History of the MIT Gas Turbine Laboratory
The concept of an MIT Gas Turbine Laboratory was formulated not long after the first jet engines were successfully run.
After the end of World War II, Professor J.C. Hunsaker [US aviation pioneer, member of the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, and first MIT Ph.D. in aeronautics (1916)] brought together a group of American industries who donated funds for the construction of a laboratory devoted to jet propulsion.
A plaque commemorating the donations still hangs in the main laboratory (behind the blowdown turbine):
- Curtiss-Wright Corporation
- General Electric Company
- General Machinery Corporation
- United Aircraft Corporation
- United States Navy
- Westinghouse Electric Corporation
Professor E.S. Taylor, first director of the Gas Turbine Laboratory, opened the GTL on October 7, 1947.
Green light from MIT President to hold opening on 10-7-47
Importance of the laboratory & strategic plan
Excerpt from list of guests (110) attending opening of GTL 1947
Eddie Taylor’s opening speech
