WI: No gas turbine engines

What is says on the tin.:p

Whatever the reason, be it poor metallurgy, or no Whittle, or nobody willing to spend the money developing them, what would replace gas turbines as aircraft engines if they didn't exist?

I see two obvious options: pulsejets & ramjets. Pulsejets are fuel-thirsty, noisy, & inefficient. (I also wonder if they're thrust-limited, but IDK enough about what limits the thrust: bore size or pulse rate.) Ramjets obviously can't work from a standing start. So, so JATO bottles become standard (even mandatory)?

Liquid-fuel rockets strike me as too hazardous, fuel-thristy, & complex.

Are their other options?
 

NothingNow

Banned
Turbo-compound engines for most aircraft would be my guess.

Yeah, Turbo-Compound engines like the Napier Nomad would probably predominate, with motorjets being used in places where high speeds are more important.

Ramjets would probably be limited to boosters and sustainer engines thanks to their issues with producing thrust at low air speeds.
 

Delta Force

Banned
Wankel engines might be used for military and other high performance aircraft because they have a higher power to weight ratio and can be placed in more aerodynamic casings. Apparently they also have a safer failure mode as they tend to lose power slowly instead of losing full power like a piston or jet engine. The concept also predates the jet engine, being patented in 1929.
 
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