The jet engine was developed during WWII. This great invention and innovation impacted history because its inventors strove to show the world that a jet engine could be a successful tool in flight, and would not fail, as other attempts in the past had done.
“In the 1930s, Royal Air Force engineer Flight Lieutenant Frank Whittle and German engineer Hans Von Ohain concurrently, but in isolation from each other, developed the jet engine. As the 1940s began, the military intelligence world spoke surreptitiously of new kinds of airplanes. Far-sighted people such as General H. H. Arnold found willing people like Lawrence Bell, along with the Bell Laboratories and the engineers of the General Electric Company to lead the way to build the first jet airplane in the United States. U.S. Army and then Navy pilots flew the Bell YP-59 and a handful of captured German airplanes.” (Engen, 1)
The German inventor of the jet engine was born on December 14, 1911, in Dessau, Germany. Dr. Von Ohain received his doctorate in physics and aerodynamics at Geottingen in 1935. He developed the world’s first aircraft turbine engine, and received his initial patent in 1936 while employed by the Heinkel Company. Von Ohain came to the United States in 1947, becoming a research scientist at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. In 1963 Von Ohain rose to the position of Chief Scientist in the Air Force Aerospace Research Laboratories. During his 32 years of government service, he published more than thirty technical papers and registered 19 U.S. patents. In his employment with Heinkel, he also received fifty company patents. Hans Von Ohain’s dream was that his jet would power German war airplanes. (An Encounter, 87) Von Ohain’s dream came true, since Germany built war jets during WWII. The first time Von Ohain’s German jet engines flew was in 1939. One of these German jets was the Me 262, which could fly level with only one jet engine running, and at the same speed as with two jet engines running. In a propeller plane, the strain would be too much for one engine to fly at the same speed as it had before with two. Usually the pilot lessened the strain on the one engine that was running by flying at a lower speed. (Me 262)
The British inventor of the jet engine, Sir Frank Whittle was born in Coventry, England on June 1, 1907. From 1923 through 1926, he was an Aircraft Apprentice, in the No. 4 Apprentices’ Wing, at the Royal Air Force’s Cranwell training college. In 1926-, he was a Flight Cadet at Cranwell. Whittle was then a Pilot Officer for two years in Hornchurch, England. In 1929, he was an instructor in Digby, England, and filed a turbo-jet patent. In 1931 and 1932, his turbo-jet patent was granted and published. For two years in 1934- 1936 Sir Frank Whittle was in the University of CambridgeUnited States. (Golley, Whittle, 239) Whittle’s dream for jet-powered flight was that his engine would power a mail plane that crossed the Atlantic at 500 mph. (An Encounter, 88) Today mail companies such as FedEx and UPS have fulfilled Whittle’s dream. (Peterhouse) Mechanical Sciences. In 1936, he formed Power Jets, Ltd. Power Jets, Ltd. was Whittle’s own company and was eventually nationalized for the British war effort. The first run of the WU engine was on April 12, 1937; and in 1939, the Air Ministry made a contract for the W.1 flight engine and the Gloster E.28/39 aircraft. The first flight of the Gloster aircraft was on the fifteenth of May 1941; and in October, the full information about the jet was handed to the U.S..
