sergei wrote:Grrrrrrr! wrote:Gas turbines aren't responsive enough for automotive use.. they take to long to get started, don't like sudden changes of load, and require too much maintainance.
Gas turbine combined with electric transmission does not require to have fast response - it could just stay at same RPMs all the time.
As for maintenance - some of the helicopters in Russia are over 50yo running on the original engine and I can tell you how good Russians at maintaining stuff (they are good at maintaining only 1 thing - blood alcohol level).
yea but its not much to do with age its all, its to do with Hours spent flying... i work for a company that overhauls turbine engines and i've seen them fail and i've seen the bill for repair but yes most are around 50years old and still running but get regular inspections depending on how many hours the heli clocks... eg: 100hours or 6months whichever comes first...
i think it'd be better to build a tiny diesel turbo motor that has alot of torque for what it is and it spends all day at 2500rpm spinning a generator and then make it really fuel efficient...
turbine motors have too many moving parts that have to be light, thin and strong all at the same time so that takes decent money to manufacture out of premium materials