-1950: 29. Gas Turbine World Handbooks. 1976 to 1980. Pequot
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/mar Publishing Inc. GTW Handbook, PO Box 447,
ch/8/newsid_2516000/2516271.stm Southport, Conn. 06490. USA.
9. Operating Experience with a 750kW Gas Turbine. DEUA/ 30. The Parsons Centenary – A Hundred Years of Steam
IDGTE paper 218 - G.R. Feilden. Ruston & Hornsby. Turbines. F.R. Harris Presented at a meeting of the
Lincoln. 1951 IMechE. 1984
10. Operation of a Marine Gas Turbine under Sea Conditions. 31. 3,500kW Gas Turbine at the Schenectady Plant of the General
John Lamb & R.M Duggan. Presented to the Institute Electric Company. ASME November 1984.
of Marine Engineers in October 1953. Published in 32. 40 years of progress: A history of the Wallsend Research
The British Motor Ship. November 1953. Station, 1945-1985. R. F. Darling published by British
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Turbine Blade. By D.G. Ainley of NGTE. IMechE 33. Neuchatel (1939). The World’s First Industrial gas Turbine
proceedings vol 167 p366 Set. Brown Boveri. ASME Heritage paper. 1988
12. Operating Experience with Gas Turbines with Particular 34. Gas Turbines. Machinery Handbook. B. Wood. 1989
Reference to Benzau Power Station. DEUA/ IDGTE paper 35. Sir Charles Parsons and electrical power generation – a turbine
234 - E.A. Kerez. Brown Boveri, Switzerland. 1954 designer’s perspective. IMechE Proceedings. 1994
13. Paper presented to IMechE in 1958. W.H. Allen Gas 36. GE Combined Cycle Experience. Chris Maslak. GE Energy
Turbine. Arthur Pope (GER3651). 1994
14. British Developments in Gas Turbines. Harold Roxbee Cox, 37. The Parsons-North British Coal-Burning Gas Turbine
A.T. Bowden, R.J. Welsh and Prof. W.R. Hawthorne. Locomotive. J R Bolter. Newcastle upon Tyne. Presented
Mono #10. World Power Conference – Rio de Janeiro 1954. at a Newcomen Society meeting in London. 1995
15. The Development of the Industrial Gas Turbine. Dr Claude 38. Development of the Siemens Gas Turbine and Technology
Seippel. Brown Boveri & Co, Baden, Switzerland. Highlights. Volker Leiste. Siemens Erlangen. 1999
IMechE London. October 1965. Presented at a meeting 39. SWEB’s Pocket Power Stations. South Western Electricity
in London on 24 November 1965. Historical Society. John Gale. 1999
16. Industrial Closed Cycle Gas Turbines for Conventional and 40. The Historical Evolution of Turbomachinery.
Nuclear Fuel. C. Keller and D. Schmidt. Escher Wyss. Cyrus Meher-Homji. Bechtel, Houston, USA.
March 1967. Turbomachinery Symposium September 2000.

30 Power Engineer June 2011 www.idgte.org

 The history of the industrial gas turbine: Part 1 The first fifty years 1940-1990

41. The Gas Turbine - Development and Engineering. 61. A Brief History of Parsons gas turbines. John Bolter.
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NE61 2WG
division
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s/AeroStrategy_IGT_O_M_OVERVIEW.pdf

Acknowledgements
Thanks are given to all the companies and organisations who have directly contributed to this
research by providing comments and assistance leading to the publication of this paper. The Author is
indebted to all the Contributors who have generously contributed papers, information, loaned
documents, books, photographs, and especially for sharing their experience and knowledge to make
this history what is hoped will prove to be a useful and worthwhile work.

www.idgte.org Power Engineer June 2011 31

Technical paper 582

Country Manufacturer Year Year Model Engine Fuel

Introduced Withdrawn Power
kW
Swiss Federal Railways Brown Boveri & Co 1941 GTEL 1620
British Railways Brown Boveri & Co 1949 BR18000 1840
(Great Western Rail) Metrovick 1951 BR18100 2200 Fuel Oil
(North British) C A Parsons 1952 1959 Coal
English Electric 1961 GT3 EM-27
British Leyland APT-E
France Alsthom TGV-GT
United States General Electric 1950 1969 GE Residual
Union Pacific Westinghouse 1950 1953 WH 1500*2
Canada Planned 2002 NA (Jet train)
Russia 2006 I/S GEM-10 1000 LNG
2007 I/S GT1-001 8300 LNG

