History of the Jet Engine - Who Invented the Jet Engine? By Mary Bellis Updated August 29, 2016. Dr. Hans von Ohain and Sir Frank Whittle are both recognized as being the co-inventors of the jet engine. However, each worked separately and knew nothing of the other's work. Hans von Ohain is considered the designer of the first operational turbojet engine while Frank Whittle was the first to register a patent for the turbojet engine in 1930. Though Hans von Ohain was granted a patent for his turbojet engine in 1936, it was Ohain's jet that was the first to fly in 1939. It was't until 1941 that Whittle's jet first flew. Sir Frank Whittle was an English aviation engineer and pilot. The son of a mechanic, Frank Whittle joined the Royal Air Force as an apprentice. He joined a fighter squadron in 1928 and became a test pilot in 1931. The young officer was only 22 when he first thought to use a gas turbine engine to power an airplane.

While often regarded as the father of modern jet propulsion systems, Whittle tried unsuccessfully to obtain official support for study and development of his ideas. continue reading below our video Profile of the Wright Brothers He had to pursue his research on his own initiative and received his first patent on turbojet propulsion in January 1930. With private financial support, he began construction of his first engine in 1935. This engine, which had a single-stage centrifugal compressor coupled to a single-stage turbine, was successfully bench tested in April 1937. It was only a laboratory test rig that was never intended for use in an aircraft, but it did demonstrate the feasibility of the turbojet concept. The modern turbojet engine used today in many British and American aircraft is based on the prototype that Whittle invented. Whittle was associated with the firm Power Jets Ltd., which received a contract for a Whittle engine known as the W1 on July 7, 1939. This engine was intended to power a small experimental aircraft. In February of 1940, the Gloster Aircraft Company was chosen to develop the aircraft to be powered by the W1 engine known as the Pioneer.

The historic first flight of the Pioneer took place on May 15, 1941, with Flight Lieutenant P. E. G. Sayer as pilot. Born: June 1, 1907, Coventry, Warwickshire, England Died: Aug. 8, 1996, Columbia, Md., U.S. Doctor Hans Von Ohain was a German airplane designer who invented an operational jet engine. Hans Von Ohain obtained his doctorate in Physics at the University of Göttingen in Germany and then became the junior assistant to Hugo Von Pohl, director of the Physical Institute at the University. German aircraft builder Ernst Heinkel asked the university for assistance in new airplane propulsion designs and Pohl recommended his star pupil. At the time, Von Ohain was investigating a new type of aircraft engine that did not require a propeller. Only twenty-two years old when he first conceived the idea of a continuous cycle combustion engine in 1933, Von Ohain patented a jet propulsion engine design in 1934 that was similar in concept to that of Sir Frank Whittle but different in internal arrangement.

Von Ohain joined Ernst Heinkel in 1936 and continued with the development of his jet propulsion concepts. He successfully bench tested of one of his engines in September 1937 and a small aircraft was designed and constructed by Ernst Heinkel to serve as a test bed for a new type of propulsion system known as the Heinkel He178. The Heinkel He178 flew for the first time on August 27, 1939. The pilot on this historic first flight of a jet-powered airplane was Flight Captain Erich Warsitz. Von Ohain developed a second improved jet engine know as the He S.8A, which was first flown on April 2, 1941. Born: Dec. 14, 1911 , Dessau, Germany Died: March 13, 1998, Melbourne, Fla., U.S. Invention: Jet Engine Jet Engine The jet engine was invented by a couple of engineers, Sir Frank Whittle who was a Royal Air Force Pilot and Hans von Ohain who developed the turbojet engine in the 1930s.

In 1791, a patent was filed by John Barber in England for his stationary turbine. The first gas turbine was built in 1903 by Norwegian engineer, Aegidius Elling. Due to limitations in design and and some metals that were not yet discovered prevented such engines from reaching the manufacturing stage. Invention of the Jet Engine. Date of Invention. Sir Frank Whittle who was a Royal Air Force Pilot and Hans von Ohain who developed the turbo jet engine in the 1930s. History of the Jet Engine Jet engines can be dated back to the first century AD when the aeolipile was invented. Hans von Ohain's jet engine got patented in 1936 and flew in 1939.He later developed the axial flow engine, which is now the standard for gas turbine engines. While, Whittle got his patent for the jet engine in 1930, his jet flew later than Ohain's in the year 1941. His engine featured a multistage compressor, a combustion chamber, a single stage turbine and a nozzle .

The jet engines were received a lot of funding during the World War II and the coldwar and major advancements took place in the engine during these times. Working of the gas turbine engine Rockets work on the same principle as jet engines except that they do not require atmospheric oxygen as they carry all their propellants unlike jet engine which uses the atmospheric oxygen and cannot be used in space. Airplane moves through air when thrust is produced by a propulsion system. The early gas turbine engines worked similar to the rocket engine by creating a hot exhaust gas which was passed through a nozzle to produce thrust. The modern passenger and military planes are powered by gas turbine engines, or jet engines. Jet engines come in a variety of shapes and sizes but all jet engines have certain parts in common. A gas turbine engine has a burner, compressor and a turbine. These three together are called the core of the engine. At the front of the engine, on the left hand side is the inlet. At the exit of the inlet is the compressor. The compressor is connected by a shaft to the turbine. The compressor and the turbine are composed of many rows of small air foil shaped blades.

Some rows are connected to the inner shaft and rotate at high speed called the spinning rotors, while other rows called rotors, remain stationary. The shaft, compressor and turbine together make the turbo machinery. Between the compressor and the turbine flow path is the burner. In the burner the fuel and air are mixed and burned. The hot exhaust then passes through the turbine and out through the nozzle . The nozzle performs two tasks. One to to accelerate the hot exhaust gas so as to produce thrust. And the second, nozzle sets the mass flow through the engine. Depending on the requirements of the plane, they are fitted with different types of jet engines. After Burners: Fighter jets need to fly at supersonic speed to escape their enemies. So need a lot of thrust to propel them against air drag.These jets are provided with an afterburner jet to increase its thrust. In a basic jet some of the energy from the exhaust is used to turn the turbine. The afterburner is used to put fuel back into the hot exhuast. What this does is create more thrust for the fighter. That means it also increases the temperature of the exhaust and the flow area of the nozzle has to be increased to letthe same amount of mass flow.

