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Is a turbocharged piston aircraft the same thing as turboprop? Ask Question

Questions Asked 1 year, 4 months ago Active 1 year, 4 months ago Viewed 6k times
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Users Simple question, and I've always assumed that they are the same thing, but
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I'd like feedback from someone who knows more than me :)
Unanswered
11 State of the Stack Q1 2021 Blog Post
piston-engine turboprop
Please don't edit from the review pages

Share Improve this question Follow asked Oct 30 '19 at 15:18

5
slantalpha
Related
4,002 21 42
23 Why do piston engines in aircraft burn fuel
at a higher rate than a comparable car
engine?
Definitely not-- important to know when you are adding fuel. I'll let someone
else take the honors of making a real answer! – quiet flyer Oct 30 '19 at 15:26 8 Does the DC-3 have a prop sync?

No, just like a turbocharged car is not a jet/turboprop car – DeepSpace Oct 30 5 Why aren’t diesel piston engines used on
'19 at 18:32 aircraft like the Saab 340 or L-410?

You might mind some interest in researching a Turbofan( big commercial 2 How much extra weight is added by
airliner engine) vs turboprop(like a turbo fan but there is no outside cover for the strengthening a piston-prop fighter for
main fan) vs a turbojet(fighter jet engine). A turbofan/prop use a jet engine to carrier landings?
spin a very big blade to make thrust. A pure turbojet makes thrust just by the
action of the jet itself no big propeller in front – DatsunZ1 Oct 31 '19 at 15:23 4 What changes are needed for a piston-prop
aircraft to withstand saltwater environment?
@DeepSpace it's rather: “no, just like a turbocharged car is not a gas turbine
car”. A jet or turboprop car would also have a different means of propulsion, 3 Turboprop vs turbofan (in regional aircraft)
whereas turboprops and turbo-supecharged pistons both have propellers which
work essentially in the same way. – leftaroundabout Nov 1 '19 at 9:31 3 Why are piston-engined aircraft generally
exempted from U.S. flight recorder
Add a comment requirements?

1 How do I estimate piston aircraft fuel

5 Answers Active Oldest Votes efficiency?

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Share Improve this answer Follow edited Oct 31 '19 at 17:51

answered Oct 31 '19 at 0:55

smithkm
763 5 7

2 Could note that "turbosupercharger" and "turbocharger" are often used

interchangeably, while "supercharger" is sometimes used to mean "gear-driven
supercharger" but really can mean either a gear-driven supercharger or a
turbosupercharger (turbocharger). I guess what I'm saying is that the diagram
labelled "supercharger" would really be better labelled "gear-driven
supercharger". At least is the terminology that is most aligned with the original
meaning of these words. Maybe now "supercharger" is universally accepted to
mean only the gear-driven variety? Could the basis of another question. –
quiet flyer Oct 31 '19 at 18:34

@quietflyer When researching engine stuff for.makimg an Xplane model I have

íonly met "supercharchger" to mean the gear-driven one. It was for old engines,
though. – Vladimir F Oct 31 '19 at 20:17

@quietflyer I considered adding a note that "turbocharged" is also historically

called "turbosupercharged" but the diagram was getting complicated enough as
it was. I thought that terminology was effectively dead but if it's still in use
somewhere it would make sense to add. – smithkm Oct 31 '19 at 20:47

Probably not a significant issue, see responses to my recently-posted related

question. – quiet flyer Oct 31 '19 at 20:49

Add a comment

No, a turboprop is more like a jet engine with a propeller in the front instead
of a fan:
22

Source: Wikimedia

In its simplest form a turboprop consists of an intake, compressor,

combustor, turbine, and a propelling nozzle. Air is drawn into the
intake and compressed by the compressor.

Many turbo props have a gear box (as shown in the image above, the black
part to the left) which drives the prop from the engine.

Whereas a turbo piston is simply a normal piston engine with a turbo

charger attached:

Source: BoldMethod

You can learn more about how a turbo piston works on BoldMethod: How a
turbocharger system works. The basics is that it uses the exhaust gases
from the engine to drive a compressor which increases the pressure (and
oxygen content) going into the intake. More oxygen (and fuel) means more
power. For turbo-pistons it also means that you can get sea-level
performance at altitude.

