DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION

Newton's third law of motion states that for every action, there is an equal
and opposite reaction. Jet propulsion applies this law by taking in a quantity of
air and accelerating it through an orifice or nozzle. The acceleration of the air
is the action and forward movement is the reaction. In nature, a squid propels
itself through the water using a form of jet propulsion. A squid takes sea water
into its body and uses its muscles to add energy to the water, then expels the
water in the form of a jet. This action produces a reaction that propels the
squid forward. Same way a turbojet engine propels an aircraft.
As early as 250 B.C., a writer and mathematician named Hero devised a toy
that used the reaction principle. The toy, called the aeolipile, consisted of a
covered kettle of water that was heated to produce steam. The steam was
then routed through two vertical tubes and into a spherical container.
Attached to the spherical container were several discharge tubes arranged
radially around the container. As steam filled the container, it would escape
through the discharge tubes and cause the sphere to rotate.
A more modern example of Newton's reaction principle is observed when the
end of an inflated balloon is released. As the air in the balloon rushes out the
opening, the balloon flies wildly around a room. In spite of the everyday
examples, scientists' efforts to apply Newton's reaction principle to
mechanical designs met with little success until this century.

Hero's aeolipile, conceived long before the acceptance of Newton's Laws of

Motion, proved that power by reaction was possible.
HISTORY OF JET PROPULSION
The history of mechanical jet propulsion began in 1900, when Dr. Sanford
Moss submitted his masters thesis on gas turbines. Later, Dr. Moss became an
engineer for the General Electric Company in England. While there, Dr. Moss
had the opportunity to apply some of his concepts in the development of the
turbo-supercharger. This unique supercharger consisted of a small turbine
wheel that was driven by exhaust gases. The turbine was then used to drive a
supercharger.
Research done by Dr. Moss influenced Frank Whittle of England in the
development of what became the first successful turbojet engine. Dr. Whittle
was granted his first patent for the jet engine in 1930 and eleven years later,
his engine completed its first flight in a Gloster model E28/39 aircraft. The
engine produced about one thousand pounds of thrust and propelled the
aircraft at speeds over 400 miles per hour.
Dr. Frank Whittle of England patented the
first turbojet engine, the Whittle W1, in
1930. Its first flight occurred in a Gloster
E28/39 aircraft in 1941.
While Whittle was developing the gas turbine engine in England, Hans Von
Ohain, a German engineer, designed and built a jet engine that produced
1,100 pounds of thrust. This engine was installed in the Heinkel He-178
aircraft and made a successful flight on August 27, 1939. As a result, it became
recognized as the first practical flight by a jet propelled aircraft.
German engineer Hans Von Ohain designed and built the turbojet engine that
powered the Heinkel He-178 to the world's first jet-powered flight in 1939.

First flown in 1942, the Bell XP-59

was the first American jet-powered
aircraft.
JET PROPULSION TODAY
Today, the majority of commercial aircraft utilize some form of jet propulsion.
In addition, there are currently several manufacturers that produce entire
lines of jet powered aircraft that cruise in excess of 600 miles per hour and
carry more than four hundred passengers or several tons of cargo.
Another step in the progression of commercial and military aviation was the ability to
produce an engine that would propel an aircraft faster than the speed of sound. Today,
there are several military aircraft that travel at speeds in excess of Mach one. One such
aircraft is the SR-71 Blackbird which flies in excess of Mach five. In commercial aviation
however, there is currently only one aircraft that flies faster than Mach one. This
aircraft, the Concorde, was built by the British and French and placed into service in the
mid seventies. Currently, there are more than ten Concordes in service that are capable
of flying at 2.2 times the speed of sound.

