Speaking of steam- a Stanley Steamer achieved the world land speed record in 1906. Image Unavailable, Please Login
While I was an instructor I invited a guest instructor/expert to class to explain the operation of a gas turbine/ jet engine. He woke the class up with a loud and clean explanation. " Well, it's pretty simple. SUCK, SQUEEZE, BANG, BLOW ." We then broke down the four basic elements with diagrams of a gas turbine and we were off running.
While I understand the explanation with regards to a gas turbine, I think it is more appropriately applied to an ICE.
A gas turbine is defined as a continuous combustion internal combustion engine while piston and rotary engines are defined as intermittent combustion internal combustion engines. I have heard suck squeeze bang blow applied to both and can't find fault with it. Its how they work.
Unless it is a turboramjet like the J-58 was incorrectly called. Note one big problem with steam power is the weight of the water for aviation applications.
Nearing the end of steam car development they were trapping the exhaust and recondensing and reusing it. Steam engines go through so much water, recycling it would make the weight issue less of an issue. Still I agree steam, as much as I like aspects of it isn't practical for aviation. Howard Hughes had an engineer make him a steam car in anticipation of production for sale. He set a bunch of parameters in terms of range, time required to get a head of pressure etc. so that it could be viable transportation. The guy succeeded and built a prototype. Howard drove it and loved it. He asked some direct questions how various needs were met. Turns out the entire body work was a disguised condenser. Howard saw the danger of that and had the car destroyed. Have a look sometime at the late production Dobles. Quite the automobile.
Jay Leno has several Dobles, I stumbled across a few interesting U-tube video's he did on the car/engine/boiler. I think he said the engine, when starting from a stop, could produce about 1000 lb-ft of torque. It needed to as that car weighted about 4000 lbs.
All this reminds me of an internet detour through automotive subcultures spawned from those crass Chevy window stickers that said "Chevy: Eatin Fords, ****tin Rams" And my submission was: "White Steam Cars: Eatin Dobles, ****tin Stanleys"
In around 1924, the Lima Locomotive Works developed a system like that for steam locomotives that became standard on most of the late-model steamers. They called it "superpower" but I don't really know how it works; all I know is that it was compared to turbocharging on piston engines and afterburning on jet engines, because all three systems re-use exhaust gases in some form. It required a larger firebox, which in turn required four wheels at the back of the locomotive, behind the big drive wheels. The 4-8-4 wheel arrangement, using superpower, was typical of all the late-model fast steam locomotives that pulled the railroads' crack passenger trains until replaced by diesel-electric streamliners. Most of the larger steam locomotives operating on excursion trains today are of this type.
I knew Hughes had a Doble, but I didn't know he tried to build his own car. Bill Lear also tried to build a successful steam car in the late 1960s. The Dobles are simply amazing cars, even today. At one point, I really wanted one-- until I listened to Jay Leno talk about what he has to do to keep his running.