Gas-Turbine Automobile

an automobile equipped with a gas-turbine engine. The advantages of a gas-turbine power plant are low weight, moderate size, no need for special liquid or air cooling systems, good dynamic balance, fast starting at low air temperatures, the possibility of using various forms of liquid and gaseous fuels, the insignificant toxicity of exhaust gases, high tractive qualities, and simple construction. Gas-turbine automobiles are designed chiefly for regions with low average year-round temperatures. The gas-turbine engine may also be used to power large tractortrailers, large buses, and heavy dump trucks. Gas-turbine automobiles are still in the experimental stage both in Russia and abroad. Ford, General Motors, and International Harvester in the USA and Leyland in Great Britain are developing these vehicles. The first experimental gasturbine automobile in the USSR was made in 1958.