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150 BC – A Greek philosopher and mathematician, Hero, invented a toy (called an aeolipile) that rotated on top of a boiling pot of water. This caused a reaction effect of hot air or steam that moved several nozzles arranged on a wheel. This works when one understands the Third Law of Motion – Every action produces a reaction, equal in force and opposite in direction.
1232 – Chinese began to use rockets as weapons. The invention of gun powder uses the reaction principle to move rockets forward.
1500 – Leonardo da Vinci drew a sketch of a device called the chimney jack, which rotated due to the effect of hot gases flowing up a chimney. It looked like a device that used hot air to rotate a spit. The hot air came from the fire and rose upward to pass through a series of fan like blades that turned the roasting spit.
1629 – Giovanni Branca developed a stamping mill that used jets of steam to rotate a turbine that then rotated to operate machinery.
1678 – Ferdinand Verbiest built a model carriage that used a steam jet for power.
1687 – Sir Isacc Newton announces the three laws of motion. These form the basis for modern propulsion theory.
1791 – John Barber received the first patent for a basic turbine engine. His design was planned to use as a method of propelling the ‘horseless carriage.’ The turbine was designed with a chain-driven, reciprocating type of compressor. It had a compressor, a combustion chamber and a turbine.
1872 – Dr. F. Stolze designed the first true gas turbine engine. His engine used a multistage turbine section and a flow compressor. This engine never ran under its own power.
1903 – Aegidius Elling of Norway built the first successful gas turbine using both rotary compressors and turbines - the first gas turbine that actually delivered excess power.
1897 – Sir Charles Parson patented a steam turbine which was used to power a ship.
1914 – Charles Curtis filed the first application for a gas turbine engine.
1918 – Dr. Stanford A. Moss developed the GE turbo-supercharger engine during W.W.I. It used hot exhaust gases from a reciprocating engine to drive a turbine wheel that in turn drove a centrifugal compressor used for supercharging. General Electric Company started a gas turbine division.
1920 – Dr. A. A. Griffith developed a theory of turbine design based on gas flow past airfoils rather than through passages.
1930 - Sir Frank Whittle, in England, patented a design for a gas turbine for jet propulson. The first successful use of this engine was in April, 1937. His early work on the theory of gas propulsion was based on the contributions of most of the earlier pioneers of this field.
The specifications of the first jet engine were:
- Airflow = 25 lb/sec
- Fuel Consumption = 200 gal/hr or 1300 lb/hr
- Thrust = 1,000 lb (estimated)
- Specific Fuel consumption = 1.3 lb/hr/lb
Fig. 2-1 Sir Frank Whittle and his Jet Engine Prototype
1936 – At the same time as Frank Whittle was working in Great Britain, Hans von Ohian and Max Hahn, college students in Germany, developed and patented their own engine design.
1939 - Ernst Heinkel Aircraft flew the first flight of a gas turbine jet, the HE178.
1941 - The 2nd World War and the need for faster flying aircraft changed all that. However, the development of aero-derivative engines had to evolve as well. But the war wouldn’t wait. Not only that, it ended before the Allied Forces (in particular, England and a brilliant engineer named Frank Whittle) could get its jet-powered aircraft aloft.
The Americans never got fighter planes in the air before the allied victories in Europe and Japan. However, when the war economy evolved into an industrial economy in the late 1940s, the conversion of the jet engine to other applications (air, land, rail and sea) followed and the result was the combustion (gas) turbine.
1942, April 11 - David Lucier is born. Little did anyone know at birth that his destiny was to have a career in field engineering services in gas turbine technology, since he was more interested in sucking on a warm bottle of milk. He didn’t invent a single thing in his lifetime. He did, however, service many GE gas turbines throughout the world during a 40+ year career.
Fig. 2-2 Older brother Stephen and Fat David (age 8 months in 1942)
1942 – Dr. Franz Anslem developed the axial-flow turbojet, the Junkers Jumo 004, used in the Messerschmitt Me 262, the world’s first operational jet fighter. After World War II, the development of jet engines was directed by a number of commercial companies. Jet engines later became the most popular method of powering airplanes.
1949 – General Electric, of Schenectady, NY sold gas turbine locomotive engines that were installed on ALCO (from the same city) trains for the Union Pacific Railroad.
Fig. 2-3 Gas Turbine Powered Locomotive
1951 – General Electric sells three gas turbine generator drives, dual fuel (#2 distillate and #6 heavy oil) rated at 5,000 KW each were installed at Central Vermont Public Service in Rutland, VT. Units were nicknamed the “Kilowatt Machines.” The power plants were intercooled, regenerative cycle that operated at base load. Dave Lucier assisted in troubleshooting a problem in 1988 and was later given the Young & Franklin fuel regulator (serial number 49) and the plant nameplate from Unit #1, for his service help. The last of the three units were retired in 1989 and sold for scrap.
Fig. 2-4 Kilowatt machine at CVPS in Rutland, VT (1951)
1953 – General Electric sells two frame 3 gas turbine generator drives, dual fuel (natural gas and #2 diesel), with on-line, auto transfer, to Montana Dakota Utilities in Williston, ND. Units are still in operation as of 2010. Rating 4,000 KW for each.
Fig. 2-5 Montana Dakota Utilities MS3001 Gas Turbine at Williston, ND (1957)
1957 – General Electric sold their first frame 3 steam turbine and gas (STAG) plant to the City of Ottawa, KS. In 2010, the unit is still operational. Dave Lucier’s company, PAL Turbine Services, LLC, conducts borescope inspections in October 2010.
1965, November 6 – The Great Northeast Blackout. MS5001D Package Power Plant (PPP), installed at Long Island Lighting Company plant in Southampton, NY, is credited for restoring power on the island, feeding back to New York City. GE begins selling the PPP design and 4-unit Power Blocks like “hot cakes.” Hundreds are shipped in the next 5 years.