Afterburners are much more complex in design and used only in fighters and supersonic planes such as the Concorde. Turbofans: Most modern airliners use turbofan engines because of their high thrust and good fuel efficiency.The incoming air is captured by the engine inlet. While some of the incoming air, passes through the fan and continues into the core compressor and the burner, the hot exhaust passes through the core, fan turbines and out the nozzle . This airflow is called the core airflow. The rest of the incoming air passes through the fan goes around the engine, and is called the fan flow. A turbofan therefore gets some of its thrust from both the core flow and fan flow. The fuel flow rate is not changed very much and so the turbofan provides more thrust for almost the same amount of fuel.They have a high bypass ratio and are very fuel efficient. This is why turbofans are used on high speed transport. Turboprops: The turboprop engine has a core and a propeller. The core is the similar to the basic jet engine. But the exhaust from the nozzle is used here to turn the turbines instead of providing thrust.

Here there is an additional turbine which is connected to the drive shaft and the drive shaft in turn to the gear box. The gear box is connected to the propeller which provides the thrust. The exhaust velocity of turboprops is low as little thrust is produced and most of the core exhaust is used in turning the drive shaft. They become less efficient when used in high speed and so are used in low speed cargo carriers. Turboshaft engine: In the turbo shaft engine the drive shaft is not connected to a gear box like in the turboprop but to another driver device. They are mostly used in helicopters and tanks. They are also the Ram jet engines, Scram jet engine, Propfan engines. Applications and uses of Jet Engines Jet engines are used in almost all of the aicrafts flying today. Jet engines are also used in missiles, and unmanned aerial vehicles. Used in high speed cars,industrial gas turbines to generate electricity . jet engines provide propulsions in ships . Link Keywords: The Jet Engine - History Learning Site The Jet Engine Citation: C N Trueman "The Jet Engine" historylearningsite.co.uk. The History Learning Site, 17 Mar 2015.

16 Aug 2016. The Jet Engine Sir Frank Whittle’s jet engine transformed travel. The jet engine has allowed millions of people now to do something that was barely thinkable just 70 years ago – crossing the Atlantic at speed. The Wright’s may have invented the first real aeroplane, but the credit for the invention of the jet engine goes to Sir Frank Whittle. In the 1920’s, a young RAF man, Frank Whittle, had presented to the Air Ministry a design for a jet engine. They were unimpressed and rejected his idea. Regardless of this set-back, Whittle still patented his “turbojet engine” in 1930. His design appeared to solve the problem that had baffled inventors for some years – how do you create a chamber strong enough to house an engine that would create a lot of heat and vast directed thrust ? Many combustion chambers had simply been too weak to cope and had exploded under the strain.

Whittle’s engine had ten combustion chambers which produced impressive thrust : rather than having just one large chamber which would produce a volatile and potentially uncontrollable reaction, his engine effectively divided up the combustion created into the ten chambers but still did not decrease the power of the engines. Increasing fears about problems in Europe, lead to the government having second thoughts about Whittle’s jet engine. In 1936, he went to Cambridge University, but he left and set up a company called Power Jets Ltd. In 1937, using newly available alloys that were strong and light, he produced the first viable jet engine to be successfully tested in a laboratory. Now it had to be put onto a plane and the respective safety measures taken – as with all new planes. Sir Frank Whittle in front of one of his jet engines In 1941, a new jet fighter-prototype flew. Its successor, the Gloster Meteor, entered service with the RAF in 1944. However, the Gloster Meteor was not the first jet fighter. This claim goes to the Heinkel He 178 which first flew on August 24th 1939 – just days before World War Two started.

When the war finished, it seemed a logical move to apply this new invention to passenger planes. Journeys became quicker and the more powerful jet engine allowed passenger planes to get bigger so that more people could be carried on them. The first proper jet engined passenger airliner is considered to be the De Haviland Comet. This came into operation in a blaze of publicity. Within two years, it was withdrawn from service after a series of tragic accidents which killed many. This, however, was not due to its jet engines but to a fault in its fuselage which lead to the pane breaking up in flight. Boeing then took over the lead in jet-powered airliners. The Boeing 707 entered service in 1958. It was safe and allowed people to travel distances at speeds that would had been impossible just 10 years earlier. Whittle’s invention has transformed the world. History of the Jet Engine - Who Invented the Jet Engine? By Mary Bellis Updated August 29, 2016. Dr. Hans von Ohain and Sir Frank Whittle are both recognized as being the co-inventors of the jet engine. However, each worked separately and knew nothing of the other's work.

Hans von Ohain is considered the designer of the first operational turbojet engine while Frank Whittle was the first to register a patent for the turbojet engine in 1930. Though Hans von Ohain was granted a patent for his turbojet engine in 1936, it was Ohain's jet that was the first to fly in 1939. It was't until 1941 that Whittle's jet first flew. Sir Frank Whittle was an English aviation engineer and pilot. The son of a mechanic, Frank Whittle joined the Royal Air Force as an apprentice. He joined a fighter squadron in 1928 and became a test pilot in 1931. The young officer was only 22 when he first thought to use a gas turbine engine to power an airplane. While often regarded as the father of modern jet propulsion systems, Whittle tried unsuccessfully to obtain official support for study and development of his ideas. continue reading below our video Profile of the Wright Brothers He had to pursue his research on his own initiative and received his first patent on turbojet propulsion in January 1930. With private financial support, he began construction of his first engine in 1935.

