Most modern passenger and military aircraft are powered bygasturbineengines, whi ch are also called jet engines.

There are severaldifferenttypesof gas turbine en gines, but all turbine engines havesome partsin common. All gas turbine engines have a nozzle to producethrust,to conduct the exhaust gases back to thefree stream,and to set themass flow ratethrough the engine. The nozzle sits downstreamof the power turb ine.A nozzle is a relatively simple device, just a specially shaped tubethrough which hot gases flow. However, nozzles the mathematics which describe the operation of the nozzle takes some careful th ought. As shown above,nozzles come in a variety of shapes and sizes depending on the mission of the aircraft. Simple turbojets,and turboprops,often have a fixed geometry convergent nozzle as shown on the left of the figure.Turbof an engines often employ a co-an nular nozzle as shown at the top left. The core flow exits the center nozzle while the fan flow exits the annular nozzle. Mixing of the two flows provides some thrust enhancement and these nozzles also tend to be quieter than convergent nozzles.A fter burning turbojets and turbofans require a variable geometry convergent-dive rgent - CD nozzle as shown on the left. In this nozzle, the flow first converges down to th e minimum area or throat, then is expanded through the divergent section to the exit at the right. The variable geometry causes these nozzles to be heavier than a fixed geometry nozzle, but variable geometry provides efficient engine operat ion over a wider airflow range than a simple fixed nozzle.Rocket engines also us e nozzles to accelerate hot exhaust to produce thrust.Rocket engines usually hav e a fixed geometry CD nozzle with amuch larger divergent section than is require d for a gas turbine. You can explore the design and operation of nozzles with ou r interactive nozzle simulator program which runs on your browser.All of the noz zles we have discussed thus far are round tubes. Recently,however, engineers hav e been experimenting with nozzles with rectangular exits. This allows the exhaus t flow to be easily deflected,or vectored, as shown in the middle of the figure. Changing the direction of the thrust with the nozzle makes the aircraft much mo re maneuverable.Because the nozzle conducts the hot exhaust back to the free str eam, there can be serious interactions between the engine exhaust flow and the a ir flow around the aircraft. On fighter aircraft, in particular, large drag pena lties can occur near the nozzle exits. A typical nozzle-afterbody configuration is shown in the upper right for an F-15 with experimental maneuvering nozzles. A s with the inlet design, the external nozzle configuration is often designed by the airframer. The internal nozzle is usually the responsibility of the engine m anufacturer