Turbine, Jet, and Rocket Engines
Gas turbine engines, including jet engines, have a capacitor discharge ignition system using one or more ignitor plugs, which are only used at startup or in case the combustor(s) flame goes out.
Rocket engine ignition systems are especially critical. If prompt ignition does not occur, the combustion chamber can fill with excess fuel and oxidiser and significant overpressure can occur (a "hard start") or even an explosion. Rockets often employ pyrotechnic devices that place flames across the face of the injector plate, or, alternatively, hypergolic propellants that ignite spontaneously on contact. Such engines do away with ignition systems entirely and cannot experience hard starts, but the propellants are highly toxic and corrosive.
Read more about this topic: Ignition System
Famous quotes containing the words rocket and/or engines:
“A rocket is an experiment; a star is an observation.”
—José Bergamín (1895–1983)
“America is like one of those old-fashioned six-cylinder truck engines that can be missing two sparkplugs and have a broken flywheel and have a crankshaft that’s 5000 millimeters off fitting properly, and two bad ball-bearings, and still runs. We’re in that kind of situation. We can have substantial parts of the population committing suicide, and still run and look fairly good.”
—Thomas McGuane (b. 1939)