This engine, which had a single-stage centrifugal compressor coupled to a single-stage turbine, was successfully bench tested in April 1937. It was only a laboratory test rig that was never intended for use in an aircraft, but it did demonstrate the feasibility of the turbojet concept. The modern turbojet engine used today in many British and American aircraft is based on the prototype that Whittle invented. Whittle was associated with the firm Power Jets Ltd., which received a contract for a Whittle engine known as the W1 on July 7, 1939. This engine was intended to power a small experimental aircraft. In February of 1940, the Gloster Aircraft Company was chosen to develop the aircraft to be powered by the W1 engine known as the Pioneer. The historic first flight of the Pioneer took place on May 15, 1941, with Flight Lieutenant P. E. G. Sayer as pilot. Born: June 1, 1907, Coventry, Warwickshire, England Died: Aug. 8, 1996, Columbia, Md., U.S. Doctor Hans Von Ohain was a German airplane designer who invented an operational jet engine.

Hans Von Ohain obtained his doctorate in Physics at the University of Göttingen in Germany and then became the junior assistant to Hugo Von Pohl, director of the Physical Institute at the University. German aircraft builder Ernst Heinkel asked the university for assistance in new airplane propulsion designs and Pohl recommended his star pupil. At the time, Von Ohain was investigating a new type of aircraft engine that did not require a propeller. Only twenty-two years old when he first conceived the idea of a continuous cycle combustion engine in 1933, Von Ohain patented a jet propulsion engine design in 1934 that was similar in concept to that of Sir Frank Whittle but different in internal arrangement. Von Ohain joined Ernst Heinkel in 1936 and continued with the development of his jet propulsion concepts. He successfully bench tested of one of his engines in September 1937 and a small aircraft was designed and constructed by Ernst Heinkel to serve as a test bed for a new type of propulsion system known as the Heinkel He178. The Heinkel He178 flew for the first time on August 27, 1939.

The pilot on this historic first flight of a jet-powered airplane was Flight Captain Erich Warsitz. Von Ohain developed a second improved jet engine know as the He S.8A, which was first flown on April 2, 1941. Born: Dec. 14, 1911 , Dessau, Germany Died: March 13, 1998, Melbourne, Fla., U.S. Jet Engines Jet Planes and World War II The Development of Jet Engines During The War Before World War II, in 1939, jet engines primarily existed in labs. The end of the war, however, illustrated that jet engines, with their great power and compactness, were at the forefront of aviation development. A young German physicist, Hans von Ohain, worked for Ernst Heinkel, specializing in advanced engines, to develop the world's first jet plane, the experimental Heinkel He 178. It first flew on August 27, 1939. Building on this advancement, German engine designer Anselm Franz developed an engine suitable for use in a jet fighter. This airplane, the Me 262, was built by Messerschmitt.

Though the only jet fighter to fly in combat during World War II, the Me 262 spent a significant amount of time on the ground due to its high consumption of fuel. It was often described as a sitting duck for Allied attacks. Meanwhile, in England, Frank Whittle invented a jet engine completely on his own. The British thus developed a successful engine for another early jet fighterthe Gloster Meteor. Britain used it for homeland defense but, due to lack of speed, it was not used to combat over Germany. The British shared Whittle's technology with the U.S., allowing General Electric (GE) to build jet engines for America's first jet fighter, the Bell XP-59. The British continued to develop new jet engines from Whittle's designs, with Rolls-Royce initiating work on the Nene engine during 1944. The company sold Nenes to the Sovietsa Soviet version of the engine, in fact, powered the MiG-15 jet fighter that later fought U.S. fighters and bombers during the Korean War. The 1945 surrender of Germany revealed substantial wartime discoveries and inventions.

General Electric and Pratt & Whitney, another American engine-builder, added German lessons to those of Whittle and other British designers. Early jet engines, such as those of the Me 262, gulped fuel rapidly. Thus, an initial challenge was posed: to build an engine that could provide high thrust with less fuel consumption. Pratt & Whitney resolved this dilemma in 1948 by combining two engines into one. The engine included two compressors; each rotated independently, the inner one giving high compression for good performance. Each compressor drew power from its own turbine; hence there were two turbines, one behind the other. This approach led to the J-57 engine. Commercial airlinersthe Boeing 707, the Douglas DC-8flew with it. One of the prominent postwar engines, it entered service with the U.S. Air Force in 1953. The Man Behind The Engine Hans von Ohain Hans von Ohain of Germany was the designer of the first operational jet engine, though credit for the invention of the jet engine went to Great Britain's Frank Whittle.

Whittle, who registered a patent for the turbojet engine in 1930, received that recognition but did not perform a flight test until 1941. Ohain was born December 14, 1911, in Dessau, Germany. While pursuing doctorate work at the University of Gottingen, he forumulated his theory of jet propulsion in 1933. After receiving his degree in 1935, he became a junior assistant to Robert Wichard Pohl, director of the university's Physical Institute. Granted a patent for his turbojet engine in 1936, Ohain joined the Heinkel Company in Rostock, Germany. By 1937 he had built a factory-tested demonstration engine and, by 1939, a fully operational jet aircraft, the He 178. Soon after, Ohain directed the construction of the He S.3B, the first fully operational centrifugal-flow turbojet engine. This engine was installed in the He 178 airplane, which made the world's first jet-powered aircraft flight on August 27, 1939.

Ohain developed an improved engine, the He S.8A, which was first flown on April 2, 1941. This engine design, however, was less efficient than one designed by Anselm Franz, which powered the Me 262, the first operational jet fighter aircraft. Ohain came to the United States in 1947 and became a research scientist at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base,the Aerospace Research Laboratories, Wright's Aero Propulsion Laboratory, and the University of Dayton Research Institute. During his 32 years of U.S. government service, Ohain published more than 30 technical papers and registered 19 U.S. patents. In 1991 Ohain was honored by the U.S. National Academy of Engineering with the Charles Stark Draper Prize as a pioneer of the jet age. Ohain died on March 13, 1998, at his home in Melbourne, Florida. The Heinkel He 178 was the world's first jet plane. 16-03-2004 FRANK WHITTLE INVENTOR OF THE JET ENGINE SUMMARY Sir Frank J.

