Jet engines are notoriously thirsty at ground-level and I used to marvel at how the APU (which provides ground services to an airliner prior start) required a tenth of the fuel in the cruise that it did prior departure.
Accordingly this motor will allow airliners to taxi prior take-off or after landing with engines shut down. It was an issue at Heathrow ~ then the world's busiest ~ where we'd sit in line for upto forty minutes prior departure.
That's the good news. The maybe-less-so is that the Oxford academic who invented these axial-flow motors sold the company to Mercedes, not least because these things can turn out 1,000HP quite happily.
Ed. Bear in mind Germany does invest in manufacture and has the funds to do so, whereas in the UK we prefer property or gambling.
