The Thunderbird's engines are relatively small, axial-flow turbojets, and they are somewhat crude in nature. The interior of the turbojet becomes extremely hot, necessitating high-temperature alloys, but failure of the turbine and even compressor blades has led to a design where they are relatively small, with large combustion chambers which burn lean in the middle, excess air is used for cooling. The high-temperature materials could probably stand to be improved. The two engines burn kerosene, and lots of it, and they sit in nacelles under the wings which are thickest in the middle, giving a sort of egg shape
Normal: 3
aT-J03: Subtle tweaks to the amount of metals in the alloy used for critical components of the aT-J01 jet engine, and a special forging process, have allowed higher rotational speeds and larger turbine and compressor blades. The improved engine is still small, but a single unit can provide as much thrust as the engine used in the Haast, while being lighter.
Hum, so the high temperature metals are a problem, though partially solved.
aTJ04
In an attempt to improve the ease of production of the engine, while also improving it's capabilities, Artotzkan metallurgists were brought on board the jet engine design project. They immediately suggests a series of significant improvements.
First, they note that Titanium will oxidize in high temperature environments. This results in significant brittleness and eventual violent disintegration of the engine. As such, they endeavor to reduce Titanium use within the engine to a minimum, making it both more reliable and more performant, as well as reducing titanium use. Other alloys, primarily aluminum and titanium based alloys, are used instead.
The compressor blades are left as they were, made primarily of titanium. In the engine inlets, temperatures are always sufficiently low that oxidation is not a problem, and titanium's strength and low weight are great advantages here.
The hot parts are replaced with a ferretic heat resistant steel aluminum alloy, which should dramatically improve engine life expectancy. The previous alloy suffered from severe oxidation problems, as well as creep and other sudden failures.
The Turbine blades with replaced with Chromadur. This steel-Chrome-Maganese alloy provides sufficient resistance at affordable price, once again allowing greater performance. It's also easier to produce, if more resource intensive.
Design goal :
1 . Remove complex Tag
2 . Increase Engine performance
3 . Increase expense by 1 Maganese, 1 Aluminum (on a twin engine fighter) to make previous changes easier
Basically, this brings our engine metallurgy up to late Nazi-era levels. While this by no means or indication good, it should be much better than what we're currently capable of. And most importantly, the Cannalan's don't have the resources to match.