Whittle - Pioneer Developer Of Turbo-jet Aircraft Engines Sir Frank J. Whittle experimented with and constructed turbo-jet engines in pre- World War II England. In 1929 he patented a turbo-jet engine and in 1937 proved to skeptical British Air Ministry officials that a jet powered aircraft was feasible. In 1941, a Gloster E28/39 research aircraft was fitted with a Whittle "W.1" engine that produced 800 pounds of thrust. The aircraft reached 466 miles per hour and climbed to 42,000 feet, exceeding all speed and altitude limitations of that period. The success of the Whittle "W.1" turbine engine propelled England into the jet age. Whittle's formal training was in mechanical engineering. During the war he rose to the rank of air commodore in the Royal Air Force and served as technical advisor to the Ministry of Supply. He retired from the RAF in 1948 and in the same year was knighted because of his contributions. He was later awarded the United States Legion of Merit and the Royal Aeronautical Society gold medal.

EARLY LIFE Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, OM, KBE (1 June 1907ï¿½9 August 1996) was a Royal Air Force officer who invented the jet engine. Due to funding and manufacturing problems, and a lack of forsight on the part of the British Government in keeping sensitive patents secret, Hans von Ohain of Germany was able to beat him to production models, but Whittle's work and tireless efforts to produce his designs given official lack of interest are legendary. By the end of the war, Whittle's efforts and Britain's superior high-temperature alloys resulted in engines that led the world in performance for the next decade. Whittle and Ohain met after the war, and initially Whittle was angry with him as he felt Ohain had stolen his ideas. Ohain eventually convinced him that his work was truly independent, and after that point the two became good friends. Whittle was born in Earlsdon, Coventry, England on June 1, 1907, the son of a mechanic. He left Leamington College in 1923 to join the RAF .

Through his early days as an Aircraft apprentice (first at RAF Cranwell but latterly at RAF Halton) he maintained his interest in the Model Aircraft Society where he built replicas, the quality of which attracted the eye of his commanding officer, who also felt that Whittle was a mathematical genius. He was so impressed that he recommended Whittle for the Officer Training College at Cranwell in Lincolnshire in 1926, a rarity for a "commoner" in what was still a very class-based military structure. For Whittle this was the chance of a lifetime, not only to enter the officer's corps, but also because the training included flying lessons. Of the few apprentices that were accepted, only about one percent completed the course. Whittle was the exception to the rule, graduating in 1928 at the age of 21, ranked second in his class in academics and an "Exceptional to Above Average" pilot. Another requirement of the course was that each student had to produce a thesis for graduation. Whittle decided to write his thesis on future developments in aircraft design, notably high-speed flight at high altitudes and speeds over 500 mph (800 km/h ).

He showed that incremental improvements in existing propeller engines were unlikely to make such flight routine. Instead he described what is today referred to as a motorjet, a motor using a conventional piston engine to provide compressed air to a combustion chamber whose exhaust was used directly for thrust ï¿½ essentially an afterburner attached to a propeller engine. The design was not a new one, it had been talked about for some time in the industry, but Whittle's interest was to demonstrate that at increased altitudes the lower outside air pressure would increase its efficiency. For long-range flight, using an Atlantic-crossing mailplane as his example, the engine would spend most of its time at high altitude and thus could outperform a conventional powerplant. JET ENGINE DEVELOPMENT Whittle continued working on the motorjet principle after his thesis work, and eventually abandoned it when further calculations showed it would weigh as much as a conventional engine of the same thrust. But as he later described, while thinking about the idea he thought "Why not substitute a turbine for the piston engine?" Instead of using a piston engine to provide the compressed air for the burner, a turbine could be used to extract some power from the exhaust and power an actual compressor, like those used for superchargers.

The leftover exhaust thrust would power the aircraft. In July 1926, A. A. Griffith published a paper on compressors and turbines, which he had been studying at the RAE. He showed that such designs up to this point had been flying "stalled", and that by making the compressor blades into an aerofoil shape, their efficiency could be dramatically improved. The paper went on to describe how the increased efficiency of these sorts of compressors and turbines would allow a jet engine to be produced, although he felt the idea was impractical and instead suggested using the power as a turboprop. At the time most superchargers used a centrifugal compressor, so there was limited interest in the paper. Whittle sent his new idea to the Air Ministry to see if there would be any interest. With little knowledge of the topic they turned to the only other person who had written on the subject, and passed the paper on to Griffith. Griffith appears to have been convinced that Whittle's "simple" design could never achieve the sorts of efficiencies needed for a practical engine.

After pointing out an error in one of Whittle's calculations, he went on to comment that the centrifugal design would be too large for aircraft use, and that using the jet directly for power would be rather inefficient. The RAF returned comment to Whittle, where they referred to the design as "impracticable." Others in the RAF were not so sure, and in particular Johnny Johnson convinced him to patent the idea in January 1930. Since the RAF was not interested in the concept they did not declare it secret, which meant that Whittle was able to retain the rights to the idea, which would have otherwise been the property of the RAF. This rejection would later turn out to be a stroke of luck. Meanwhile Whittle moved onto the Officers' Engineering Course at RAF Henlow, Bedfordshire in 1932, and then to Peterhouse, Cambridge in 1934, graduating in 1936 with a First in the Mechanical Sciences Tripos. POWER JETS Whittle's jet engine patent lapsed in 1935 because he could not afford the renewal fee of ï¿½5.

But soon after this he was approached by two ex-RAF men, Rolf Dudley-Williams and J. Tinling, who wanted to expand the development of his engine. The three incorporated as Power Jets Ltd. in 1936 with a bank loan of ï¿½2,000. Work was started on an experimental engine at a factory in Rugby, Warwickshire belonging to British Thomson-Houston, a steam turbine company. The RAF still saw no value in the effort, but although Whittle was still a pilot they placed him on the Special Duty List and agreed to allow him to work on the design as long as it took no more than six hours a week. Funding development of the first engine, known as the WU (Whittle Unit) was a serious problem. Although privately funded, most potential investors shied from a project that appeared to be semi-secret yet had no RAF backing. Something seemed to be amiss; if the project was going to work, why didn't the RAE fund it?