Fig. 2-6 Black Out Along NY State Transmission Lines (1965)
1966, September – David Lucier graduates (finally) from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His mother is pleased. Lucier begins work for General Electric on the Technical Marketing Program (TMP) in the Power Transformer Department in Pittsfield, MA. He is unhappy living at the YMCA. His mother is happy he doesn’t quit GE because he needs “a job to pay off his college loans.”
1967, June – David Lucier is offered a transfer assignment on the TMP to the Gas Turbine Department in Schenectady, NY. With practice, Lucier learns how to spell the name of the city. He likes gas turbines, but a friend with a brand new black 1969 Corvette convinces him that a working at a field engineer (What’s that?) might be a wise career change. The Corvette was a motivator for Lucier.
1968 – David Lucier changes careers and enters the GE Field Engineering Program (FEP). He is sent to help install three 4-unit power blocks at Crawford Station for Commonwealth Edison Co. in Chicago, IL. The twelve turbines were GE MS5001L package power plants (PPP) rated at 15.000 kilowatts each at NEMA conditions.
Lucier likes working as a field engineer because of several factors
- 60-hour weeks that include 20 hours of paid overtime (Lucier begins paying off his college loans making his mother happy!).
- Expense account with a daily per diem for food. He likes eating sirloin steak.
- Rental car was a 1968 Dodge Charger (Avis mistake). Lucier refuses to surrender the car until the concludes.
- Some beautiful women in Chicago for Lucier to meet and enjoy
Fig. 2-7 Lucier traveling to work on a flooded gas turbine site in Guatemala (1969)
1968 – David Lucier is assigned to the Gas Turbine Start-up Program and begins a 40+ year career in field engineering services. He worked for General Electric Technical Services Company (GETSCO) for about 5 years in his first field career. Lucier is sent to work abroad on gas turbines in over 20 countries. In 1971, Lucier is reassigned as Area Engineer for Venezuela, Colombia and Caribbean Islands including Aruba, Curacao and Isla Margarita. His first field career ends in June 1973.
Fig. 2-8 Lucier and associates at power plant in Vietnam (1971)
1971 – GE produces first MS7001A gas turbine Package Power Plant. First unit shipped to Long Island Lighting Company in Babylon, NY. It was one of the first gas turbines with Speedtronic™ Mark I and electro-hydraulic fuel controls.
Fig. 2-9 Lucier at power plant in Venezuela (1972)
1973 –1974: The OPEC Oil Embargo. Members of oil-producing nations create a world-wide crisis that lasts many months, driving up costs for gasoline and heating oil.
- Motorists and home owners in the USA experience fuel shortages and gas stations limit hours of operation. Some stations limit sales to just $1.00 worth of gasoline per visit. Also, alternating days (odd-even license plates) become common in some states like Massachusetts.
- Significant reduction in demand for gas turbine power plants in the USA begins and lasts over the next decade. However, OPEC nations in the Middle East and Caribbean Islands still order PPP from GE for their specific applications.
1982 – GE introduces a cogeneration (Co-Gen) plant using the new MS6001 gas turbine. The so-called frame 6 turbine was a hybrid design between the frame 5 and 7. It had a 17-stage compressor like the frame 5 and a 3-stage turbine like the frame 7. The first units have Speedtronic™ Mark II controls. The turbine was exhaustively tested at the Schenectady Plant Outdoor Test Site (dubbed SPOTS) in the early 1980s. Later in the decade, the Mark IV computer-based control systems are introduced. Co-Gen nowadays is known as Combined Heat and Power (CHP) in the industry.
1983 – 1988 – GE begins to install STAG plants worldwide. STAG stands for steam turbine and gas. These plants use either the new MS7001E (60 cycle generators) or MS9001E (50 cycle generators). Fourteen STAG-109E gas turbine plants, totaling 2,000 MW of power, go into commercial operation for Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) in Futsu, Japan in 1988. At the time, this site was the largest gas turbine installation of its kind in the world. These turbines began with Speedtronic™ Mark II controls but were later upgraded to Mark V.
1983-1985 – David Lucier is assigned by GE to work at TEPCO in Futsu, Japan. He heads a group of 15 field engineers on this assignment. He is succeeded by Muggs Norris and finally Dave Smith, who was initially headed up the start-up team.
1986 – David Lucier voluntarily resigns from GE. He starts his first company: I&SE Associates of Schenectady, Inc. I&SE provides field engineering services on GE gas turbines including training, troubleshooting and consulting. Company is disbanded in 1998.
1991 – GE introduces the MS7001EA gas turbine (evolved from the 7B from 1970) which is rated at 90 MW for ISO conditions. Firing temperature is 2200˚F. Speedtronic™ Mark V is introduced. Dry Low Nox (DLN) systems are first employed.
1999, June – David Lucier and Charles Pond start a new company: Pond and Lucier, LLC. Company provides field engineering services for owners and operators of General Electric gas and steam turbines.
2000 – GE introduces the MS7001FA gas turbine which is rated at 150 MW for ISO conditions. The so-called “F” technology can fire at a temperature of 2400˚F. Turbine utilizes Speedtronic™ Mark VI controls.
2004 – GE introduces the MS9001H gas turbine (50-cycle) which is rated over 200 MW for ISO conditions. The so-called “H” technology has steam-cooled turbine buckets and can fire at a temperature of 2600˚F with Mark VI controls.
2010, January – Dave Lucier buys out Pond and becomes sole owner of Pond and Lucier, LLC. Name is changed to PAL Turbine Services, LLC.
Thus, we have the Time Line of Gas Turbine Technology.