As far as fuel is concerned, a turboprop runs off of Jet-A (Kerosene) fuels

and (most) turbo charged pistons run on av-gas. Some diesel turbo pistons
also run off of Jet-A and it is very important that you don't put Jet-A in an av-
gas piston or av-gas in a turbo prop.

Share Improve this answer Follow edited Oct 30 '19 at 16:27

answered Oct 30 '19 at 15:27

Ron Beyer
31.5k 6 112 133

"Some diesel turbo pistons also run off of Jet-A" -- which diesel turbo pistons
don't run on Jet-A? is there another diesel fuel available at airports? –
Peter Duniho Oct 31 '19 at 0:17

Add a comment

A turbocharged engine is a common gas engine

with pistons
5
The limiting factor on a gas engine is how much air can get into the
pistons.

It is supercharged - that is, an air pump forces more air into the engine
than it would draw naturally. The mechanically driven variety is seen on
Mad Max. If you use exhaust flow to spin the pump, it is
turbosupercharged.

People shorten "turbosupercharge" to "turbocharge".

A turboprop engine is a jet engine. Fullstop.

The jet engine makes lots of thrust. They stuck some extra turbine
blades in the jet blast, which spin another shaft. That makes it a
"turboshaft engine" because it makes rotation instead of thrust. You put
something useful on that shaft, like a generator, helicopter rotor, naval
screw, air compressor, fan, propfan, or in this case, a prop. That's a
turboprop!

The advantage of a jet-based instead of piston-based engine is power-to-

weight - after all you have nominally 2 moving parts, the spindle of the jet
engine proper and the added turboshaft, and nothing reciprocates.

Share Improve this answer Follow answered Oct 31 '19 at 16:52

Harper - Reinstate
Monica
11.5k 1 24 53

Add a comment

They are completely different things, a turboprop is similar to a jet engine as

it has compressors, the main difference is that there's a shaft that spins a
3 propeller instead of turning a fan.

A turbocharger is device for piston engines, it uses pressure coming from

the exhaust manifold of a piston engine to compress air going into the intake
manifold. It's the same technology used on car diesel and gasoline engines,
and it works the same way. There are vanes that can be adjusted to manage
the boost level, on cars these are computer controlled but in many airplanes
turbo speeds are have to be manually adjusted by adjusting boost pressure
in the exhaust (keyword: wastegate). Recent aero-diesels have modern
computer controls though. Turbos on piston aero engines can either be
turbochargers, in which case they add extra power to an engine by
increasing the compression in the cylinders, or they can be turbo-
normalizers, which maintain sea level air pressure to the engine even at
higher altitudes.

There are superchargers as well, these are also compressors for piston
engines the difference is they use engine power directly to compress the air
rather than exhaust pressure.

Share Improve this answer Follow edited Oct 30 '19 at 16:45

answered Oct 30 '19 at 16:04

GdD
45.2k 5 123 187

2 I'd like the source for pilot controlled turbo vanes please... turbine housing
vanes and wastegate are not the same thing. Both are used for regulating boost
pressure, but in a very different way. – Jpe61 Oct 30 '19 at 16:37

1 I didn't understand your comment at first, I have edited for clarity. I don't know of
any manually controlled vanes, it's manual wastegate control. – GdD Oct 30 '19
at 16:47

1 That matches my reality :) – Jpe61 Oct 30 '19 at 16:50

1 Probably the only thing today that will! – GdD Oct 30 '19 at 16:50

Well, they are not that completely different things. The turbocharger uses the
same principle and has the same function as one spool of a turbine, making a
turbocharged engine is kind of a hybrid between reciprocating and turbine
engine. – Jan Hudec Oct 30 '19 at 22:58

Show 2 more comments

No, one is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_cycle one is

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brayton_cycle, thermodynamicly extremely
2 different

Share Improve this answer Follow answered Nov 1 '19 at 2:49

Sam
287 1 7

Add a comment

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