A rotor drive apparatus includes a rotor and a stator. The stator has a gas injection orifice located on the axis about which the rotor spins. The gas injection orifice communicates with a bearing gap formed between a tapered surface of the rotor and an axially spaced tapered surface of the stator. A gas is flowed from the gas injection orifice through the bearing gap, thereby establishing a center-fed, radial-outflow gas bearing supporting the rotor during rotation. In one implementation, a separate flow of drive gas is fed to drive flutes of the rotor to drive rotation. In another implementation, the center-fed, radial-outflow gas flow is additionally utilized to impinge against the drive flutes to actuate the rotation.