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On the hunt for a gas turbine!

pr0l1f1c

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I am new to military equipment for the most part, but I'm familiar with turboprop powerplants, and I've been wanting a 10kw gas turbine generator , or any gas turbine really. I was looking for one to get started hands on with them, and thought a generator would be a good start since its immediately useful ( rather than just playing around with an old aircraft APU , starting and stopping it just to hear it! lol )

Does anyone know a good model to start with or whats even easy to find these days?, as I'm not familiar with the names (like MEP401) Or ,are any of ya'll selling one?
 

Ray70

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You must have excess fuel you need to dispose of! :cool:
I contemplated buying one at auction several years ago, just for the fun of it, but price went beyond what I was willing to pay for a bunch of fun listening to it wind up.
I assume you've already been looking on the normal Gov't auction sites?
 

swbradley1

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I wish I could get hold of the local member that has one. I know since I had it here at the farm until he picked it up. It had the generator/turbine start setup on it. We never tried to start but it has a lot of cool factor.
 

MarkM

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If you are looking for a powerful litte compact turbine that you can setup with an afterburner I would seriously look at the Boeing 502 line. Very compact and puts out some good thrust. With an afterburner you can get close to 300lbs of thrust. I've wanted one for years.

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Mark A&P
 

pr0l1f1c

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Chicago IL
You must have excess fuel you need to dispose of! :cool:
I contemplated buying one at auction several years ago, just for the fun of it, but price went beyond what I was willing to pay for a bunch of fun listening to it wind up.
I assume you've already been looking on the normal Gov't auction sites?
I'm having trouble finding stuff outside of the majority 10kw cat diesel generators , but haven't looked extensively
 

pr0l1f1c

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Chicago IL
Don’t know anything about them but there is one on eBay. Just looked and it’s still listed. Search “military vehicles”
I'll take a look soon!


What’s your background in turbines?
Being an assistant to an A&P certified guy who worked with PT6 turboshaft powerplants for cropdusters and t62 solar turbines for homebuilt helicopters, with all the pieces to make them run all there. I'm considering looking for just a t62 but it looks like it would be cheaper to get one that's part of a generator if I want the supporting hardware like fuel pumps and electrical/ignition to come with it. Rather than having to make a test bed from scratch


If you are looking for a powerful litte compact turbine that you can setup with an afterburner I would seriously look at the Boeing 502 line. Very compact and puts out some good thrust. With an afterburner you can get close to 300lbs of thrust. I've wanted one for years.

View attachment 881195

View attachment 881196

Mark A&P
Funnilly enough I found a guy in michigan who is getting honeywell gpt35 turboshaft APUs and adding an afterburner to them and selling those for 10-15k$ , but I'm looking for torque and low egt rather than thrust


i didn't research anything about it....
Tempted...
 

pr0l1f1c

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Chicago IL
Are we talking about the GPU in florida? It is kind of perfect for what I'm trying to do in the long run which is to experiment on muffling and controlling the hot temperatures of the exhaust gas in a similar setup to the old chrysler turbine car, plus I have a bunch of 24-28volt stuff I can run with it
 

Guyfang

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As far as I remember, there have been at least 3-4 Generators. The D424-A being the one I know best. Way out of your price range. Parts cost would knock you on your keester. And its 400 hertz. Very bad reliability. Patriot System.

The GTGE 70 C1 is so old, I find it hard to believe you could find on.

The MEP-404B Same problems as the D424-A. ALL of them. AND, see those red lines? Zone of Death. If the fan blades let go, and this happened often, standing between the lines was REAL unhealthy. Patriot System. The Air Force had them first, and were glad to dump them on Patriot.

1665176433824.png

The Medical Unit, Self-contained, Transportable

Was an inflatable Hospital. The MUST Service utility element or power package, (APU) contained a multi fuel gas turbine engine which supplied electric power for air-conditioning, refrigeration, air heating and circulation, water heating and pumping, air pressure for the inflatable elements, and compressed air or suction.

I talked to guys who worked on them, and the Turbine was supposed to be very dependable. I only saw them in the CAN point, (Army Junk Yard). There were some in storage up to the 80's here in Germany, but none had been in use for a long time.

There are some APU's, but I never worked on them, or saw them.
 

peapvp

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Yup, it was at 7K when I last checked.
@patracy I have seen only two turbines on fleabay, a Solar T-62T-32 / T62T32 gas turbine engine with a buy it now price of $ 10,500 and a Gas Turbine Engine GTP 70 APU Jet Aircraft Auxiliary Power Unit Generator 160HP with a buy it now price of $ 7,000
Other wise only the 404B in Australia for 13K
Not sure which one you were looking at, all three are buy it now

I am waiting for the day someone is going to post a thread, my MEP 208A doesn’t start / crank……
B5B725ED-8B80-4ADA-A3B7-96E4F46DB115.jpeg
 

Guyfang

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You could not give me a MEP-404B. At least the D424A was cast iron. If the thing came apart, it all stays inside. I loved that engine! What a great toy, But parts and cost. The engine was 255 thousand bucks a pop. A "service" would cost you about 30 thousand bucks. If not more.

Very interesting, in the fact that it had two regen wheels in it. You could drop 150-200 KW on it, and not even hear a tiny dip in RPM. Great place to heat Chile cans, also.
 
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