Matt Barrow wrote:
"Jay Beckman" wrote in message
news:08tsf.9585$xF6.1071@fed1read01...

... had a front row seat (actully it was an exit row window seat...) for a
compressor stall on an America West Airbus while departing Detroit enroute
home to Phoenix.

Just after liftoff we heard/felt a moderate "bang" and I glimsed some
flame out the back of the left engine just about the time the gear was in
transit. Captain came on the I/C and said it was due to wake turbulence
from the Northwest Airlines aircraft that departed ahead of us.


Jet engines do sort of have the suck/squeeze/bang/blow but it's all a
continuous action. Check out the link below for a slightly more
detailed view. Compressor stalls can be nasty as pressurized combustion
gasses going the wrong way can in some instances damage the engine.

I don't think it's so much of an over rich mixture causing the problem
as it is the flames going the wrong way or burning in such a way that
they aren't producing a lot of air pressure to spin the turbine at the
outlet end of the engine.

http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/air...bpar/ente.html