Table 2 Gas turbine powered locomotives

John Marshall Anglesey, North Wales, United Kingdom Proteus Generating Set
John Baker Austin Memories Austin Gas Turbines
Richard Flatman Bedford, United Kingdom W H Allen Gas Turbines
John Kitchenman Bedford, United Kingdom W H Allen & RAE(B)
Ivan Dean Burnley, Lancashire Lucas Aerospace
Prof. Riti Singh Cranfield, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom Cranfield University
Prof. Peri Pilidus Cranfield, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom Cranfield University
Alan Young Clydebank, Scotland, United Kingdom John Brown Gas Turbines
Eric Neal Derby, United Kingdom Rolls Royce Heritage Trust
John Leonard Indianapolis, Indiana, USA Rolls Royce Heritage Trust - Allison
Graham Reynolds Ansty, Coventry, United Kingdom Rolls Royce Industrial Gas Turbines
David Taylor Ansty, Coventry, United Kingdom Rolls Royce Industrial Gas Turbines
Simon Newman Bristol, United Kingdom Rolls Royce Marine Gas Turbines
Trevor Wick Filey, Yorkshire, United Kingdom Metrovick Gas Turbines
Brian Tucker Hampshire, United Kingdom RAE(B) Bedford
Mike Dobson Bedford, United Kingdom RAE(B) Bedford
Frank Carchedi Lincoln, United Kingdom Ruston/ Siemens Gas Turbines
Terry Raddings Lincoln, United Kingdom General Electric Gas Turbines
Richard Willows Newton Abbot, Devon, United Kingdom Centrax Gas Turbines
John Bolter Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom C.A. Parsons Gas Turbines
Ian Burdon Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom Merz and McLellan
Alan Jarvis Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom Merz and McLellan
Alain Foote Rugby, Warwickshire, United Kingdom English Electric Gas Turbines
Steve Reed Whetstone, United Kingdom Ruston/ English Electric
Paul Evans Tanygroes, Ceredigion, Wales Museum of Internal Fire
Willibald Fischer Erlangen, Germany Siemens Gas Turbines
Volker Leiste Erlangen, Germany Siemens Gas Turbines
Klaas Krijnen Rotterdam, Holland Steamship Rotterdam Foundation
Tore Naess Kongsberg, Norway Kongsberg Gas Turbines
Tom L. Lazet San Diego, California, USA Solar Gas Turbines
Gerry McQuiggan Florida, USA Westinghouse Gas Turbines
Akio Suzuki Tokyo, Japan Secretary to ISO Committee
John Alderson Bedford, United Kingdom Deutz KHD Turbines

