I. INTRODUCTION
The development of the gas turbine engine as an aircraft power plant has been so rapid that it is difficult
to appreciate that prior to the 1950s very few people had heard of this method of aircraft propulsion. The
possibility of using a reaction jet had interested aircraft designers for a long time, but initially the low speeds of
early aircraft and the unsuitably of a piston engine for producing the large high velocity airflow necessary for
the ‘jet’ presented many obstacles.