Who Invented the Jet Engine?

Unveil the thrilling saga of the race to conquer the skies with the invention of the jet engine! From Frank Whittle’s perseverance to Hans von Ohain’s unexpected success, witness aviation history unfold.

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On the morning of August 27th 1939 a small aircraft was towed onto the runway at maren Airfield in murg Northern Germany to the handful of observers gathered at the edge of the fields the craft must have looked like something out of Science Fiction with its gleaming barrel-shaped fuselage gaping nose

Intake and stubby Wings awkwardly mounted high at top its fuselage more baffling still it lacked the one feature every aircraft was supposed to have a propeller when test pilot Eric vard climbed into the cockpit and started the engine the air filled not with a familiar drone of reciprocating Pistons

But an unearthly high pitch Screech then as if propelled by Magic the aircraft lurched forward and trundled down the runway before leaping into the air the next 6 minutes vset circled the Airfield reaching maximum speed of 598 km an hour before touching back down on the runway in that moment aviation history changed

Forever as the hle HG 178 became the first aircraft to fly under jet power within two decades piston powered aircraft would become all but obsolete in commercial and military aircraft the jet age had begun but who invented this now ubiquitous form of aircraft propulsion and how did it come to rule

The skies well light up your afterburners and let’s Dive Into the Danger Zone exploring the fascinating history of the jet engine by the end of the 1930s it was becoming clear that conventional reciprocating engine and propeller technology had been pushed to its limits on April the 26th 1939 German

Test pilot Fritz vendal set a world air speeed record for piston powerered aircraft when he flew the mmid me29 V1 prototype fighter to a blistering 755 km an hour about 470 mph This Record would not be broken until 1969 and then only by 25 km an hour at higher speeds

Propeller blades begin to travel supersonically forming shock waves that reduce their efficiency and prevent aircraft from flying any faster one solution to this problem is to fly at higher altitudes where there’s less air resistance however at these altitudes propellers must spin faster to generate sufficient thrust and the thinner air

Starves piston engines of oxygen and thus power of course these are partially solvable problems for example more thrust can be generated through the use of specially designed supersonic propellers but even then the speed record for propeller-driven aircraft is 925 km hour of 575 M hour set by the

Russian tev t95 strategic bomber thus for an aircraft to fly faster in a practical kind of way an entirely new kind of propulsion system was needed and enter the jet engine as previously covered in our video was the first Jet Plane really flown in 1910 on our sister Aviation Channel Higher Learning the

Idea of propelling an aircraft using a jet if air instead of a spinning propeller is nearly as old as Aviation itself as early as 1910 Romanian inventor and aerodynamicist HRI Kanda claimed to have built and briefly flown an Innovative Bane powered by what he called a turbo propulsor which

Unfortunately caught fire and crashed on its Maiden flight while K’s claims are disputed what is known is that his turbo propulsor was not a jet engine as we would recognize it today rather it was a form of motor jet in which a conventional piston engine drives a

Turbine to generate a high-speed air jet in certain motor jet designs fuel is injected into the Jet and ignited to produce extra thrust as in a modern afterburner the first verified moot jet powered aircraft take to the skies was the Italian caproni cini N1 which made

Its made on flight on August the 27th 1940 yet despite its innovative power plant the N1 was unable to outperform Conventional propeller powerered aircraft of the era and suffered from unacceptably high fuel consumption and overheating and while the Soviet Union also briefly experimented with motor jet powered Fighters like the mikang

Gerovich i250 and the suo su5 it soon became clear that motor Jets were a technological dead ends and these unusual power plants soon became little more than a footnote in the history of aircraft propulsion a true de engine or turbojet is in principle at least remarkably simple consisting of just

Four basic components a compressor a combustion chamber a turbine and a nozzle air enters at the front of the engine where it is compressed by the compressor before being fed into the combustion chamber here the air is mixed with fuel and ignited which creates hot high pressure exhaust this exhaust is

Then part pass through the turbine before being expelled out of the engine generating forward thrust meanwhile the turbine extracts a small amount of energy from the exhaust and uses it via a connecting shaft to drive the compressor making the whole cycle self- sustaining the first modern gas turbine

Was patented in 1791 by English inventor John Barber who planned to use it to propel a Horseless Carriage similar devices were created in 1872 by Dr F stalzer and in 1903 by agus El the latter of which became the first successful self- sustaining gas turbine in 1918 Dr Stanford a moss of the

