Without going into details, combustion turbines (i.e., gas turbines, but considering they can operated on fuel oil, propane, natural gas, ....) are designed to operate at a certain range of inlet air mass/pressure - too much or too little air flow and your turbine won't turn over...
(analogy -stand in the airflow of a table fan - if it's turning fast enough, you won't be able to breathe properly... too much air for you to handle, so you have to take it in "gulps; get on a high mountain, where there's lower air pressure ("thin air") and you can't breathe either - you'll welcome that table fan!)
This is one of the reasons you have variable inlets - to control the airflow into your turbine
The air temperature is important - the compressor takes in the inlet air, increases the pressure and by pressurizing it, increases the temperature so that when it goes into the combustion chambers, and fuel is injected and ignited, a more efficient combustion takes place...more *work* is generated to turn the turbine blades which turn the compressor.....
In a pure tubojet engine, the thrust provided by the exhausted gases (the jets) provides all the force.
In high bypass engines, the "fans" up front provide most of the "thrust"
You can generalize up to a certain point - all combustion turbines "suck, squeeze, bang, and blow" - its the how they do it that drives engineers nuts...(who have to start with)
Which would cool the air enough that it couldnt cause thrust right? I should know this, but I don't.
-Brad
