jet engine

jet engine: see jet propulsion.

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jet engine

Any of a class of internal-combustion engines that propel aircraft by means of the rearward discharge of a jet of fluid, usually hot exhaust gases generated by burning fuel with air drawn in from the atmosphere. Jets rely on the third of Newton's laws of motion (action and reaction are equal and opposite). The first jet-powered airplane was introduced in 1939 in Germany. The jet engine, consisting of a gas-turbine system, significantly simplified propulsion and enabled substantial increases in aircraft speed, size, and operating altitudes. Modern types of jet engines include turbojets, turbofans, turboprops, turboshafts, and ramjets. See airplane. See also drag; gasoline engine; lift.

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jet engine

a gas turbine, esp one fitted to an aircraft

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jet engine [¦jet ¦en·jən]

(aerospace engineering)

An aircraft engine that derives all or most of its thrust by reaction to its ejection of combustion products (or heated air) in a jet and that obtains oxygen from the atmosphere for the combustion of its fuel.

(mechanical engineering)

Any engine that ejects a jet or stream of gas or fluid, obtaining all or most of its thrust by reaction to the ejection.