A small scale gas turbine jet engine is analyzed in this study. To understand the performance of the jet engine, experiments are conducted at four different load types (idle, part load one, part load two and full load). According to the load types, the energy and exergy flows of the engine components and the overall jet engine are investigated. Parameters such as specific fuel consumption, fuel exergy depletion, relative exergy consumption and exergetic improvement potential rate are studied to compare the effects of four load types. Exergy efficiencies and exergy destructions are calculated to explain the thermodynamic inefficiencies. The effect of the load type on the exergy efficiency is analyzed for the components and jet engine itself. At the idle and the part load one cases, the maximum exergy efficiencies took place in the gas turbine as 67.8% and 79.4% respectively. For the part load two and the full load cases, the maximum exergy efficiencies are calculated in the combustion chamber as 81% and 80.6% respectively. The maximum exergy destructions took place in the combustion chamber for all of the load types. They were found to be 35 kW, 40.3 kW, 36.6 kW and 47.9 kW. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.