There are 8 countries that can produce jet engines. Some of the leaders of these 8 are the USA, some European countries and Russia.
This is part of a turbine blade on a modern Rolls Royce turbine engine . You’ll notice the channels in the blade. These channels are supposed to help cool the blades to about 1100 degrees F. That’s not the hard part of making turbine blades, though.
You see, turbine blades are actually called ” crystals “, given the grain structure of the metals. In early jet engines, due to the extreme heat and early jet engine knowledge, the metal grain would cause the fan blades to “creep” over time. Essentially, impurities in the type and grain structure of the metal would cause the metal to essentially separate at the molecular level .
To solve this, a special manufacturing process was created to essentially align the grain so that it was actually a crystal. For those who know anything about crystals, as long as a force is applied in the same direction as the grain of a crystal, they are generally very resistant to breakage.
Similarly with a jet engine, the force a fan blade must withstand is generally along one axis – away from the plane of rotation, since centrifugal force is the largest force at play.
Making these crystals is an extremely difficult process and is one of the reasons why so few countries build jet engines. It is without a doubt one of the most difficult things for humanity to do. Yes, it is even comparable to space travel.