Aircraft Engine - Timeline of Aircraft Engine Development

Timeline of Aircraft Engine Development

• 1848: John Stringfellow made a steam engine capable of powering a model, albeit with negligible payload.
• 1903: Charlie Taylor built an inline aeroengine for the Wright Flyer (12 horsepower).
• 1903: Manly-Balzer engine sets standards for later radial engines.
• 1906: Léon Levavasseur produces a successful water-cooled V8 engine for aircraft use.
• 1908: René Lorin patents a design for the ramjet engine.
• 1908: Gnome Omega designed, the world's first rotary engine that was produced in quantity. In 1909, this engine in a Farman III aircraft won the prize for the greatest non-stop distance flown at the Reims Grande Semaine d'Aviation and set a world record for endurance 180 kilometres (110 mi).
• 1910: Coandă-1910, an unsuccessful ducted fan powered aircraft exhibited at Paris Aero Salon.
• 1914: Auguste Rateau suggests using exhaust-powered compressor – a turbocharger – to improve high-altitude performance; not accepted after the tests
• 1917-18 - The Idflieg-numbered R.30/16 example of the Imperial German Luftstreitkräfte's Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI heavy bomber becomes the earliest known supercharger-equipped aircraft to fly, with a Mercedes D.II straight-six engine placed in the central fuselage to power a Brown-Boveri mechanical supercharger for the R.30/16's quartet of Mercedes D.IVa powerplants.
• 1918: Sanford Alexander Moss picks Rateau's idea and creates the first successful turbocharger
• 1926: Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar IV (S), the first series-produced supercharged engine for aircraft use; two-row radial with a gear-driven centrifugal supercharger.
• 1930: Frank Whittle submitted his first patent for turbojet engine.
• June 1939: Heinkel He 176 is the first successful aircraft to fly, powered solely with a liquid-fueled rocket engine.
• August 1939: Heinkel HeS 3 turbojet propels the pioneering German Heinkel He 178 aircraft.
• 1940: Jendrassik Cs-1, the world's first run of the turboprop engine.
• 1944: Messerschmitt Me 163B Komet, the world's first rocket propelled combat aircraft deployed.
• 1947: Bell X-1 rocket propelled aircraft exceeds the speed of sound.
• 1948: 100 shp 782, the first turboshaft engine; in 1950 used to develop the larger 280 shp (210 kW) Turbomeca Artouste.
• 1949: Leduc 010, the world's first ramjet-powered aircraft flight.
• 1950: Rolls-Royce Conway, the world's first production turbofan, enters service.
• 1960s: TF39 high bypass turbofan enters service delivering greater thrust and much better efficiency.
• 2002: HyShot scramjet flew in dive.
• 2004: Hyper-X, the first scramjet to maintain altitude.