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a high-energy solution for more consistent ignition at high speeds and altitudes.  In addition to two spark plugs and two customised fuel injectors, sensors for temperature and pressure are also installed inside the combustion chamber, with further health and performance monitoring sensors throughout the other chambers. These provide readings through the EEC that Turbotech’s engineers can track and analyse during test runs.  Naturally, future operators will also be able to track the consistency and patterns of these data to confirm the health of the turbine engine, or identify where and when inspections and maintenance might be warranted. “The microturbine’s shape has been conceived through stringent CFD-based design, and resembles the kind of small turbine you’d find on a large aircraft’s auxiliary power unit [APU],” Fauvet explains. To ensure that the exhaust gas from the turbine chamber spreads out among the microtubes rather than shooting directly through the linear space at the centre of the heat exchanger, an aluminium cone is welded into that middle space to deflect and divert the gas laterally among the tubes.  Moving back from the cone, the rear structure has clearance space for the exhaust gas to exit the engine after it has flowed among the thousands of air- carrying pipes. As mentioned, the slight propulsion from this minor exhaust jet compensates for the drag of the initial air intake for compression. “We’re now on our second version of each engine,” Guimbard says. “Much of the modification between the first prototype and the second has gone into that first ‘point’ of distribution inside the heat exchanger, in terms of how the hot gases are initially diverted to flow among the microtubes.”   Turbotech TP-R90 and TG-R55 | Dossier The shape of the microturbine has been conceived through CFD, and resembles the kind of turbine found on a large aircraft’s APU