If it’s power you want, only a jet engine will do. Pound for pound, jet engines produce significantly more power than piston engines and they generally are more reliable.
In the most simple terms, a jet engine is a fan that compresses air, mixes it with fuel, lights the mixture on fire, and then pushes it out a restricted opening. The modern high-bypass turbofan jet engine has three main sections: the compressor, combustion chamber, and turbines. Air enters the fan at the front of the engine and is then compressed through a series of other fans.
Each of these fans has blades like mini propellers, pushing the air back through the engine. GE says its engines make the air 40 times more dense than ambient at this stage.
From here some portion of the air is mixed with fuel and ignited in the combustion chamber (the rest bypasses this section, hence the name). Finally, the air exists the chamber and spins a series of turbine blades. The air that spins the turbines also spins the compressor, which means the engine is a bit of a self-contained system that powers itself.
After leaving the turbines the air is squeezed out a nozzle, which drops the pressure and increases the velocity, propelling the aircraft forward.
Hot air
Watching a massive airliner take off, it’s a wonder those relatively small engines can propel it aloft. But consider this: According to GE, a big high-bypass jet engine draws in 2,400 pounds of air a second. That’s enough to vacuum all the air out of Madison Square Garden every four seconds.
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