The story of the first US jet engine

[turboshaft]

A feature on GE's development of Whittle's Power Jets W.1 jet engine into the Type 1-A, precursor of the J31.

The story of the 1st US jet engine: the Hush-Hush Boys wanted to win the war but they ended up shrinking the world (http://www.gereports.com/the-story-of-the-1st-us-jet-engine-the-hush-hush-boys-wanted-to-win-the-war-but-they-ended-up-shrinking-the-world/)

[chevvron]

One problem. The picture purporting to show Sir Frank Whittle 'wearing a hat in the middle' clearly isn't him. The hat and uniform are all wrong as is his stature.
Sir Frank's son Ian still flies regularly from the airport in England where I work part time; if I get the chance I'll show him that picture.

[FlightlessParrot]

Even to a non-engineer, that article looks full of inaccuracies.

For instance, they say their tools didn't fit the nuts and bolts of the Whittle, which is possible, but that's ascribed to the Whittle using metric standards, which seems unlikely.

On a much more important note, the centrifugal compressor is described as "very inefficient." Undoubtedly the axial compressor was the future (and A.A. Griffith was right in the long run), but Hooker, who made his name on centrifugal compressors, records that he was unable to improve Whittle's design, it was so efficient (I suspect he was rather miffed to discover this). It also says that the GE team was helped by the study of "jets salvaged from the German V-2 rocket bombs." Surely not, even if it's a typo for V-1?

I'm afraid even as personal reminiscences, it's pretty skewed to being mere puffery for GE (the Brits, it is claimed, asked GE to develop the engine because they couldn't: he said that, I didn't). Pity.

[Stanwell]

Thanks for the post and the link, turboshaft.

It's been a while since I've been exposed to such a load of tripe as that.
Still, it has to be taken within the context that it was assumedly written by a cadet PR hack, I suppose.
But .. where was the editor?
I have to agree, though, with FlightlessParrot's observation that it was little more than "mere puffery for GE".
Personally, I would have been a little less kind.

Hopefully, TurbineD and others will be along shortly to let us have their candid assessments of that article.
I suspect few will be complimentary.

[Redredrobin]

1952 version worth a look?

Right down at the bottom of the page referenced in post 1 there's a 1952 short film also made by GE telling the same story with fewer errors (though it appears the Whittle engine is being unloaded from a USAF-liveried plane...only 5 years too early for that to be possible. Some nice scenes of early US jets flying, and optimism about nuclear-powered aircraft. Maybe that did happen and we just haven't been told?

[Fareastdriver]

It's possible that Whittle used Whitworth threads.

[Allan Lupton]

It's possible that Whittle used Whitworth threads.
Not possible but probable!
BSW/BSF were standard in UK aero engineering for perhaps three decades post-Whittle

[ericferret]

I had to buy some BSW spanners not that long ago to work on a RR Dart mounted on a Fokker F27. I seem to remember the aircraft pneumatic system was BSW. Expensive too, think how many tons of those spanners have gone into the scrap over the last 30 years.

[A30yoyo]

Tip from a real mechanic ( not me....a former boss of mine!).....if you've got a slightly oversize spanner (wrench) use your feeler gauge set to fill the gap... useful when Metric, UNF, and BSW/BSF co-exist

[ian16th]

if you've got a slightly oversize spanner (wrench) use your feeler gauge set to fill the gap...

Or a not so slightly oversized spanner and a coin.

[Krystal n chips]

Leaving aside the fact the heap ( A.T.P ) combined every design flaw imaginable (possibly due to having a surplus left over from the 748) some comedian at Woodford / Chadderton thought it a " good idea " to use the same flap drive gearbox on the A.T.P....the oil replenishment plug was.......5/16 BSW.

They tended to become "a little smooth round the edges ".

[ericferret]

"Tip from a real mechanic ( not me....a former boss of mine!).....if you've got a slightly oversize spanner (wrench) use your feeler gauge set to fill the gap... useful when Metric, UNF, and BSW/BSF co-exist"

Met a few of these "real mechanics" during my 40 odd years doing the job. They usually have a superb set of large hammers combined with numerous bent screw drivers used in lieu of chisels or levers. They also tend to have socket extension bars that don't fit anymore because they have been used as punches. A collection of bike spanners is also a must. Personaly I just prefer to buy the right tool for the job so as not to leave the next poor b*stard with a problem.

[DaveReidUK]

Met a few of these "real mechanics" during my 40 odd years doing the job. They usually have a superb set of large hammers

http://www.quotehd.com/imagequotes/authors9/tmb/richard-a-may-quote-if-it-doesnt-fit-get-a-bigger-hammer.jpg

[Fareastdriver]

I could never get my engines to run quietly because all my feeler gauges had been graunched using the wrong spanners.

[ericferret]

What you could have done was get a micrometer and your six inch rule and grind the tips of the rule down to the correct size. You can also use the micrometer or vernier if you have one as an adjustable spanner.