When Sir Frank Whittle was at Cranwell, he wrote a thesis entitled, “Future Developments in Aircraft Design”. He came to the conclusion in his studies, “that if very high speeds were to be combined with long range, it would be necessary to fly at very great height where the low air density would greatly reduce resistance in proportion to speed.” He also considered alternate power sources for airplanes: rocket propulsion and gas turbines driving propellers in flight, but did not think of using gas turbines in jet engines that he would use later during the jet engine’s first development. Propeller piston engine airplanes could not climb to the great height needed for fast, long range flight. (Golley, Whittle, 24)
The two inventors, Whittle and Ohain, met first in 1966. Subsequently, on the 3rdth of May 1978, Von Ohain and Whittle had a public discussion of their jet engines. Both inventors stated many problems that they overcame and their words are recorded in An Encounter Between the Jet Engine Inventors. and 4
Whittle explained that the most serious of his technical problems was the combustion. Whittle and his engineers, and Von Ohain and his engineers, were trying to get approximately twenty-four times the combustion ever before achieved. In the first test run of the Whittle engine, the compressor impeller damaged itself. At other times, the Whittle engine ran out of control due to dripping fuel. A British jet engine had to pass a test of 125 hours running time before it was cleared for production. This made it harder to develop satisfactory engines in Britain, yet Hans Von Ohain only had to run his engines for 25 hours. Von Ohain said this was because in wartime an airplane and its engine had not more than about ten hours total lifetime because the plane would be shot down. (An Encounter, 5-6)
One of Whittle’s bureaucratic problems was the lack of support from the government. He also needed money to build his jet, of course. The government support would bring money with it. Whittle needed £2000 (2000 British pounds) just to start building the jet engine. (An Encounter, 3) This money is equivalent to over $960,000 today. (“Dollar Times”) (“Outside and Inside America”)
Not all the attention the jet received in Britain was beneficial at first. The National Academy of Sciences said in 1940: “The present internal combustion engine equipment in airplanes weighs about 1.1 pounds per horsepower, and to approach such a figure with a gas turbine seems beyond the realm of possibility with existing materials.” (Golley, Genius, 82)
No wonder the National Academy of Sciences said this. The first technical appendix in Whittle, the True Story, highlights that when the jet became noticed by the British Air Ministry, officials had to make an inquiry into what was known on turbine jet engines. There were only a few files on jet engines. The most imposing report was dated September 1920, written by Dr. W. J. Stern, who researched jet engines for the Air Ministry. While writing this report, Dr. Stern did not think of the things attainable in the future, like the light, high-temperature materials needed for the jet. He considered bronze metals as turbine rotor materials, and concluded that the best material for the combustion chamber was cast iron. The British officials thought the case for the development of the jet almost hopeless. (Golley, Whittle, 245)
Also, Dr. Griffith, who investigated the jet engine for the British Air Ministry, wrote an unfavorable report about the jet engine, as most reports were. Dr. Griffith said the jet propulsion system “could not contend with the conventional power plant”. (Golley, Genius 83) The “conventional power plant” was a piston propeller engine.
However, when asked a question on the “landmarks” in his project, Whittle replied that the next key point in his development of the jet engine “was when Air Vice Marshall Tedder, as he then was, and then Sir Henry Tizard, who was very senior in the [Air] Ministry, came to see demonstrations in January of 1940. [They] made up their mind that the [jet engine] should be classified as a potential war winner. That was an important step.” Whittle added, “[Tedder and Tizard] made the decision to put a twin engine fighter [jet] into pre-production by the Gloster Aircraft Company.” (An Encounter, 9-10)
Dr. Stanley G. Hooker, one of the engineers who worked on the Merlin engine for the Spitfire plane during WWII, said that when he converted the thrust of Whittle’s engine into horsepower, he realized "this simple little gadget was giving as much power as the Merlin.” The Merlin was famous because it gave 1,000 to 1,500 horse power and was one of the best piston propeller planes of WWII. (An Encounter, 48)
Now "this simple little gadget", which seemed very simple after it was done, was just the raw and unpolished jet, the result of years of work. It consisted of the intake, a compressor, the combustion chamber assembly, the turbine, and the exhaust, with a jet nozzle to control the flow of the compressed and heated gasses that made the jet stream and propelled the plane.
After the gas (the air) was compressed, the gas was sent to the combustion chamber, already heated from the compression. The heated gas was now in the combustion chamber assembly where fuel was continuously burned to further heat the gas. Then the gas would continue to the turbine. The least of the turbine’s energy powered the compressor; the rest thrust the gasses through the exhaust. The gas would be expelled out of the jet, and the kinetic energy released when the compressed gas expanded would power the airplane. (Golley, Genius, 246-247)
Unlike the first sentiments of the British, the Germans thought the jet airplane was their savior. They hurriedly put jets into production at the final moments of the war. Von Ohain’s main problem was the pressure put on him by Heinkel to complete a jet engine.
The Messerschmitt Company built the Me 262 and the Heinkel-Hirth Corporation, which was formed by the government to increase production, built the He 280 airplane. The Heinkel Company also built the 0-11 engine, and, according to Von Ohain, they also “built a small series of, maybe, 12 engines.” (An Encounter, 18) These planes did not affect WWII greatly, nor did the British airplanes.
