1956 MA1A Turbine Huffer Cart

**Skip to 12:00 to see it run**

This is a Garret Airesearch MA1A Air Start "Huffer" Cart. It contains a GTC-85-70-A Turbine Unit, which is based off of the GTC-85 series of APUs that are mostly used in older airliners and military aircraft.

The first GTC-85 was designed to be used in the Martin P6M flying boat/bomber. Later on, the GTC-85 series was adapted to be used in all sorts of applications, and became very popular during the Vietnam War.

Although most GTC-85 models were used in aircraft, many were used in air start carts such as the MA1A in this video, and also in electric generators for ground use.

The Turbine unit compresses large amounts of air in order to run, but is also designed to bleed off some of that air and send it to an aircraft via a pressure hose. The air is usually around 40 psi and puts out an amount of about 90 ppm, or enough to start a 737 and many other mid-sized airliners or military aircraft.

Judging by the model and serial number, this unit was most likely made in 1956.