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dredmorbius 2 days ago

Gas turbines aren't generally noted for their efficiency, but rather:

- Power-to-weight ratios. Critical in aerospace applications.

- Long duty cycles. Everything spins, reducing wear-and-tear relative to reciprocating designs. Maintenance on piston engined aircraft during WWII was a major logistical concern.

- Raw speed. Supersonic flight requires high rotary speeds, and the few propeller-driven aircraft which achieved this had ... issues. Ground crews and pilots suffered health effects from the noise alone, and notoriously often flat refused to work with the XF-84H "Thunderscreech": <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_XF-84H_Thunderscreech...>. At near-supersonic speeds and above, propeller blade tips themselves break the sound barrier, losing aerodynamic flow over the blades, making quite a racket, and greatly reducing efficiency.

Propeller-driven planes remain more efficient than jets in many instances, though last I checked US military forces rely on turboprops over reciprocating engines in virtually all instances, possibly excepting some civilian-based (e.g., Cessna / Piper, etc.) trainer or observer variants.