The U.S. first acquired full information on the jet engine in 1941. General Electric developed jet engines with the Bell Laboratories. In 1948 VF-5A carrier in the Pacific Fleet was assigned eighteen FJ-1 jets, and VF-17A carrier in the Atlantic Fleet was assigned a near number of jets. Little information on handling jets was exchanged between the fleets. Just staying in the air in a jet was a challenge for former propeller airplane pilots. (Engen, 88)
Donald D. Engen wrote that in the first week of their training course for handling jets, they spent forty-five hours learning the theory of the J-33 U.S. jet engines and listening to lectures on the handling characteristics of the jet airplane. During the second week of their training course, they first flew the Navy’s TO-1 jet airplane. Engen said, “During the second week I first flew the TO-1, and what an experience that was! The airplane was quiet and smooth and gave a feeling of great power once you became airborne.” Engen flew twenty hours on twenty flights in the TO-1 during his training course that started in 1949. The trainees had flown before, but the lesson they had to learn with the jet was to monitor the amount of fuel it consumed, and regulate their consumption of that fuel. (Engen, 89)
Sir Frank Whittle received nine medals in the United Kingdom, and four U.S. medals. Four international medals, nine honorary doctorates and two civic honors were also granted to him. (Golley, Whittle, 240-242) Hans Von Ohain received at least five select awards for his contributions to science. (An Encounter, 117-118)
The jet engine not only affected military strategy, but it modified passenger air travel. Some travelers liked the change although others did not. Whittle’s own wife still preferred a DC-3 propeller plane. (An Encounter, 90)
In the years after WWII, the jet had many roles. During the Cold War the U.S. F-15, a jet airplane, was built. The first passenger jets were built, and the Concorde, the first supersonic passenger jet was built. A supersonic plane could fly faster than the speed of sound. The Concorde was built in 1969 jointly by Britain and France. The Concorde has shown what can be done with the help of jet engines.
The jet engine was an amazing innovation, and still is. It has impacted many people, who fly on jet airplanes today. For example, in 2008, Southwest Airlines alone flew 101.9 million people. The German and British inventors have shown what can be done if you keep persevering. They overcame many difficulties to invent the machine that powers military and commercial flight today.
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| From Jet, the Story of a Pioneer, a broken turbine |
Annotated Bibliography
Primary Sources:
Engen, Donald Davenport. Wings and Warriors. United States: Smithsonian
Institution Press, 1997.
This is the story of a U.S. navy pilot and commander of WWII and the Cold War. It is the story of the introduction of the jet into the navy as seen by the author.
Golley, John. Whittle, The True Story. United States: Smithsonian Institution
Press, 1987.
This book contains much of the information of Jet, the Story of a Pioneer, but it is also very different and contains some additions. It is more technical and gives an easier to understand timeline of events. It was written in association with Sir Frank Whittle.
Messerschmitt Me-262. The Russ Heinl Group. 2001.
This is an original film placed on DVD and narrated by Oberleutnant Franz Stigler. Stigler flew in the German Jagdverband JV-44, which was the first jet-equipped fighter unit. The movie had lots of exciting information on how to fly the Me-262 and what this plane could do.
United States. History Office. Aeronautical Systems Division. An Encounter
Between the Jet Engine Inventors. Ohio: GPO, 1978.
This is a transcription from tapes of May 3rd and 4th, 1978, when Sir Frank Whittle and Hans Von Ohain met at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, to discuss jet engines. Much of the information I gathered from this source is from Whittle and Von Ohain’s answers to questions asked by various people during this meeting.
Whittle, Sir Frank. Jet, the Story of a Pioneer. Great Britain: Frederick Muller,
1985
This is not meant to be an autobiography; it is supposed to be an account of the jet engine’s development and Whittle’s involvement in it. This book gave me perspective on many of the problems along the way to finishing the jet.
Secondary Sources:
Boyne, Walter J. and Donald S. Lopez, Ed. The Jet Age, Forty years of Jet Aviation.
Washington City: National Air and Space Museum, 1979.
This is a guide to the development of the first jet airplanes to Boeing passenger jets. It was helpful by demonstrating many of the concepts in passenger air travel through its graphs and pictures.
Golley, John Genesis of the Jet. England: Airlife Publishing, 1996.
This is a book filled with facts on Whittle’s struggles with the jet engine, patents, and different versions of engines Whittle built. I finally understood the concept of the jet engine when I read it.
Other sources:
"Dollar Times". H Brothers, Inc.. February 9, 2010 <www.dollartimes.com>.
This site was used to calculate inflation in money from 1945 to today’s U.S.
dollar.
“Southwest.com”. Southwest Airlines. February 10, 2010
I used this source to find out the number of passengers Southwest Airlines flew.
Todd, Mike. "Outside and Inside America". February 9, 2010
<www.miketodd.net>.
This site was used to calculate the value of pound to dollars in 1945.
