Systems and methods for optimized gas turbine shutdown

The present application and the resultant patent provide a gas turbine engine (100). The gas turbine engine (100) may include a compressor (110) for compressing a flow of air (120), a combustor (130) for combusting the flow of air (120) and a flow of fuel (140)to create a flow of combustion gases (150), a turbine (160) driven by the flow of combustion gases (150), a rotor (180) driven by the turbine and driving the compressor (110), a rotor speed sensor, (220) and a gas turbine shut down controller. The gas turbine shut down controller varies the flow of fuel (140) to the combustor (130) based upon a rotational speed of the rotor (180) as determined by a dynamic target trajectory schedule.