Definition
Airplanes whose engines are not turbine engines — in practice, this means piston-engine airplanes (reciprocating engines), as opposed to turboprops, turbojets, or turbofans. In FAA regulatory and MEL contexts, the term is used to distinguish smaller, simpler aircraft from turbine-powered ones, because some rules and equipment requirements differ between the two categories.
Plain English
Airplanes powered by piston engines rather than jet or turboprop engines. Most training aircraft and small private airplanes fall into this group.
Context Anchor
Seen in FAA rules and handbook discussions about when certain airplanes may be operated with inoperative equipment under specific conditions.
Derivation
A turbine engine uses a spinning bladed wheel (a 'turbine,' from the Latin turbo, meaning a spinning thing) driven by hot expanding gas. 'Non-turbine powered' simply means the airplane's engine works some other way — almost always a piston engine, which produces power by pistons moving up and down inside cylinders, like a car engine.
Why Pilots Care
Some FAA rules, equipment requirements, and MEL provisions apply only to non-turbine powered airplanes, so identifying which category your aircraft falls into determines which rules you must follow.
Intuition Check
Do not read non-turbine powered as unpowered. The airplane still has an engine. Also, do not assume a propeller means non-turbine; a turboprop has a propeller but is turbine-powered.
Example Sentence 1
Most flight training is conducted in non-turbine powered airplanes such as the Cessna 172 or Piper Cherokee.
Example Sentence 2
Before applying the inoperative equipment rules, confirm whether the aircraft is one of the non-turbine powered airplanes covered in this section.