Once again it seemed not everyone was so unconvinced of Whittle's ideas, and in October 1936 Henry Tizard, the rector of Imperial College London and chairman of the Aeronautical Research Committee, sent details of Whittle's engine to Griffiths once again. Griffiths had by this time started construction of his own design; perhaps in order to avoid tainting his own efforts, he returned a much more positive review. He remained highly critical of some features, seemingly ignoring the fact that its performance at high speed and altitude was the crucial aspect of the programme. Even with these problems Power Jets were able to complete the WU, which ran successfully on April 12, 1937. Tizard pronounced it "streets ahead" of any other advanced engine he had seen, and managed to interest the Air Ministry enough to fund development with a contract for ï¿½6,000 to develop a flyable version. Nevertheless it was a year before all of the funds were available, greatly delaying development. Meanwhile testing continued with the WU, which showed an alarming tendency to race out of control.

Due to the dangerous nature of the work being carried out, in 1938 development was largely moved from Rugby to the BTH's semi-disused Ladywood foundry at nearby Lutterworth in Leicestershire. There was a successful run of the WU there in March 1938. Although the potential of the engine was obvious, the Air Ministry remained focused on the practical issues of gearing up production of existing piston engine designs. All of these delays and the lack of funding had seriously delayed the project. In Germany , Hans von Ohain had started work on a prototype in 1935 and had already passed the prototype stage and was building the first flyable design, the Heinkel HeS 3. There is little reason to believe that Whittle's efforts would not have been at the same level or even more advanced had the Air Ministry taken a greater interest in the design. When the war started in September 1939, Power Jets had a payroll of only 10, and Griffith's efforts at the RAE and Metropolitan Vickers were similarly small. The stress of the continual on-again-off-again development, and problems with the engine itself, had a serious toll on Whittle.

He suffered from stress-related ailments such as eczema and heart palpitations, while his weight dropped to 126 pounds (57 kg). In order to keep to his sixteen-hour workdays, he sniffed Benzedrine during the day, and then took tranquilizers and sleeping pills at night to offset the effects and allow him to sleep. Over this period he became irritable, and developed an "explosive" temper. Following the outbreak of World War II the Air Ministry changed priorities and once again looked at the various advanced projects underway. By 1939, Power Jets could barely afford to keep the lights on when yet another visit was made by Air Ministry personnel. This time Whittle was able to run the WU at high power for 20 minutes without any difficulty. One of the members of the team was the Director of Scientific Research, H. E. Wimperis, who walked out of the demonstration utterly convinced of the importance of the project. A contract for full-scale development was immediately sent to Power Jets, along with a number of tenders to various companies to set up production lines for up to 3,000 engines a month in 1942.

Power Jets had no real manufacturing capability, so the Air Ministry offered shared production and development contracts to BTH, Vauxhall and Rover . However, the contract was eventually taken up by Rover only. They also sent out a contract for a simple airframe to carry the engine, which was quickly taken up by Gloster. Whittle had already studied the problem of turning the massive WU into a flyable design, and with the new contract work started in earnest on the "Whittle Supercharger Type W.1." However, Rover was unable to deliver the W.1 production engine before Gloster's experimental airframe was ready. Whittle then cobbled together an engine built from various test parts and called it the W.1X, which ran for the first time on December 14, 1940. This engine powered the Gloster E.28/39 for taxi testing when it took to the air for a short hop on April 7, 1941. Archive film of the early secret E.28 tests still exists. It illustrates the vivid memories of ordinary folk living nearby who were interviewed by the BBC a decade later.

They recall their amazement that an aeroplane could fly with no propellers and the questions is raised in local pubs at the time: how could it possibly work? Did the mystery aircraft somehow suck itself through the air like a supercharged vacuum cleaner? It was difficult for laypeople still used to conventional aircraft to imagine that jet propulsion could work in practice. The "full" W.1 of 3.8 kN (850 lbf) thrust ran on April 12, 1941, and on May 15, 1941 the W.1-powered E.28/39 took off from Cranwell at 7.40 pm, flying for seventeen minutes and reaching a maximum speed of around 545 km/h (340 mph). Within days it was reaching 600 km/h (370 mph) at 7600 meters, exceeding the performance of the contemporary Spitfires , astounding considering this was the very first such engine. Success of the design was now evident to all, and nearly every engine company in England started their own crash efforts to catch up with Power Jets.

The W2/700 engine flew in the Gloster E.28/39, the first British aircraft to fly with a turbojet engine, and the Gloster Meteor A newer design known as the W.2 was then started. Like the W.1 it featured a "reverse flow" design of the burners, in which the heated air from the flame cans was piped back towards the front of the engine before entering the turbine area. This allowed the engine to be "folded", with the flame cans lying around the turbine area, and therefore making for a shorter engine. Power Jets also spent some time in May 1940 drawing up the W.2Y, a similar design with a "straight through" airflow that resulted in a longer engine and (more critically) driveshaft, but with a somewhat simpler layout. In order to reduce the weight of the driveshaft as much as possible, the W.2Y used a large cylindrical shaft almost as large as the turbine disk, "necked down" at either end where it connected to the turbine and compressor.

The Air Ministry was eager to obtain an operational jet aircraft, and authorised BTH to press ahead with a twin-engined jet interceptor, which would evolve into the Gloster Meteor . The Meteor was intended to use either the W.2 or the similar Halford H.1 (later named "Goblin") but de Havilland later decided to keep all the Halford's for their own design, the de Havilland Vampire. The Power Jets name would again see use in the form of PowerJet, a 50/50 joint venture between Snecma Moteurs of France, and NPO Saturn, of Russia to produce an engine for the Russian Regional Jet. Rover In 1941 Rover set up a new laboratory for Whittle's team along with a production line at their disused Barnoldswick factory, but they also set up a parallel effort with their own engineers at Waterloo Mill, Clitheroe. Here Adrian Lombard attempted to develop the W.2 into a production quality design, dispensing with Whittle's "reverse flow" burners and developing a longer but simpler "straight-through" engine instead.

