Elvis Hargrove wrote in a message to Gerry Calhoun:
-> and I think Mke will find that the blades on the turbine wheel are
-> every EXPENSIVE due to the metals used.
 EH> By George, I think you're RIGHT!  
George? Who's George? :)
 EH> My nephew used to work at Kelly field (San Antone) where they
 EH> refurbished those blades.  He said they'd sometimes work on one of
 EH> them for four or five hours only to eventually throw it away.
 EH> Made a refurbished blade VERY expensive.
But still only a faction of the cost of a new blade. Then wait till a turbine 
car owner sees the cost of a hot section tear-down because of hot start. I 
would guess they will have to install an interlock to prevent a restart 
attempt until after a hot-section inspection in case a hot-start is ever 
detected for liability reasons. 
Mike is right about the fact they are relacing a lot of recips with turbines 
in ag and STOL work, but the cost is over 80K dollars (U.S.) or so. Even if 
the price is tripled because it goes into an A/C, a turbine is not cheap and 
the Allison 250 is about as simple of a turbine as you can get.
Gerry
--- timEd 1.10
---------------