The Tagge's wrote:
I had the honor and privilage to hear both Sir Francis Whittle and Hans Von
Ohain talk together at the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force
Base. At the time both were employed by the US Department of Defense.
Whittle acknowledged that Germany got the first jet aircraft into the air.
He said that he know that when he saw a picture of the grass runway that
they used with twin burn marks from the jet exhaust. He saw the photo the
day after the flight. [talk about good spying]. Von Ohain said that this
was the first that he heard of the transfer of information. Both were
friends at the time.
Metalworking content Von Ohain said that his limiting factor of development
was materials. As a work around they used beer cans shaped to make the
turbine vanes. They were replaced after every flight. The maintenance crew
did not complain about having to procure more.
Bert

I remember seeing one of those early German engines sectioned many years
ago in either the Science Museum in London or the German Museum in
Munich. It showed the hollow blades used at the time and the reason
given was that the Germans were very short of strategic materials to
make the high temperature resisting alloys so the blades were made of
sheet rather than solid. Maybe the beer cans were used in the compressor
section but I doubt they would last long in the hot bits. IIRC lifespan
wasn't such an issue as the planes would most likely get shot down
before engine failure.

"David Billington" wrote in message
...

John R. Carroll wrote:

"lemelman" wrote in message
...


Stupendous Man wrote:



...snip
By that logic, since "Nazi" scientists invented things , we should
ditch synthetic lubricants, destroy all rockets, and go back to piston
engined aircraft.



Eh? - The jet engine was invented by (Sir) Frank Whittle in 1928 and
patented in 1930. He was born in Coventry, England.
See http://www.cwn.org.uk/heritage/peopl...biography.html


They still have an example flying.
The trouble is the thing isn't scalable in modern airframes.
The German designs were problematic because materials lagged behind but
the concept was more useful.
Whittle's got fatter as the output increased. The kraut design just got
longer.

PBS did a great one hour special on all of this.

JC



Whittle did have ideas for axial flow turbines and what we now know as the
turbo fan, if only the British government had given him more backing. IIRC
Whittle had to try at times and find private investment finance but
because the work was being done for the government he couldn't tell the
investors what is was for.