Well, the exact technical term in German is "Verdichter" (which is also how
the compressor stages in a turbojet engine are called).
But that doesn't sound very sexy to the marketing guys, and the sailplane
"turbo" has a another context as already mentioned...

--
Bert Willing

ASW20 "TW"


"Stefan" a écrit dans le message de
...
Bert Willing wrote:

Errr, no. There is even a famous upperclass car manufacturer who uses
the
word "Kompressor" for turbo-charged engines.

Well, to be as correct as I can be:

"Kompressor" is the German word for, you guessed it, a compressor. So to
call a turbo charged engine a Kompressor charged one is, strictly
technically spoken, correct.

Historically, though, the first cars with charged engines had
mechanically driven compressors (driven by the crankshaft). They were
called Kompressor engines.

Then came the charged engines where the compressor was driven by the
exhaust stream. They were called turbo charged engines, just to
distinguish. Technically spoken, the "cold" side of the turbo charger is
a compressor, too, of course. I should be surprised if any marketing
guiy understands this.

Oh, and then came the sailplanes with a sustainer. They are called turbo
sailplanes, to distinguish them from self launchers. It's a crazy world
out there.

Stefan