Work at Barnoldswick continued on Whittle's original design, now known as the W.2B/23, while Lombard's new design became the W.2B/26. Whittle was upset by this course of events, feeling that all work should concentrate on producing a single design as soon as possible. By late 1941 it was obvious to all that the arrangement between Power Jets and Rover was not working. Whittle was frustrated by Rover's inability to deliver production-quality parts, as well as with their "we know better than you" attitude, and became increasingly vocal about his complaints. Likewise Rover was losing interest in the project after the delays and constant harassment from Power Jets. Rolls-Royce Earlier, in 1940, Stanley Hooker of Rolls-Royce had met with Whittle, and later introduced him to Rolls' CEO, Ernest Hives. Hooker led Rolls' supercharger division, which was naturally suited to jet engine work. Hives agreed to supply key parts to help the project, and it was Rolls engineers who helped solve the surging problems seen in the early engines.

In early 1942 Whittle contracted Rolls for six engines as well, known as the WR.1, identical to the existing W.1. The problems at Rover became a "public secret", and eventually Spencer Wilkes of Rover met with Hives and Hooker at the Swan and Royal pub near the Barnoldswick factory. They decided to trade the jet factory at Barnoldswick for Rolls' tank engine factory in Nottingham. A handshake sealed the deal. The handover took place on January 1 1943, although the official date was later. Rolls soon closed Rover's parallel plant at Clitheroe, although they continued development of the W.2B/26 that had been developed there. Testing and production was immediately stepped up. In December Rover had tested the W.2B for a total of 37 hours, but within the next month Rolls-Royce tested it for 390 hours. The W.2B passed its first 100 hour test at full performance of 725 kgf (7.11 kN) on May 7, 1943.

The prototype Meteor airframe was already completed, and took to the air on June 12, 1943. Production versions started rolling off the line in October, first known as the W.2B/23, then the RB.23 (for Rolls-Barnoldswick), and eventually the Rolls-Royce Welland. Barnoldswick was too small for full-scale production and turned back into a pure research facility under Hooker, while a new factory was set up in Newcastle-under-Lyme. The W.2B/26, as the Rolls-Royce Derwent, opened the new line and soon replaced the Welland, allowing the production lines at Barnoldswick to shut down in late 1944. Although the Luftwaffe beat the British efforts by a few weeks, largely due to the delays at Rover, Whittle's efforts were nevertheless far more influential. The engines that powered the Meteor were much more reliable than their German counterparts, which would typically last 10 hours or less, and sometimes exploded on their first startup. The equivalent British engine would run for 150 hours between overhauls and had twice the power-to-weight ratio and half the specific fuel consumption.

By the end of the war every major engine company in Britain was working on jet designs, and practically every other design in the world was based on the Whittle pattern, or licensed outright. It was not until the late 1950s that most engines powering US and USSR fighters were no longer directly related to Whittle's original work. Continued development With the W.2 now proceeding smoothly, Whittle was sent to Boston, Massachusetts in mid-1942 to help the General Electric jet programme. GE, the primary supplier of turbochargers in the US, was well suited to quickly bringing jet production online. A combination of the W.2B design and a simple airframe from Bell Aircraft flew in autumn of 1942 as the Bell XP-59A Airacomet. Whittle's developments at Power Jets continued, resulting in the improved W.2/500, and later the W.2/700. Both were fitted for testing on Meteors, the W.2/700 later being fitted with an afterburner ("reheat" in British terminology), as well as experimental water-injection to cool the engine and allow for higher power settings without melting the turbine.

Whittle also turned his attention to the axial-flow championed by Griffiths, designing the L.R.1. Other developments included the use of fans to provide more mass-flow, either at the front of the engine as in a modern turbofan, or at the rear, which is much less common but somewhat simpler. Whittle's work had caused a minor revolution within the British engine manufacturing industry, and even before the E.28/39 flew most companies had set up their own research efforts. In 1939, Metropolitan-Vickers set up a project to develop an axial-flow design as a turboprop, but later re-engineered the design as a pure jet known as the Metrovick F.2. Rolls-Royce had already copied the W.1 to produce the low-rated WR.1, but later stopped work on this project after taking over Rover's efforts. De Havilland started a jet fighter project in 1941, the Spidercrabï¿½later called Vampireï¿½along with their own engine to power it: Frank Halford's Goblin (Halford H.1).

Armstrong Whitworth also developed an axial-flow design, the ASX, but reversed Vicker's thinking and later modified it into a turboprop instead, the Python. With practically every engine company now producing their own designs, Power Jets was no longer able to generate realistic income. In April 1944 Power Jets was nationalised, becoming the National Gas Turbine Establishment at the original Ladywood experimental site. In 1946 it was reorganised with the RAE divisions joining them. Frank Whittle and prototype engine After the War Whittle, disenfranchised, quit what was left of Power Jets in 1948. Long a socialist, his experiences with nationalisation changed his mind, and he later campaigned for the Conservative Party. He also retired from the RAF, complaining of ill health, leaving with the rank of Air Commodore. Shortly afterwards he received ï¿½100,000 from the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors , partly to pay him for turning over all of his shares of Power Jets when it was nationalised. He was made a Knight of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in that same year.

