Built circa 1952, the engine was complete with its original 208 volt, 111 amp, 400 Hz generator. It has spent the last 20 years crated in the breaker's yard - the crate was as big as a shed (and about as heavy). Inside, the engine was kept in good condition swathed in cotton bandoliers of silica gel and zipped inside the heavy-duty "jet bags" used in the aviation industry.
Basically it's a gas turbine (or jet) engine, producing a small amount of thrust (about 100 pounds) as a by-product, the main power being taken from the shaft through a reduction gearbox where it gives around 200 horsepower. There is also an air bleed from the compressor, providing air at modest pressure (35 psi) but very high volume - this was typically used to drive slave "cold turbines" or to keep the main aircraft engines spinning on two minute standby.
There's an ejector nozzle plumbed up to the compressor which draws air through the alternator for cooling.
The whole engine is around six feet long and weighs around quarter of a ton with the alternator. From the pre-history of the gas turbine era, it was designed barely ten years after Frank Whittle got the thing going in the first place.
I'm currently working on a start panel for it, I'll post progress reports.
