Ohain's

SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace

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Von Ohain studied engineering at the University of Göttingen, where he carried out research on gas-turbine engines, and centrifugal compressors in particular. In 1935 he patented a design for a jet engine (in Britain, Frank Whittle patented his jet-engine design in 1930). Von Ohain was recruited by the Heinkel company in 1936 to develop an engine for a jet aircraft. Ernst Heinkel was impressed by von Ohain's ideas and gave the project a high priority. The first engine was bench tested in September 1937. A more powerful version was developed and tested in air, suspended beneath a Heinkel dive-bomber, during the spring of 1939. A new airframe was designed to house the revolutionary power plant and designated the Heinkel He 178. A short flight was made on 24 August 1939 and the first recognized flight on 27 August. This important achievement received only a lukewarm response from the German authorities. Von Ohain's turbojet engine had a centrifugal compressor and developed a thrust of 380 kg (837 lb). An improved, more powerful, engine was developed and installed in a new twin-engined fighter design, the He 280. This flew on 2 April 1941 but never progressed beyond the prototype stage. By this time two other German companies, BMW and Junkers, were constructing successful turbojets with axial compressors: luckily for the Allies, Hitler was reluctant to pour his hard-pressed resources into this new breed of jet fighters. After the war, von Ohain emigrated to the United States and worked for the Air Force there.

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SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace

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Frank Whittle enlisted in the Royal Air Force (RAF) as an apprentice, and after qualifying as a pilot he developed an interest in the technical aspects of aircraft propulsion. He was convinced that the gas-turbine engine could be adapted for use in aircraft, but he could not convince the Air Ministry, who turned down the proposal. Nevertheless, Whittle applied for a patent for his turbojet engine the following year, 1930. While still in the RAF, he was allowed time to study for a degree at Cambridge University and carry out postgraduate research (1934–7). By 1936 the official attitude had changed, and a company called Power Jets Ltd was set up to develop Whittle's jet engine. On 12 April 1937 the experimental engine was bench-tested. After further development, an official order was placed in March 1938. Whittle's engine had a centrifugal compressor, ten combustion chambers and a turbine to drive the compressor; all the power output came from the jet of hot gases.

In 1939 an experimental aircraft was ordered from the Gloster Aircraft Company, the E 28/39, to house the Whittle W1 engine, and this made its first flight on 15 May 1941. A development of the W1 by Rolls-Royce, the Welland, was used to power the twin-engined Gloster Meteor fighter, which saw service with the RAF in 1944. Whittle retired from the RAF in 1948 and became a consultant. From 1977 he lived in the United States. Comparisons between the work of Whittle and Hans von Ohain show that each of the two engineers developed his engine without knowledge of the other's work. Whittle was the first to take out a patent, Ohain achieved the first flight; the Whittle engine and its derivatives, however, played a much greater role in the history of the jet engine.

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See also: INDEX BY SUBJECT AREA

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Ader, Clément

Bacon, Francis Thomas

Barber, John

Blériot, Louis

Blumlein, Alan Dower

Boeing, William Edward

Boot, Henry Albert Howard

Braun, Wernher Manfred von

Breguet, Louis

Camm, Sir Sydney

Caproni, Giovanni Battista

Cayley, Sir George

Chanute, Octave Alexandre

Charles, Jacques Alexandre César

Cierva, Juan de la

Clarke, Arthur Charles

Cobham, Sir Alan John

Cockerell, Christopher Sydney

Cody, "Colonel" Samuel Franklin

Curtiss, Glenn Hammond

Dassault, Marcel

de Havilland, Sir Geoffrey

Douglas, Donald Wills

Dunne, John William

Ellehammer, Jacob Christian Hansen

Fabre, Henri

Farman, Henri

Flettner, Anton

Flügge-Lotz, Irmgard

Focke, E.H.Heinrich

Fokker, Anthony Herman Gerard

Giffard, Baptiste Henry Jacques

Goddard, Dr Robert Hutchings

Green, Charles

Griffith, Alan Arnold

Handley Page, Sir Frederick

Heinkel, Ernst

Henson, William Samuel

Ilyushin, Sergei Vladimirovich

Johnson, Clarence Leonard

Junkers, Hugo

Korolov, Sergei Pavlovich

Langley, Samuel Pierpont

Lebaudy, Paul

Leonardo da Vinci

Levavasseur, Léon

Lilienthal, Otto

MacCready, Paul

Martin, Sir James

Maxim, Sir Hiram Stevens

Messerschmitt, Willi E.