Contributors List

32 Power Engineer June 2011 www.idgte.org


Questions and Answers
After the presentation an Expert
Panel was convened to assist in
the discussion. There was a lively
debate covering a wide range of
topics and a number of
contributions were made by panel
members and the audience. The
formal questions recorded were
the following:
Q Compressor technology.
What development made the GT
a viable power source and who
did what?
Mike Newby
Member (MEA Isle of Man)
A Panel member Graham
Reynolds, formerly Rolls Royce,
said that A A Griffith working at
the RAE, Farnborough had
published a paper in July 1926
showing that, until then turbines
and compressors were running
“stalled”. Griffith proposed
adopting an aerofoil shape for
the blades. The original gas
turbine compressor blades from
the 1927 cascade tests used in
compressor failed when first
tested in 1936. Griffith then visited
Brown Boveri in 1937 who stated
that they experienced the same
problem and the solution was to
space out the blades rows using
the design rules developed by
Ackeret. Following this the
compressor (50% reaction) was
rebuilt and ran successfully in
October 1938 achieving a peak
efficiency of 81% at 63% speed,
however later sources state it was
tested in early 1939.
Author response: -
In his written contribution on the
Parsons gas turbine, John Bolter,
formerly Chief Engineer at
C A Parsons, states that the first
Parsons design for the gas turbine
in 1935 had an axial compressor
www.idgte.org
with a high-stagger, high-reaction
configuration, whilst the blades
were of aerofoil shape the
efficiency was significantly better
at 70%, but still not high enough
for a viable gas turbine. Then in
1937, C A Parsons built a second
compressor “Alice” using low
stagger free-vortex blading
designed with the help of Hayne
Constant and his staff of the
engine department of the Royal
Aircraft Establishment. This had a
peak efficiency of 80%, which,
bearing in mind its small size
provided a basis for a viable gas
turbine. He did not agree that the
Parsons machine was running
stalled.
It is obvious that Brown Boveri had
achieved the success with the
axial compressor and turbine
efficiencies that led to the
Neuchatel machine in Switzerland.
In his paper of 1939 to the IMechE,
Dr Meyer of Brown Boveri
confirmed that efficiencies of
70-75% had already been
achieved and that this had
resulted in the first successful gas
turbine being commissioned.
Q What effect has CFD
(Computational Fluid Dynamics)
made on the efficiency of gas
turbines?
Brian Tucker
(formerly BAE Systems)
A Audience comment:
Terry Raddings of GE commented
that CFD is used as a
complimentary technology to
conventional techniques for
development of blade cooling
systems; an example being the
first 9F gas turbines, where cooling
holes were placed uniformly
across the profiles. CFD
highlighted that cooling was not
Technical Paper 582: Q&A
always in the right place. The
result has been that the blade hole
shape, direction and placement are
improved by CFD.
Author response:
Said in his view this has had a
significant impact on the design
of all turbo-machinery. Previous to
the availability of CFD the
development of blade profiles
was largely reliant on air flow
laboratory work. It is clear that
CFD has not replaced laboratory
work but has had impact with 3D
blade design, which is now widely
employed. The improved blade
profiles have contributed
significantly to increased gas
turbine performance but the
extent to which CFD has
contributed to this is difficult
to say.
Q Referring to the graph of
improvement in efficiency versus
time two key points are identified,
viz 1965 when CCGT overtook
steam turbines and 1990 when
simple cycle gas turbine equalled
steam. What has been the
influence of this in the balance of
machine types used for power
generation and what are the
main selection criteria and why?
John Kitchenman
Member (Retired)
A Audience comment:
Terry Raddings of GE commented
that the GT itself is to
standardised designs and
geometric scaling whilst the ST is
more bespoke. Other
considerations are flexibility of
operation, type of fuel, footprint
size (GT is smaller). In addition the
newer GTs are all designed to
operate in CCGT and it is now
possible to have single shaft
outputs of almost 500MW.
Power Engineer June 2011 33
Technical Paper 582: Q&A
Author response:
Whilst the GT is of fixed geometry
with a ST it is possible, to a limited
extent, to change last row blading
to match conditions. Fuel cost
and other constraints will be the
important considerations in
choosing between conventional
and gas turbine based plant. The
evaluated p/kWh will be an
important decision factor.
Q Do we know what the main
reason behind C A Parsons & Co
was in deciding to stop their
development activity for the
industrial gas turbine and do we
have a view on the date for when
that happened?
Darren Watson
Member (Corelia Solutions)
A Author response:
The Author is advised by the
former Chief Engineer at Parsons,
Mr John Bolter, that by the mid
1950s it was becoming clear to
Parsons that the manufacture of
small units required on short
delivery with ready availability of
spare parts which was very
difficult to accommodate
profitably in a factory mainly
devoted to the manufacture of
large steam turbines on relatively
long deliveries. For these reasons
Parsons decided to withdraw from
this market. However, it was
decided to continue to study the
design of larger units and work
was concentrated on a single
shaft 30MW unit very similar in
concept to the current much
larger industrial units. Then by the
late 1950s Parsons became
deeply involved with the Nuclear
Power Plant Company a
consortium of companies, mainly
based in North East England to
design and construct Power
Stations for the Civil Nuclear
Programme and the company
decided to deploy the gas turbine
engineers on development of gas
circulators, ductwork and ancillary
systems for these stations.
34 Power Engineer June 2011
Consequently in 1959 all work on
gas turbines was discontinued
although the company continued
to design and manufacture
industrial compressors. Parsons
continued to advertise gas
turbines until 1973 but no further
gas turbine work was undertaken.
Q Service Intervals. It is
mentioned that temperatures and
pressures have increased but how
have the service intervals
increased/decreased. If the
intervals have not changed has
the scope of maintenance
changed? Has the meantime
between failures improved
reduced or remained static and
have there been developments
that just did not work?
Roger Haycock – Member
