Timeline of Jet Power - First Turbojet Engines (1930-1938)

First Turbojet Engines (1930-1938)

• 1930: Whittle presents a complete jet engine design to the Air Ministry. They pass the paper to Griffiths, who says the idea is impracticable, pointing out a mathematical error, noting the low efficiency of his design, and stating that Whittle's use of a centrifugal compressor would make his proposal useless for aircraft applications.
• 1930: Whittle receives official notice that the Air Ministry is not interested in his concepts, and that they don't even feel that it is worthy of making secret. He is devastated, but friends in the Royal Air Force convince him to patent the idea anyway. This turns out to be a major stroke of luck, because if the Air Ministry had made the idea secret, they would have become the official owners of the rights to the concept. In his patent, Whittle cleverly hedges his bets, and describes an engine with two axial compressor stages and one centrifugal, thus anticipating both routes forward.
• 1930: Schmidt patents a pulsejet engine in Germany.
• 1931: Secondo Campini patents his motorjet engine, referring to it as a thermojet. (A motorjet is a crude form of hybrid jet engine in which the compressor is powered by a piston engine, rather than a turbine.)
• 1933: Hans von Ohain writes his thesis at the University of Göttingen, describing an engine similar to Frank Whittle's with the exception that it uses a centrifugal "fan" as the turbine as well as the compressor. This design is a dead-end; no "centrifugal-turbine" jet engine will ever be built.
• 1933: Yuri Pobedonostsev and Igor Merkulov tests hydrogen powered GIRD-04 ramjet engine. First supersonic flight of a jet propelled object achieved with artillery-launched ramjets later that year.
• 1934: von Ohain hires a local mechanic, Max Hahn, to build his a prototype of his engine design at Hahn's garage.
• 1934: Secondo Campini starts work on the Campini Caproni CC.2, based on his "thermojet" engine.
• 1935: Whittle allows his patent to lapse after finding himself unable to pay the £5 renewal fee. Soon afterward he is approached by ex-RAF officers Rolf Dudley-Williams and James Collingwood Tinling with a proposal to set up a company to develop his design and Power Jets, Ltd is created.
• 1936: von Ohain is introduced to Ernst Heinkel by a former professor. After being grilled by Heinkel engineers for hours, they conclude his idea is genuine. Heinkel hires von Ohain and Hahn, setting them up at their Rostock-area factory.
• 1936: Junkers starts work on axial-flow turboprop designs under the direction of Herbert Wagner and Adolf Müeller.
• 1936: Junkers Motoren (Jumo) is merged with Junkers, formerly separate companies.
• 1936: A stationary gas turbine is installed at the Sun Oil refinery in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania
• 1936: French engineer René Leduc, having independently re-discovered René Lorin's design, successfully demonstrates the world's first operating ramjet. The Armée de l'Air orders a prototype aircraft, the Leduc 010, a few months later.
• March, 1937: The Heinkel HeS 1 experimental hydrogen fuelled centrifugal engine is tested at Hirth.
• April, 1937: Whittle's experimental centrifugal engine is tested at the British Thomson-Houston plant in Rugby
• September, 1937: von Ohain's Heinkel HeS 1 is converted to run on gasoline. Ernst Heinkel gives the go-ahead to develop a flight-quality engine and a testbed aircraft to put it in.
• 1937: Hayne Constant, Griffith's partner at the RAE, starts negotiations with Metropolitan-Vickers (Metrovick), a British heavy industry firm, to develop a Griffith-style turboprop.
• 1937: At Junkers, Wagner and Müller decide to re-design their work as a pure jet.
• 1938: Metrovick receives a contract from the Air Ministry to start work with Constant.
• 1938: György Jendrassik starts work on a turboprop engine of his own design.
• April, 1938: Hans Mauch takes over the RLM rocket development office. He expands the charter of his office and starts a massive jet development project, under Helmut Schelp. Mauch spurns Heinkel and Junkers, concentrating only on the "big four" engine companies, Daimler-Benz, BMW, Jumo and Bramo. Mauch and Schelp visit all four over the next few months, and find them uninterested in the jet concept.
• 1938: A small team at BMW led by Hermann Östrich builds and flies a simple thermojet. They turn to true jet engine design almost immediatey.
• 1938: The Heinkel He 178 V1 jet testbed is completed, awaiting an engine.
• 1938: The Heinkel HeS 3 "flight quality" engine is tested. This is the first truly usable jet engine. The engine flies on a Heinkel He 118 later that year, eventually becoming the first aircraft to be powered by jet power alone. This engine is tested until it burns out after a few months, and a second is readied for flight.
• 1938: Wagner's axial-flow engine is tested at Junkers.
• 1938: Messerschmitt starts the preliminary design of a twin-engine jet fighter under the direction of Waldermar Voight. This work develops into the Messerschmitt Me 262.