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by SmellyGeekBoy 2873 days ago
My worry with a turbine on a bushplane would be the potential for it to ingest gravel / sand / rocks etc.

Surely a prop is better suited for this? You could even carry a spare "just in case".

2 comments

These are turbo-props. The jet bit is only a power supply to turn a propeller. It doesn't provide thrust like in a 747 or military jet. Its air intake is covered by a filter system just like any piston engine. For a given fuel consumption, the amount of air moving in/out of a turbine engine is roughly proportional to a piston engine.
Piston engines have air intakes too. A 600ish HP turbine is also moving a lot less air than you probably think.. it's not a high-bypass jet on an airliner.

Small/medium sized turbines are used all the time on helicopters, which routinely see backwoods operation.