Gas turbines are used for power generation with units in a range of sizes. They serve as power plants for both military and commercial aircraft. Demand is for faster, lighter engines, utilizing more advanced manufacturing processes. One of the means of meeting this goal is through use of longer, thinner, more flexible shafts which operate supercritically. Supercritical operation was once viewed as impractical, however, a number of today’s production gas turbines operate in this mode. The shaft manufacturing process is optimal if the shaft balance procedure can be conducted at low speeds, rather than requiring a more expensive and complicated high speed balance process. The objective of the project described in this paper is to develop a systematic process for a low speed balance procedure, which, in conjunction with appropriate damping, would permit a high speed shaft system to transition through additional critical speeds and operate safely above them. The discussion includes research on analytical modeling and analysis of representative shaft systems to determine the optimum locations of the balance planes and outlines an analysis approach for predicting shaft responses.