(Haycock Technical Services Ltd)
A Panel member Graham
Reynolds replied. When the
Olympus was first introduced as a
standby generating set the life
between maintenance was 2,000
hourrs but the CEGB operated
these units differently with respect
to number of starts etc. The Avon
quickly achieved between 24,000
and 55,000 hours between
overhauls when running almost
continuously. It was found that
30,000 hours was about the
economic optimum and that
above this the number of parts to
be reused is limited. It is found that
operator error and number of stops/
starts are the main life limiting
factors. Better blade materials and
air inlet filtration has greatly
improved machine reliability.
Author response:
The topic of maintenance
intervals has not been included in
the paper and is certainly
something that should be
mentioned in a future
presentation. It is obvious that the
early machines only worked for
relatively short intervals before
needing attention. A lot has
happened since those days with
many improvements to design,
materials and air filtration. All of
these improvements have
combined to extend service
intervals. Even in the 1980s gas
turbine service intervals would
have been between 4,000 and
8,000 hours (or equivalent). Since
then great strides have been
made and many heavy industrial
gas turbines now operate with up
to 24,000 hours between
inspections and 48,000 hours
between major overhauls. There
will of course always be reduced
service intervals related to
increased number of stops and
starts and the use of low grade
fuels. As mentioned in the
discussion cyclic effects also need
to be taken into consideration.
One manufacturer reports that
aero-derivative gas turbines on
board cruise ships operate for
more than 17,000 hours each
without maintenance and a
service life of at least 20,000 hours
from these gas turbines before hot
section maintenance is expected.
Q In the presentation, the
historical turbine inlet
temperatures for aero gas turbines
were depicted as being some
100°C higher than the same
temperature for industrial gas
turbines. Is it possible to comment
on the validity/accuracy of this
and give some background?
Can we be certain? Are these
temperatures like-for-like?
Darren Watson
Member (Corelia Solutions)
A Panel response:
Graham Reynolds agreed saying
that for aero engine take-off
design, the TIT is higher than for
industrial design. The
consequence of these higher inlet
temperatures is to have more
cooling put into the turbines and
to lower the efficiency. At present
TIT on aero type engines can be
1900K during take-off but the
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amount of cooling used to
achieve this would not be
introduced on an industrial
machine. It was further noted that
since 1950 materials capability has
improved by 250°C whereas
cooling has allowed an increase
in gas temperature of twice that.
Author response:
It has been discovered that in fact
Stal-Laval had subsequently re-
designed one GT without cooling to
improve overall thermal efficiency.
Written comment from Darren
Watson:
It is well known that aero can
take bursts of high inlet
temperature for take-off and
such like, and it is also known
that aero work has at times led
industrial gas turbine technology
development, but not always.
However, in my experience of
industrial gas turbine
development in the 90s it wasn’t
possible or accurate to say that
the difference in the continuous
rating of either type of machines
on like-for-like technology basis
could be 100°C for turbine entry
temperature, and I think that the
differences on this basis are
closer than we might imagine!
Q Were coal fired gas turbines of
a) open cycle, or b) closed cycle
bearing in mind the importance of
air cleanliness in respect of turbine
blade life. If closed cycle what
gas is used?
John Kitchenman – Member
(Retired)
This paper was presented in Peterborough and the event was kindly sponsored by
Centrica and Cranfield University.
www.idgte.org
A Author response:
It has been discovered that coal
fired gas turbines have been of
both the open cycle and closed
cycle types. With open cycle it is
generally known that the more
rugged type of gas turbine have
been used with only a limited
success. Recently a new
example has come to light
where an Allison aircraft type
engine was adapted for coal
firing by the use of silo burners,
staged combustion and
separators. In the end nearly all
attempts to burn coal in open
cycle gas turbines were trials,
which achieved some success
but did not become
commercial. The closed cycle
machines burning coal were
based on the air cycle. Several
of these continued to operate
for a number of years and
achieved up to 100,000 hours but
eventually went out of service.
The closed cycle machines also
had problems, which were not
necessarily due to coal firing.
Q Air Filtration. A question was
asked as to how air inlet filtration
has changed over the time that
industrial gas turbines have been
developed?
Audience Question
A Panel response:
There was an interesting debate on
this topic with lots of reminiscences
on the different solutions to filtration
over the years. Some of those
mentioned being wetted screens,
oil bath screens, cyclones, pulse
Technical Paper 582: Q&A
type and rolling fabric filters. A
general observation was that all
these solutions have been replaced
by modern filter pack systems.
Mike Hepworth – Member asked
whether electro-static filtration
systems had been used for
industrial gas turbine installations
and if they have, did they prove
to be cost effective?
Terry Raddings commented that
the latest developments in this
area include “HEPA” standard
filters as well as with enhanced
on-line and off-line washing
techniques. The main objective
of these systems is to reduce
problems with fouling and
compressor blading. It was
observed that a paper and
presentation on the HEPA
filtration was made by Siemens
at the IDGTE November 2009
Gas Turbine Conference.
Author comment:
There is an ongoing discussion with
regard to the effectiveness and
economics of high efficiency
filtration compared to the
frequency and effectiveness of on-
line and off-line washing. Several
operators have comparative trials in
progress. It is planned that a review
of the history of air filtration systems
will be included in the next part of
the history. With regard to the query
about the use of electrostatic air
filtration there is some evidence
that this has been tried and an
article on the subject has been
published in Modern Power Systems
dated October 2002.
Power Engineer June 2011 35