Gas turbine engine combustor

A gas turbine engine annular combustor including a bulkhead at its upstream end, said bulkhead having a plurality of apertures therein, each aperture being adapted to receive a fuel burner, the longitudinal axes of said apertures all lying on a virtual surface if rotation, the axis of which is coaxial with the longitudinal axis of said combustor, and a plurality of heat shields located on the downstream face of said bulkhead so as to provide thermal shielding thereof, each heat shield being associated with a corresponding one of said fuel burner apertures and having a corresponding fuel burner aperture therein, means being provided to space apart each of said heat shields and said bulkhead so that corresponding chambers are defined therebetween, each said heat shield having an outer and an inner periphery, said bulkhead having a plurality of further apertures adjacent said outer peripheries of each said heat shield for the direction therethrough of cooling air into said chambers at positions adjacent said outer peripheries of each of said heat shields, means being provided to subdivide each of said chambers so that a portion of said cooling air directed into each chamber flows generally towards a plane extending parallel to and containing both the longitudinal axis of its associated fuel burner aperture and the longitudinal axis of said combustor, and the remainder flows generally toward said virtual surface, means being provided adjacent said inner peripheries to subsequently exhaust said cooling air from each of said chambers.