36. The method of claim 35 further comprising the step of calculating a closest distance between said at least input vectors and said closest cluster.
35. A method of analyzing a turbine engine to determine a normal engine condition or a faulty engine condition, said method comprising the steps of: inputting data into a self-organizing map from a plurality of reference turbine engines to train said self-organizing map; acquiring a core speed reading, an exhaust gas temperature reading, and a fuel flow reading for the turbine engine under analysis; calculating a core speed residual value, an exhaust gas temperature residual value, and a fuel flow residual value by comparing said core speed reading, said exhaust gas temperature reading, and said fuel flow reading with corresponding standard engine characteristics obtained from an engine model; computing the mean and the standard deviation of each of said core speed residual value, said exhaust gas temperature residual value, and said fuel flow residual value; normalizing each of said core speed residual value, said exhaust gas temperature residual value, and said fuel flow residual value by normalizing said respective means to zero and by normalizing said standard deviation to unity to yield a normalized core speed residual, a normalized exhaust gas temperature residual, and a normalized fuel flow residual, said step of normalizing using normalization factors obtained from a parameter distribution of a normally-operating baseline engine; mapping, via said self-organizing map, said normalized core speed residual, said normalized exhaust gas temperature residual, and said normalized fuel flow residual as respective input vectors into an engine condition space having a plurality of clusters, each said cluster representing either a normal vector engine condition or a faulty vector engine condition; and identifying a closest cluster within said engine condition space, said closest cluster being closer to said input vectors than any other of said plurality of clusters; and, determining a normal engine condition for the engine under analysis if said closest cluster represents a normal vector engine condition, and determining a faulty engine condition for the engine under analysis if said closest cluster represents a faulty vector engine condition.