American firm General Electric invented a two-stage turbine called the turbo supercharger or simply turbocharger though this was not intended for powering Vehicles directly rather the turbocharger used waste energy from a conventional piston engine’s exhaust to feed more air into the engines intake manifold increasing its power input two decades later this Innovation would

Prove vital to the Allied strategic bombing campaign of Western Europe and Japan however none of these early gas turbines were suited to use in aviation for the technology to become a truly viable form of repulsion a number of different technical problems had to be first overcome such as finding materials

Heat resistant enough to prevent the turbine blades from distorting or the combustion chamber from burning through while simultaneously being lightweight enough to Moun in an aircraft now as we’ve covered many times on this channel few truly groundbreaking Innovations are the product of a single brilliant mind rather they are developed over many

Years or even decades by dozens of hardworking and often overlooked individuals but while the jet engine is no exception it would likely not have been developed or adopted as early as it was were it not for the contributions of two key figures who both came up with

The idea at around the same time and unwittingly found themselves in a high stakes race to get their groundbreaking inventions into the air these extraordinary men were sir Frank whistle and Hans Von aain Frank whistle was born on June the 1st 1907 in centry in England the eldest son of mechanic Moses

Whittle and his wife Sarah garlic fascinated by machines from an early age Whittle learns about practical engineering by helping out in his father’s workshop and in 1923 at the age of 16 he signed up to join the Royal Air Force as an aircraft Apprentice unfortunately he was rejected when his

Short height and slight build caused him to fail his medical examination determined to join up he embarked on a regimen of intense physical exercise to bulk himself up and applied twice more once under an assumed name before finally being accepted he was then sent to number one Squadron of number four

Apprentices Wing at Raf crownwell for a three-year course in aircraft maintenance dwile dismay he soon discovered that the strict RAF discipline was not to his liking and that his physical limitations made his becoming a pilot on unlikely Prospect he grew so depressed that he seriously considered deserting only keeping up his

Spirits by joining the model aircraft Society then in 1926 the quality of Whitt’s model so impressed the commander of the Apprentice Wing that he recommended him for officer training at RAF College Cranwell here whistle finally got the chance to take flight training soloing in 1927 after only 13

And 1 half hours of instruction he soon became an accomplished pilot gaining a reputation for daring stunt flying as part of his offic course Whitt was required to prepare a thesis which he decided to write on future developments in aircraft technology wh calculated that an aircraft could achieve maximum

Range by flying at high altitudes where reduced air density results in less drag however the physics of propellers and piston engines meant that at such out altitudes the aircraft’s performance would also be reduced it was while pondering this problem in 1929 that Whitt had an epiphany why not replace

The piston engine and propeller with a gas turbine which could theoretically produce far greater thrust at higher altitudes wh obtained a pattern for his engine design in 1930 at the age of only 22 and his superiors at Raf Cranwell were sufficiently impressed that they arranged for him to present his idea to

The air Ministry however as wi later recalls the result was extremely disappointing the net outcome was a letter from the ministry to the that any form of gas turbine was Impractical indeed the air Ministry was so uninterested in Whitt’s idea that they allowed his pattern to be openly

Published as a result his design soon became known to Engineers across Europe including Faithfully in Germany nonetheless Whittle continued to develop the design on his own time though he had so at all money that when his patent expired in 1935 he was unable to renew it but Whittle was not entirely without

Friends and in that same year some fellow RAF officers arranged a meeting between Whittle and Lancelot white of the banking firm ot4 comp Partners as white later recalls the impression he made was overwhelming white recalls I’ve never been so quickly convinced or happy to find one’s higher standards met this

Was genius not Talent Whitt expressed his ideas with superb conciseness reciprocating engines are exhausted they have hundreds of Parts jerking to and fro and they cannot be made more powerful without becoming too complicated the engine of the future must produce 2,000 horsepower with one moving part a spinning turbine and

Compressor white immediately agreed to fund the establishment of a small Experimental Aircraft Company dubbed Power Jets limited while the RAF still considered the turbojet in Practical for military use they nonetheless allowed Whittle to pursue the Venture provided he spend no more than 6 hours a week on

It in order he flagrantly ignored Whitt and his assistants setup shop in the workshop of the British Thompson Houston company who manufactured the components for Whitt’s first experimental test engine dubbed the Whittle unit or W very much approv of concept the W Used a single state stage centrifugal compressor connected to a single

Combustion chamber and a single stage turbine the whole assembly being housed in a sheet metal enclosure to catch turbine blades and other components should they fly off the engine after 2 years of work the Wu was finally ready for its first test run on April the 12th

