Abstract
The article deals with the perspectives of the gas bearings use. Several engineering areas were formed where the application of gasfilm lubricated bearings was considered as rational: micro turbines for distributed energy systems, cryogenic engineering, turborefrigerating aggregates and expanders. It is important in two last cases that gases and products to be refrigerated should be not contaminated by oil lubrication. The history of the contactless gas bearings development, the practice of their design, an appropriate classification and the calculation methods are examined. Basic data on typical constructive solutions at the gas bearings design are cited. The advantages of the hybrid gas bearings combining the merit of gasodynamic and gasostatic bearings are examined. It is shown that the application of the hybrid gas bearings allows getting over the main disadvantage of refrigerating machines and expanders equipped with the leaftype and foil gasodynamic bearings that is an insufficient capacity due to a low loadcarrying capacity. Keywords: gasostatic bearing, gasodynamic bearing, hybrid gas bearing, leaftype bearing, gas lubrication