In his talk Graham Pay (Commander, Royal Navy Retd) will discuss the evolution of the gas turbine from its early beginnings in the 1940s with Frank Whittle’s designs up to the latest generation of big turbofans typified by the Rolls Royce Trent XWB which is installed on the Airbus 350. The talk will focus on the gas turbine in powering military and civil aircraft but will also touch on the use of gas turbines in electrical power generation (as in Guernsey). Graham Pay enjoyed a 25 year career as an Air Engineer Officer in the Fleet Air Arm with operational tours of duty on various Royal Navy ships. During his naval career he was appointed to the UK’s National Gas Turbine Establishment (NGTE) at Pyestock near Farnborough where he was involved in gas turbine R & D for over two years.