Whittle's company, Power Jets - partially owned by the government - continued to work on the development of jet engine, although need to produce them in numbers led to involvement of other companies (Rover, then Rolls Royce and de Havilland) and Power Jets' role diminished. Following nationalisation of the company, Whittle resigned from board of Power Jets in January 1946, becoming Technical Advisor on Engine Design and Production to Controller of Supplies (Air) in June of that year. However, the immense pressure under which Whittle placed himself during the development of jet led to a deterioration in his health, and during a lecture tour in the USA health, he broke down. He retired from the RAF on medical grounds on 26 August 1948. During May 1948 Whittle received ex-gratia award of ï¿½100,000 from the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors in recognition of his work on the jet engine. Two months later he received a Knighthood.

He then became honorary technical advisor to BOAC on the use of jet aircraft between 1948 and 1952 and wrote his memoirs, 'Jet: The Story of a Pioneer' in 1952-53. Subsequently he became technical advisor to Shell, and in 1960s to Bristol Siddeley Engines during the development of a revolutionary oil drill - the Whittle Turbodrill. He married his second wife, American Hazel S Hall ('Tommie'), and emigrated to the USA 1976 where he became Navair Research Professor at the US Naval Academy in 1977, and Adjunct Research Professor at the Academy from 1979. He soon joined BOAC as a technical advisor on aircraft gas turbines. He travelled extensively over the next few years, viewing jet engine developments in USA, Canada , Africa , Asia and the Middle East . He left BOAC in 1952 and spent the next year working on a biography, Jet: The Story of a Pioneer. He was awarded the Royal Society of Arts' prestigious Albert Medal that year.

Returning to work in 1953, he accepted a position as a Mechanical Engineering Specialist in one of Shell Oil 's subsidiaries. Here he developed a new type of drill that was self-powered by a turbine running on the mud pumped into the hole that was used as a lubricant during drilling. Normally a well is drilled by attaching rigid sections of pipe together and powering the cutting head by spinning the pipe, but Whittle's design meant that the drill had no strong mechanical connection to the head frame, allowing for much lighter piping to be used. Whittle left Shell in 1957, but the project was picked up in 1961 by Bristol Siddeley Engines, who set up Bristol Siddeley Whittle Tools to further develop the concept. In 1966 Rolls Royce purchased Bristol Siddeley, but the financial pressures and eventual bankruptcy due to cost overruns of the RB211 project led to the slow wind-down and eventual disappearance of Whittle's "turbo-drill" once again. The design would eventually appear only in the late 1990s, when it was combined with continuous coiled pipe to allow uninterrupted drilling at any angle.

For instance, the "continuous-coil drilling" can drill straight down into a pocket of oil, and then sideways through the pocket to allow the oil to flow out faster. In 1976 Whittle emigrated to the US, and the next year he accepted the position of NAVAIR Research Professor at the US Naval Academy, Annapolis. His research concentrated on the boundary layer before his professorship became part-time from 1978 to 1979. The part time post enabled him to write a textbook on gas turbine thermodynamics. It was at this time that he met von Ohain, who was working at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. At first upset because he believed von Ohain had only developed his engine after seeing Whittle's patent, he eventually became convinced that von Ohain's development really was his own. The two became good friends, and often toured the US giving talks together. In 1991 von Ohain and Whittle were awarded the Charles Stark Draper Prize for their work on turbojet engines. Later life Frank Whittle married Dorothy Lee in May 1930 and they had two sons. Whilst at Cranwell he lodged in a bungalow at Dorrington.

The marriage was dissolved in 1976 and Whittle re-married, to Hazel Hall. He passed away in Baltimore, Maryland on 9 August 1996. Whittle has several memorials, these include: A full scale model of the E.28/39 Whittle has been erected just outside the northern boundary of Farnborough Airfield in Hampshire, England. A similar memorial has been erected in the middle of a roundabout outside Lutterworth where much of Whittle's development was carried out. In Whittle's birthplace Coventry, he is commemorated by the "Whittle Arch" a wing-like structure outside the Coventry Transport Museum. The Sir Frank Whittle Medal is awarded annually by the Royal Academy of Engineering. Two roads in Derby are named Sir Frank Whittle Road and Sir Frank Whittle Way, as a tribute to his work at Rolls-Royce. In the Walsgrave surburb of Coventry, there is a school named after Whittle. It was called Frank Whittle Primary up until 1997, before being re-named Sir Frank Whittle primary. A jet engine replica sits in the reception of the school, Whittle himself donating it before his death.

One of the main buildings at the Royal Air Force College Cranwell is called Whittle Hall. Cambridge University Engineering Department has a Whittle Laboratory.. Bibliography: John Golley - 'Genesis of the Jet: Frank Whittle and the Invention of the Jet Engine' (Airlife, 1996) Sir Stanley Hooker - 'Not Much of an Engineer: An Autobiography' (Airlife, 1984) Sir Frank Whittle - 'Jet: The Story of a Pioneer' (Frederick Muller Ltd, 1953) LINKS John Golley, Frank, Sir Whittle, Bill Gunston (1997). Genesis of the Jet: Frank Whittle and the Invention of the Jet Engine. Crowood Press. ISBN 1-853-10860-X. David S Brooks (1997). Vikings at Waterloo: Wartime Work on the Whittle Jet Engine by the Rover Company. Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust. ISBN 1872922082 The ultimate Robot Boat.

Solarnavigator uses an advanced SWASSH hull as the platform to mount the world's first autonomous circumnavigation. A successful expedition could pave the way for improved safety at sea. Frank would have approved. This website is copyright ï¿½ 1991- 2013 Electrick Publications. All rights reserved. The bird logo and names Solar Navigator and Blueplanet Ecostar are trademarks ï¿½. The Blueplanet vehicle configuration is registered ï¿½. All other trademarks hereby acknowledged and please note that this project should not be confused with the Australian: 'World Solar Challenge'ï¿½which is a superb road vehicle endurance race from Darwin to Adelaide. Max Energy Limited is an educational charity working hard to promote world peace. Jet Aircraft of World War II Airport Codes Jet Aircraft of World War II Prior to 1939, the jet engine existed only in research labs. However, thanks to a few brilliant inventors, jet-powered aircraft soon took to the skies to participate in the aerial combat of World War II. The technology was utilized by both the Allied and Axis forces, and as jet aircraft developed post-war, the engine itself was refined into a proven commercial entity.