In addition to military and commercial aviation, jet propulsion has become extremely
popular for use on business jets. These two and three engine aircraft have become
extremely popular in recent years due in part to the efficiency and reliability of jet
engines.
TIMELINE OF DEVELOPMENT
● 50: Earliest records of Hero's engine (aeolipile). It most likely served no practical purpose, and was rather more of a curiosity;
nonetheless, it demonstrated an important principle of physics that all modern turbine engines rely on.
● 1000: The "Trotting Horse Lamp" was used by the Chinese at lantern fairs as early as the Northern Song dynasty. When the lamp is lit,
the heated airflow rises and drives an impeller with horse-riding figures attached on it, whose shadows are then projected onto the outer
screen of the lantern.
● 1500: The Smoke jack was drawn by Leonardo da Vinci: Hot air from a fire rises through a single-stage axial turbine rotor mounted in the
exhaust duct of the fireplace and turns the roasting spit by gear-chain connection.
● 1629: Jets of steam rotated an impulse turbine that then drove a working stamping mill by means of a bevel gear, developed by Giovanni
Branca.
● 1678: Ferdinand Verbiest built a model carriage relying on a steam jet for power.
● 1791: A patent was given to John Barber, an Englishman, for the first true gas turbine. His invention had most of the elements present in
the modern day gas turbines. The turbine was designed to power a horseless carriage.
● 1861: British patent no. 1633 was granted to Marc Antoine Francois Mennons for a "Caloric engine". The patent shows that it was a gas
turbine and the drawings show it applied to a locomotive. Also named in the patent was Nicolas de Telescheff (otherwise Nicholas A.
Teleshov), a Russian aviation pioneer.
● 1872: A gas turbine engine designed by Berlin engineer, Franz Stolze, is thought to be the first attempt at creating a working model, but
the engine never ran under its own power.
● 1894: Sir Charles Parsons patented the idea of propelling a ship with a steam turbine, and built a demonstration vessel, the Turbinia,
easily the fastest vessel afloat at the time. This principle of propulsion is still of some use.
● 1895: Three 4-ton 100 kW Parsons radial flow generators were installed in Cambridge Power Station, and used to power the first electric
street lighting scheme in the city.
● 1899: Charles Gordon Curtis patented the first gas turbine engine in the US ("Apparatus for generating mechanical power", Patent No.
US635,919).
TIMELINE OF DEVELOPMENT
● 1900: Sanford Alexander Moss submitted a thesis on gas turbines. In 1903, Moss became an engineer for General
Electric's Steam Turbine Department in Lynn, Massachusetts. While there, he applied some of his concepts in the
development of the turbosupercharger. His design used a small turbine wheel, driven by exhaust gases, to turn a
supercharger.
● 1903: A Norwegian, Ægidius Elling, built the first gas turbine that was able to produce more power than needed to run
its own components, which was considered an achievement in a time when knowledge about aerodynamics was
limited. Using rotary compressors and turbines it produced 11 hp.
● 1906: The Armengaud-Lemale turbine engine in France with a water-cooled combustion chamber.
● 1910: Holzwarth impulse turbine (pulse combustion) achieved 150 kW (200 hp).
● 1913: Nikola Tesla patents the Tesla turbine based on the boundary layer effect.
● 1920s The practical theory of gas flow through passages was developed into the more formal (and applicable to
turbines) theory of gas flow past airfoils by A. A. Griffith resulting in the publishing in 1926 of An Aerodynamic Theory
of Turbine Design. Working testbed designs of axial turbines suitable for driving a propeller were developed by the
Royal Aeronautical Establishment, thereby proving the efficiency of aerodynamic shaping of the blades in 1929.
TIMELINE OF DEVELOPMENT
● 1930: Having found no interest from the RAF for his idea, Frank Whittle patented the design for a centrifugal gas turbine for jet propulsion. The first
successful use of his engine occurred in England in April 1937.
● 1932: BBC Brown, Boveri & Cie of Switzerland starts selling axial compressor and turbine turbosets as part of the turbocharged steam generating Velox
boiler. Following the gas turbine principle, the steam evaporation tubes are arranged within the gas turbine combustion chamber; the first Velox plant
was erected in Mondeville, Calvados, France.
● 1934: Raúl Pateras de Pescara patented the free-piston engine as a gas generator for gas turbines.
● 1936: Whittle with others backed by investment forms Power Jets Ltd
● 1937: Working proof-of-concept prototype jet engine runs in UK (Frank Whittle's) and Germany (Hans von Ohain's Heinkel HeS 1). Henry Tizard secures
UK government funding for further development of Power Jets engine.
● 1939: First 4 MW utility power generation gas turbine from BBC Brown, Boveri & Cie. for an emergency power station in Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
● 1944: The Junkers Jumo 004 engine enters full production, powering the first German military jets such as the Messerschmitt Me 262. This marks the
beginning of the reign of gas turbines in the sky.
● 1946: National Gas Turbine Establishment formed from Power Jets and the RAE turbine division to bring together Whittle and Hayne Constant's work. In
Beznau, Switzerland the first commercial reheated/recuperated unit generating 27 MW was commissioned.
● 1947: A Metropolitan Vickers G1 (Gatric) becomes the first marine gas turbine when it completes sea trials on the Royal Navy's M.G.B 2009 vessel. The
Gatric was an aeroderivative gas turbine based on the Metropolitan Vickers F2 jet engine.
● 1995: Siemens becomes the first manufacturer of large electricity producing gas turbines to incorporate single crystal turbine blade technology into their
production models, allowing higher operating temperatures and greater efficiency.
● 2011 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries tests the first >60% efficiency combined cycle gas turbine (the M501J) at its Takasago, Hyōgo, works.