Historical Review of the Development and Use of Marine Gas Turbines by the U.S. Navy

This paper is a brief review of the U.S. Navy involvement in shipboard gas turbines starting with studies in the 1930’s and proceeding to the point where gas turbine propulsion has been chosen for all recent cruiser, destroyer and frigate class construction programs. It tells some of the false starts and lessons learned and accentuates the decision of the Navy to take advantage of the major developments in aircraft jet engines by using these same engines, marinized for use in a shipboard environment, to power many of our new combatants.