Is it mostly through the rear turbine rotor blades and their bearings,
and maybe the front compressor blades too?

No. It's been awhile but IIRC, the compressor stages compress the air
coming in the inlet. The compressed air is fed into the combustion chamber
where fuel is added and ignited. The rear turbine blades steal a bit of
this to drive the compressor stages and the rest exits as exhaust producing
thrust. I've never really thought about it before but I assume thrust is
acting on the combustion chamber itself much like a rocket engine.

Here's a good place to start digging if you REALLY want to understand what
goes on. :-)

http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/air...btyp/ettp.html

Or you can back up to here for even more info:

http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/shortp.html

Best Regards,
Keith Marshall


"I'm not grown up enough to be so old!"


"Jeff Wisnia" wrote in message
...
I think I understand how a (non-turbofan) gas turbine jet engine works
and that the engine's thrust comes from an "equal and opposite" reaction
to lots of air molecules being flung out the rear at very high velocities.

What I'm not sure of is the specific path through which that thrust is
"collected" and makes its way to the engine pylon and thence to the
aircraft itself.

Is it mostly through the rear turbine rotor blades and their bearings,
and maybe the front compressor blades too?

I've been wondering about this ever since Machine Design's editor Ron
Kohl wrote in a recent column that he wasn't certain about it either.

Thanks guys,

Jeff


--
Jeff Wisnia (W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"My luck is so bad that if I bought a cemetery, people would stop dying."