1937 which all later described the event thusly immediately with a rising screen the engine began to accelerate out of control I promptly shut the valve but the uncontrolled acceleration continued everyone around me took to their heels except me I was paralyzed with fright and remained rooted to the spot a few

Seconds later however the engine decelerated and came back under control the problem it was discovered was a puddle of fuel which had gathered in the combustion chamber during a previous fuel pump test wi installed a drain at the bottom of the chamber and tried again the following day though this

Second test was no less hair raising than the first to quote him again this experience was more frightening than the first because local overheating had caused combustion chamber joints to leak and the escaping fuel Vapor took fire above the engine altogether a petrifying situation except for those who once more

Disappeared with record-breaking speed the quote ends this time the problem was found to be a faulty fuel valve this too was easily resolved and after a few more successful tests Whittle and his team were ready to demonstrate the engine for Dr David rby deputy director of scientific research at the air Ministry

The demonstration which took place on June the 30th 1939 so impressed by that just Weeks Later the air Ministry awarded Power Jets a contract to produce a new engine designated the W1 for an experimental aircraft to be built by the Gloucester Aircraft Company the aircraft known as the glester E 2839 Pioneer was

Delivered to the Airfield at brockworth gler share on April the 7th 1941 by now a fully qualified test pilot Frank whistle performed many of the initial taxi tests himself using a non-flight worthy version of the W1 engine finally the aircraft was fitted with a proper

Engine and on May the 15th 1941 flew for the first time with test pilot Gary S at the controls during the flight which lasted 177 minutes sire achieved a maximum speed of 560 kmph only slightly slower than the raf’s fastest fighter at the time the supermarine Spitfire Mark 5

But while this was a Monumental achievement it was not the first flight of a turbojet powered aircraft unknown to whistle he had been beaten to the punch by two years by a similarly brilliant and driven German engineer Hans Wakim papst Von aain was born on December the 14th 1911 in daa Northern

Germany like Frank Whitt V Hayne first conceived of the jet engine as a 22-year-old university student otherwise however the two men’s career trajectories could not have been more difference after obtaining his PhD in physics and aerodynamics from the University of gingan in 1933 vona Hayne became a junior assistant to Robert

Viard Paul director of the University’s physical Institute in 1936 he patented his jet engine Concepts and along with Automotive engineer Max Han attempted to build a working example unfortunately Von ha and Han could not get the fuel to ignite and burn stably in the combustion chamber causing Flames to shoot out the

Back of the engine and the electric starter motor to overheat nonetheless their work soon caught the attention of Ernst hle founder and director of aircraft manufacturer hle fua in vanam Mund on Paul’s recommendation hle hired vonah Haan and provided him with the funding to continue his jet engine

Research by February 1937 vonah ha had assembled a new engine called the hs1 fueled by hydrogen gas though the engine ran well the hot burning hydrogen quickly damaged the metal components Von thus modified the design to run on kerosene producing the more reliable hs3 which could produce 4.9 kons of thrust

To flight test the new engine Ernst hle tasked his two best Engineers Walter and secred gter to design an experimental aircraft dubb the HG 178 7.6 M long with 7.3 M long elliptical Wings mounted high on the fuselage and a conventional tail dragger undercarriage the HG 178 was

Powered by a single hs3 engine mounted behind the pilot fed through an air Inlet mounted on the nose the H 178 maen flight took place at H’s marah Aerodrome on August the 27th 1939 just 5 days before Nazi Germany invaded Poland present on the field that day were

Several top officials from the lwaa including General abur Ern duet and general fails Marshal a hard milch Ern Tyle later describes the historic event he test pilot Eric vits was flying a new era had begun the Hideous whale of the engine was music to our ears he circled

Again smoothly and gracefully the rigers began to wave like Madmen calmly he flew around once more and when six minutes were up he started to land he cut out the jet units then misjudged the approach and had to Sid slip Sid slip with a new dangerous and tricky plane we

Held our breath but the HG 178 landed perfectly taxied and came to a stop a magnificent Landing within seconds we had all rushed over to vits and the plane the riggers hoisted both of us onto their shoulders and carried us around roaring with enthusiasm but h and

V ha’s Glory would be shortlived for despite having witnessed history in the making the L offer observers left the demonstration largely unimpressed a mechanical fault had forced vets to fly with his landing gear extended limiting his top speed to only 598 km per hour only slightly faster than Germany

