High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Brayton cycle is a thermodynamic cycle that describes the workings of the gas turbine engine, basis of the airbreathing jet engine and others. It is named after George Brayton (1830–1892), the American engineer who developed it, although it was originally proposed and patented by Englishman John Barber in 1791. It is also sometimes known as the Joule cycle. The Ericsson cycle is similar but uses external heat and incorporates the use of a regenerator.