Today, the jet engine is used in most commercial airplanes, such as the Boeing 707. Who invented the jet? There is some debate over who “officially” invented the jet engine. The prize usually goes to British engineer and officer, Sir Frank Whittle. Whittle developed the concept in 1929, and officially patented the jet engine in 1930. The following decade saw Whittle undergo a lack of support from the Air Ministry and substantial financial strain, so much so that the patent lapsed in 1935 because he couldn’t afford the renewal fee. Whittle’s faith in the development of his idea did eventually pay off - in 1944, the British Gloster Meteor became the first operational Allied fighter jet. Earlier, in 1936, German engineer Hans Von Ohain took a patent on using a gas turbine’s exhaust as a method of propulsion. Heinkel, director of the German Heinkel company, agreed to help develop the new technology.

Von Ohain created the first operational jet engine, utilized by the experimental Heinkel He 178 aircraft, which successfully flew on August 24, 1939, powered by Von Ohain’s HeS 38 jet engine. The Jet Engine Jet Aircraft in Action The invention of jet aircraft was not a revolutionary discovery in terms of combat fighting. While jet aircraft were certainly much faster than existing airplanes, they paid for speed with a lack of handling control and a limited range. Jet aircraft also tended to guzzle fuel, which made them expensive to produce and operate. So few planes were made that while a few models saw combat, it wasn’t enough to single-handedly change the course of the war. However, once the war had ended and there was time and money available to develop the technology, jet aircraft revolutionized the aeronautical field with its inclusion in commercial jets and jet bombers. Jet bombers were more frequently used in later wars, such as the Korean War, for active offense. The first fighter jet of World War II was the German Messerschmitt Me 262.

It didn’t take to the air until 1944, but compared to its Allied counterparts, it was better in every capacity from speed to offensive arms. It was effective in light fights and as a reconnaissance plane, but was plagued by a massive need for fuel and maintenance issues due to the new technology. Fighting strategy also had to be revised, since the speed of the plane lowered the accuracy of shooting. Direct approaches were substituted with massive dipping maneuvers to slow the speed of the Me 262 in order to safely fire. The aforementioned Gloster Meteor was originally used by the Allied forces as a way of defending against V-1 flying bombs (an early version of cruise missiles). A group of four planes were eventually sent into combat in 1945, but their usage was limited to defense and reconnaissance. World War II and the Jet Engine Allied Aircraft Without question, the British Gloster Meteor is the most famous Allied jet fighter, as it was the first to enter service in 1944. The Meteor was the only Allied jet fighter that participated in combat in World War II, and its creation actually helped develop turboprop power.

The UK also developed the de Havilland Vampire, which entered service in 1945 (too late to assist with the war) and was subsequently used for training. The United States also contributed some jet aircraft – namely, the Bell P-59 Airacomet, Ryan FR Fireball, and the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star – as did the Soviet Union with the Mikoyan-Gurevich I-250. Unfortunately, these planes never saw combat, and some, like the Mikoyan-Gurevich I-250, had too many issues during testing to continue production. History of the Vampire Axis Aircraft Germany had already claimed the Messerchmitt Me 262 as a successful jet fighter, but the Heinkel He 162 and the Arado Ar 234 soon claimed places beside the Messerchmitt in combat. All three planes operated in the war, either as bombers or reconnaissance planes, due to Germany’s early start on the design and production of jet fighters. Italy, by comparison, made no operational jet contribution to the war, as the jets and bombers produced never passed the experimental stage.

Japan offered the Yokosuka MXY7, a rocket-powered kamikaze plane for use against ships. A prototype of the Yokosuka was powered by turbojet, but ultimately replaced by a rocket in the final design. Japan’s development of the jet engine began with the Nakajima Kikka, which had positive initial performance but was abandoned due to the surrender of the Axis powers. Sir Frank Whittle | British inventor and aviator | Britannica.com British inventor and aviator Sir Frank Whittle, (born June 1, 1907, Coventry , Warwickshire, England —died August 8, 1996, Columbia , Maryland , U.S.), English aviation engineer and pilot who invented the jet engine . Frank Whittle. Camera Press/Globe Photos The son of a mechanic, Whittle entered the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a boy apprentice and soon qualified as a pilot at the RAF College in Cranwell. He was posted to a fighter squadron in 1928 and served as a test pilot in 1931–32. He then pursued further studies at the RAF engineering school and at the University of Cambridge (1934–37).

Early in his career Whittle recognized the potential demand for an aircraft that would be able to fly at great speed and height, and he first put forth his vision of jet propulsion in 1928, in his senior thesis at the RAF College. The young officer’s ideas were ridiculed by the Air Ministry as impractical, however, and attracted support from neither the government nor private industry. Whittle obtained his first patent for a turbo-jet engine in 1930, and in 1936 he joined with associates to found a company called Power Jets Ltd. He tested his first jet engine on the ground in 1937. This event is customarily regarded as the invention of the jet engine, but the first operational jet engine was designed in Germany by Hans Pabst von Ohain and powered the first jet-aircraft flight on August 27, 1939. The outbreak of World War II finally spurred the British government into supporting Whittle’s development work. A jet engine of his invention was fitted to a specially built Gloster E.28/39 airframe, and the plane’s maiden flight took place on May 15, 1941.

The British government took over Power Jets Ltd. in 1944, by which time Britain’s Gloster Meteor jet aircraft were in service with the RAF, intercepting German V-1 rockets. Whittle retired from the RAF in 1948 with the rank of air commodore, and that same year he was knighted. The British government eventually atoned for their earlier neglect by granting him a tax-free gift of £100,000. He was awarded the Order of Merit in 1986. In 1977 he became a research professor at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. His book Jet: The Story of a Pioneer was published in 1953. Learn More in these related articles:

Question: Who invented the jet engine in 1930
Answer: Frank Whittle