Standard Fighter the meses Schmid BF 109 furthermore the rapid advance of German forces across Europe convinced military planners that the war would be quickly concluded making new Aviation Technologies like jet propulsion unnecessary by the time the lwaa changed mind about the value of jets other aircraft manufacturers had already leap

Frogged ahead of Hol and Vin’s first prototypes in 1940 for example designer andam Frans of rival aircraft manufacturer yunus flut skull on mka developed the jumo 004 engine which used a more efficient axial flow compressor in place of Von aim centrifugal flow compressor BMW and Branda Bish M worken

Or brammo also developed similar engines while the rare Ministry or rlm secretly contracted Juna mes Schmid and others to manufacture their own jet fighters despite being left out of this request H proceeded with the development of a twin engine jet fighter called the h280 which Incorporated a number of key Innovations

Including tricycle landing gear and pneumatically propelled ejection seat the first in aviation history to save a pilot’s life in an emergency after lengthly delays caused by developmental difficulties with its intended engine the hs8 the HG 280 finally made its Maiden flight on the 22nd of September 1940 becoming the world’s first jet

Fighter to take to the skies subsequent test flights proved the h280 to be a superbly Swift and agile aircraft easily out maneuvering the lfa’s best conventional Fighter the fer wolf fw190 in mock combat nonetheless the rlm ultimately rejected the design and arrival for meses Schmid’s me262 schalber became the world’s first

Operational jet fighter entering service in April 1944 thankfully for the Allies several factors prevented the me262 from having a significant impact on the war chief among the was Adolf Hitler who believing that Germany should always be on the offensive ordered that the new Jets be used for ground attack a task for which

They were ill suited rather than shooting down Allied bombers and even when the me262 was deployed in its proper role as a fighter Technical and logistical problems prevented the aircraft from reaching its full potential the Primitive mology of the yuna’s yumo 004 engines gave them an extremely short lifespan requiring them

To be removed and overhauled after only a handful of flight hours while Allied bombardment of factories frequently interrupted the production of new engines and spare parts worse still chronic fuel shortages caused the me262 squadrons to spend most of their time on the ground meanwhile in Britain gler

Developed his own jet fighter the gler meteor powered by two of Frank Whitt’s upgraded Power Jets ww engines first flown on March the 5th 1943 the meteor was the Allies only operational jet fighter of the war though it never saw combat against man aircraft instead its

970 km perh top speed made it invaluable for chasing down the German V on flying bombs that terrorized Southern englands between June 1944 and March 1945 with meteor squadrons scoring 13 victories by the end of the war and for more on this please do check out our previous video a

Wi have been a prayer the insane way British Pilots defeated Germany’s secret weapon while the Mia was under development the British government secretly shipped a Power Jets engine and a handful of Engineers across the Atlantic to the General Electric facility in Linn Massachusetts in the hope that the Americans could improve

The design and put it into mass production the G team that received the engine was sworn to secrecy as former engineer Joseph serota later recalls our colleagues called us the hush hush boys we couldn’t talk to anyone about our work the FBI man warned me that if I

Gave away any secrets the penalty was death indeed the project was so secret that no outside contractors could be brought in to modify the workshop or build test stands and other equipment forcing the engineers to carry out this work themselves they were also hampered by a lack of adequate tooling to quote

Our wrenches didn’t fit the nuts and bolts because they were on the metric system system we had to grind them open a little more to get inside despite these difficulties in March 1942 just 5 months after the project started the GE Engineers successfully bench tested their redesigned engine the IIA

Producing 5.8 kons of thrust the IIA was subsequently installed in an experimental fighter graph craft the Bell aircraft XP 59 air comet in keeping with the top secret nature of the project during ground handling the XP 59 was fitted with a dummy propeller to disguise its true nature the air com it

Made his Maiden flight on October the 2nd 1942 at morac Army Airfield in California today Edwards Air Force Base with test pilot Colonel Lawrence craigy at the controls unfortunately the first American jet proved underpowered and never entered service though GE would later refine its IIA engine into the j31

The first jet engine to be mass produced in the United States in 1945 the locked p80 shooting star became the United States’s first operational jet fighters serving with distinction in the Korean War alongside other early Jets like the North American f86 saber the commercial Aviation Market followed suit in 1952

With the introduction of the British to havland dh106 Comet the world’s first jet airliner within just few years the age of piston engined aircraft had finally come to an end Jets now ruled the skies making the globe just a little bit smaller with each passing year of

Course jet engines have come a long way since those early days seeing dramatic improvements in thrust fuel efficiency and reliability but well that’s a story for another time isn’t it thanks for watching [Applause]