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 October 7, 1947

Importance of the laboratory & strategic plan

Excerpt from guest list - over 100 guests form industry and government agencies attended the opening of GTL in 1947

Prof. Eddie Taylor’s opening speech

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

77 Massachusetts Avenue, 31-264, Cambridge, MA 02139