How a TURBOJET Engine works - Explained by CAPTAIN JOE

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Welcome to the series about Jet Engines! In this first of three videos we dive into the mechanics and science behind the turbojet engine! We’ll break down the components of a turbojet engine and look at the thermodynamic principles that make an engine running.
Make sure to subscribe and hit the notification bell so you don’t miss our upcoming episodes on turbofan engines and afterburners! Join me on this exciting journey into aviation engineering!

Huge thanks for the permissions to use these Videos:
@AgentJayZ

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00:00 Intro
00:40 General Information
01:11 History of the Turbojet engine
02:30 Composition and parts
04:22 Thermodynamics
10:55 Internals of the compressor
15:16 Combustion chamber
17:03 Turbine work
18:44 Final words and outro

[AluminumOxide]

MEng Aerospace Engineering student here. Your video covering the thermodynamics comes across so much simpler and more intuitive than all my professors! Excellent work man, Thanks.

[kpeimnx]

As a retired tank commander, this is one of the best lessons of a turbine engine I've experienced. Extremely well done.

[Stopaclotion]

16:45 I got work experience at Rolls Royce Deutschland a couple of weeks ago (Turbofan). The cooling technique for the high pressure turbine is to make tiny drills into each blade where cool air comes out (still a whopping 800* C) and surrounds the blade. This is why it is so important to keep foreign objects from the engine core (e.g. little stones), because they can block these drilled holes and therefore cause the balde to overheat. Really fascinating video of yours!

[melicozy]

I’ve been watching you since I was barely 10 years old, you got me interested in aviation, and even though I’m unfortunately now medically disqualified from ever piloting, it’s always a joy to see your videos pop up on my feed. Thank you for what you do.

[emilellenius]

4:22 Really good explanation of the thermodynamics, I think. As a PhD student in turbomachinery I would consider myself to know this rather well, but you still managed to bring another kind of new perspective even for someone like me!

[Alexfilms_]

Watching this to prepare for my powerplant mechanic written exam. Thank you for this, Captain Joe!

[grahamj]

A pretty good explanation, Captain Joe, but I do have a few critical comments - and btw, if you look at my little thumbnail, you will see me leaning on an engine that I helped design back in the 1980s.
Firstly, in English gas turbine terminology, we usually refer to centrifugal flow and axial flow engines. The term 'radial' is normally reserved for piston engines where the individual cylinders (usually air-cooled) are disposed radially around the crankcase.
The term 'centrifugal' applies to the compressor impeller (eg) of the HeS3B you showed us, as the air flows outwards: however the turbine in the HeS3B was a 'centripetal' turbine, because the gas flowed inwards.
As a gas turbine engine, the HeS3B worked - but only just, and the same could be said about the Jumo 004B at the end of WWII. Naturally, you would have got the German perspective of jet engine development at the Deutsches Museum (it's a fantastic museum, and I did visit it once while working on the RB199 engine).
Yes, the HeS3B was the first turbojet engine to fly in August 1939: the He178 was in the air for all of six minutes, and the engine had to be shut down in the air. However, the HeS3B just did not compare with the Whittle/Power Jets W.1 engine, which first flew in May 1941: its first flight time was seventeen minutes, with absolutely no problems.
After that first flight, the Gloster E.28/39 was trundled back into its hangar (under armed guard), with the engine receiving no attention. After ten hours or so of test flying, the only defect found in the W.1 was a small crack in one combustion chamber.
I will offer some further comments when I take another look at your video.

[LuxPlanes]

this was very interesting. the purpose of stators was never clear to me so I'm glad to have that answered. really looking forward to the after burner video since its something I know nothing about!

[quickfairscoiltech]

Yes.
Please do such a video on radial jet engines as well.

[VictorRodriguez-fcgf]

Amazing work Captain. That was a hell of a Thermodynamics class! I remember back in Engineering school cycles were one of my favorite topics. Brayton, Otto, Rankine, Carnot, compression refrigeration cycle…

[raptor]

A simmer here. Wonderful explanation Capitan! How much you want your viewers to understand the concept, it's clearly visible in the effort. It was easy to follow through your technical explanation of the cycle. Next time I take off, I am going to feel the Brayton magic at the back of my head 😄

[peteralexander]

Thank you very much!!! Pretty much the best explanation of a jet engine I've heard so far.

[djlemonlime]

Studying MEng Aerospace Engineering. Learnt more from you than some of my professors

[stevekirk]

That's a great video Joe. I worked in mechanical engineering but not in aviation. This video is the best explanation I've ever come across as to how a turbojet works - I will need to rewatch the technical part but thank you for including it as there is a lot of information in there which I will try and digest - never too old to learn! Looking forward to the rest of this series.

[chrispeoples]

Great timing, Joe! I am teaching this very topic next week in my high school AP Physics 2 course and will use your video in my class. When teaching cyclic engine processes (i.e., Carnot, Brayton, Diesel, Otto), I prefer to use the PV diagram rather than the TS disgram as it tends to be little more intuitive. Most of my physics students plan to study engineering in college, so they will be watching your video series.

[jasonnitz]

I'm just picturing the air molecules 'pinballing' back and forth against the rotors and stators as it blasts through the engine in a split second. Great work on this video.

[I-Love-Taylor-Swift]

Great video Joe! Always interesting to see what keeps us up there are 36, 000 feet!

[jackthompson-lrhc]

Captain Joe:
This is a pretty good explanation, but ❤as a mechanical engineer, I'm a bit troubled in gas turbine explanations with the idea that the gas flow "spins" the turbine. When the hot gas flows through the turbine, it expands and changes direction, and in so doing the turbine extracts thermal, pressure and kinetic energy, converting it to mechanical torque. The torque either drives the compressor or the propeller, depending on which turbine we are addressing. (The torque times the speed is the horsepower generated by the turbine.)
This is what the descending piston in a piston engine does: it expands the hot gasses to extract mechanical work from them on the power stroke.
The other thing that is always left out of the discussion is that the combustion of the fuel only involves a fraction of the compressor compressed air stream. A significant amount of engineering design and angst goes into mixing the products of combustion ( at a very high temperature like 3000 C) with the compressor discharge air to get the hot gas stream entering the High pressure turbine down to a tolerable temperature for the blade materials. The PT-6 cleverly folds the gas flow to let length of travel for mixing without adding to the engine length. (All those holes in the combustor promote mixing and cool the walls co the combustor.)
That is why the engine's power is limited by TIT (turbine inlet temperature) at a number much below the stoichiometric combustion temperature.
The advantage that the piston engine has over the gas turbine is that because the combustion is intermittent and hot stoichiometric combustion gas temperature is very quickly lowered by expansion the surrounding materials can be kept cool without heroic measures. This use of a very high peak cycle temperature gives the piston engine better thermodynamic efficiency. The piston engine is also muck cheaper because the piston and cylinder head can be made of aluminum rather than exotic high temperature turbine materials.
The gas turbine otherwise beats the piston engine hands down in power to weight, weight, maintenance and TBO.
Unfortunately, all that turbine performance comes at a purchase price per HP about 10X that of a piston engine.
Turbines are fantastic for operations that fly a lot. For operators that don't fly a lot, pistons remain the affordable choice.

[NEBE]

What an incredibly clear and fun video!

[sailaab]

Joe, you bring in such excellent yet non-aviators friendly explanations and debriefs. 👌🏼👍🏻

Absolutely loved your info nuggets and tutorial on these jet engines🤍💙