The success of jet engines on aircraft and they compactness and low specific weight suggested that gas turbines could be used to provide a considerable reserve of speed on light naval vessels. Accordingly a gas turbine of 2500 s.hp was designed for the Admiralty under the code name Gatric. In this, a gas generator, which was. basically an F2 engine, supplied its products of combustion to a power turbine, which was geared to the propeller. It was installed in 1947 in place of one of the existing engines in the motor gun-boat 2009, and this was the first gas-turbine vessel to put to sea. So successful were the trials that larger units have been put in hand.

The development of gas turbines for land power stations became possible after the war, and the 2000-kW unit already mentioned was designed for the works power station. This is an open-cycle plant having a gas generator similar to that in Gas turbines/or m.g.b. 2009, tubular two-pass heat exchangers, and a power turbine running at power stations— 5000 r.p.m. A 2500-kW unit is in hand for power supply to a pumping station of the Metropolitan Water Board. In main power stations the prospects of the gas. turbine depend chiefly on fuel costs. In most countries oil is more expensive than coal, but on the other hand a gas turbine costs less than the equivalent steam plant, takes up less space and requires less cooling water. For standby or peak load sets the gas turbine is usually more economical, and in existing stations or congested areas it has special advantages. To meet such conditions the C.E.B. ordered in 1947 a 15,000-kW gas turbo-generator set for Stretford, Lancashire.

For railway engines the high power-weight ratio of the gas turbine is an obvious advantage. A gas-turbine electric locomotive ordered by the Great Western Railway is intended for mixed traffic service including main line passenger trains at speeds up to 90 m.p.h. It will weigh 120 tons and will have an open-cycle gas turbine unit of 3500 hp and six motor-driven axles giving 2700 hp at the rails; the mechanical design includes the latest M-V swing link suspension. The locomotive will have a track performance at least equal to that of two Diesel-electric unitstotalling more than double its weight.

STEAM TURBINES
The large steam turbines at Brimsdown A and B stations, which work at the highest steam pressures in this country, were followed by two further high pressure machines for somewhat easier conditions. The first was a two-axis plant commissioned at Battersea B station in 1943 and having the exceptionally large output of 100,000 kW.