Meusnier, Jean Baptiste Marie

Mignet, Henri

Mikoyan, Artem Ivanovich

Mitchell, Reginald Joseph

Montgolfier, Joseph-Michel

Oberth, Hermann Julius

Ohain, Hans Joachim Pabst von

Parseval, August von

Phillips, Horatio Frederick

Piccard, Auguste

Pierce, John Robinson

Pilcher, Percy Sinclair

Renard, Charles

Ricardo, Sir Harry Ralph

Roe, Sir Edwin Alliott Verdon

Rogallo, Francis Melvin

Santos-Dumont, Alberto

Saulnier, Raymond

Séguin, Louis

Short, Hugh Oswald

Sikorsky, Igor Ivanovich

Sopwith, Sir Thomas Octave Murdoch

Sperry, Elmer Ambrose

Stringfellow, John

Tsiolkovsky, Konstantin Eduardovich

Tupolev, Andrei Nikolayevich

Voisin, Gabriel

Wallis, Sir Barnes Neville

Watson-Watt, Sir Robert Alexander

Wenham, Francis Herbert

Whittle, Sir Frank

Wright, Wilbur

Yost, Paul Edward

Zeppelin, Count Ferdinand von

SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace

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Gianni Caproni studied civil and electrical engineering in Munich and Liège before moving on to Paris, where he developed an interest in aeronautics. He built his first aircraft in 1910, a biplane with a tricycle undercarriage (which has been claimed as the world's first tricycle undercarriage). Caproni and his brother, Dr Fred Caproni, set up a factory at Malpensa in northern Italy and produced a series of monoplanes and biplanes. In 1913 Caproni astounded the aviation world with his Ca 30 three-engined biplane bomber. There followed many variations, of which the most significant were the Ca 32 of 1915, the first large bomber to enter service in significant numbers, and the Ca 42 triplane of 1917 with a wing span of almost 30 metres.

After the First World War, Caproni designed an even larger aircraft with three pairs of triplane wings (i.e. nine wings each of 30 metres span) and eight engines. This Ca 60 flying boat was designed to carry 100 passengers. In 1921 it made one short flight lightly loaded; however, with a load of sandbags representing sixty passengers, it crashed soon after take-off. The project was abandoned but Caproni's company prospered and expanded to become one of the largest groups of companies in Italy. In the 1930s Caproni aircraft twice broke the world altitude record. Several Caproni types were in service when Italy entered the Second World War, and an unusual research aircraft was under development. The Caproni-Campini No. 1 (CC2) was a jet, but it did not have a gas-turbine engine. Dr Campini's engine used a piston engine to drive a compressor which forced air out through a nozzle, and by burning fuel in this airstream a jet was produced. It flew with limited success in August 1940, amid much publicity: the first German jet (1939) and the first British jet (1941) were both flown in secret. Caproni retained many of his early aircraft for his private museum, including some salvaged parts from his monstrous flying boat.

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See also: Heinkel, Ernst; Ohain, Hans Joachim Pabst von; Whittle, Sir Frank

SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace, Weapons and armour

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The son of a coppersmith, as a young man Ernst Heinkel was much affected by seeing the Zeppelin LZ 4 crash and burn out at Echterdringen, near Stuttgart. After studying engineering, in 1910 he designed his first aeroplane, but it crashed; he was more successful the following year when he made a flight in it, with an engine on hire from the Daimler company. After a period working for a firm near Munich and for LVG at Johannisthal, near Berlin, he moved to the Albatros Company of Berlin with a monthly salary of 425 marks. In May 1913 he moved to Lake Constance to work on the design of sea-planes and in May 1914 he moved again, this time to the Brandenburg Company, where he remained as a designer until 1922, when he founded his own company, Ernst Heinkel Flugzeugwerke. Following the First World War, German companies were not allowed to build military aircraft, which was frustrating for Heinkel whose main interest was high-speed aircraft. His sleek He 70 airliner, built for Lufthansa, was designed to carry four passengers at high speeds: indeed it broke many records in 1933. Lufthansa decided it needed a larger version capable of carrying ten passengers, so Heinkel produced his most famous aeroplane, the He 111. Although it was designed as a twin-engined airliner on the surface, secretly Heinkel was producing a bomber. The airliner version first flew on Lufthansa routes in 1936, and by 1939 almost 1,000 bombers were in service with the Luftwaffe. A larger four-engined bomber, the He 177, ran into development problems and it did not see service until late in the Second World War. Heinkel's quest for speed led to the He 176 rocket-powered research aeroplane which flew on 20 June 1939, but Hitler and Goering were not impressed. The He 178, with Dr Hans von Ohain's jet engine, made its historic first flight a few weeks later on 27 August 1939; this was almost two years before the maiden flight in Britain of the Gloster E 28/39, powered by Whittle's jet engine. This project was a private venture by Heinkel and was carried out in great secrecy, so the world's first jet aircraft went almost unnoticed. Heinkel's jet fighters, the He 280 and the He 162, were never fully operational. After the war, Heinkel in 1950 set up a new company which made bicycles, motor cycles and "bubble" cars.

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JDS / IMcN