# Are electric jet engines possible? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 9, 2020, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-electric-jet-engines-possible/853450 "2020-05-09T01:04:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 25
**Author:** ![Frankenstein\_Monster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ccd318/32.png) [@Frankenstein\_Monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frankenstein_Monster)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-electric-jet-engines-possible/853450/25 "2020-05-09T22:57:05Z")
Nice! I had many of the same thoughts. Except I now think that the volume expansion is not relevant, only the mass flow is. And obviously the air mass flow dwarfs the fuel mass flow in a jet engine. (I gave some numbers, just from Wiki specifications.) The specific heat of the gases (CO2 and H2O versus N2 and O2) might be significant, however. I would also be interested in hearing from an expert! > [@Anyone made an electric gas turbine?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-made-an-electric-gas-turbine/639205/6): > > I gather you’re talking about the increase in gas volume as a result of the additional mass of combustion products, namely CO2[sub]2[/sub] and H[sub]2[/sub]O, which would not be present in an electrically-powered gas turbine engine. Interesting point, and it makes me wonder about how big a factor this is in combustion-driven gas turbine engines. I was under the impression that gas turbine engines typically operate with a lot of excess air; not referring to high-bypass turbofan aircraft engines, but rather to simple/basic gas turbine engines moving far more air through the combustion chamber than is strictly needed to support combustion. If that’s the case, then the ratio of exhaust mass flow rate to intake air flow rate might be fairly close to 1:1. > > I’m curious to hear from someone who works on jet engines and knows real world values for air flow rates and fuel flow rates. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-electric-jet-engines-possible/853450)._