they are not driving an axle or anything... are they? They sure are, just not in the way internal combustion engines do. A turbofan is a turbine hooked up to a

they are not driving an axle or anything... are they? They sure are, just not in the way internal combustion engines do. A turbofan is a turbine hooked up to a fan. The turbine does work by rotating a shaft, and the fan pushes extra air around it. All engines have the potential to be maintenance / reliability nightmares. Over time we've learned how to make engines more efficient and more complex without failing often. This is just the next step - in a couple of decades, most passenger jets will have gearboxes.