The main gas path temperature, exiting the combustor, is at least 2500 F and would quickly burn the turbine airfoils down to the roots, were it not for the cooling airflow in internal passages in the airfoils.
BUT - The air temperature leaving the HP compressor is already over 1200 F - and this is the "cooling" (heh...) airflow that is routed through those turbine airfoil internal passages.
(Note - these temps are from memory on engines a generation ago. You can boost them by another hundred degrees or so today)
>>>>>>>>>
from: "The Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Story":
"Actually, Mr. Parkins, you people simply are trying to contain and control fire, aren't you?"
"Yes... and that's simply all the devil has to do in hell, too, as I understand it."
