Jet Engine Invention

[goose boy]

After a debate with a friend over diner the other night I am trying to find out who ivented the Jet engine. I believed it to be Sir Frank Whittle but he text one of these services from his phone which came back with the answer "hiro"
who's invention of the jet engine was not recognised ??????

Can someone shed some light on this as it has me confused,

Many thanks

G.B

[mcgoo]

Listed here as Hero in 1AD

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_engine

[henry crun]

Read here http://inventors.about.com/library/i...ljetengine.htm

[Exnomad]

Early Jet Engines

I believe early German engines were more technically advanced that the Whittle one, being axial flow rather than centrifugal. The reason what the ME262 had so many problems was the less advanced alloys used in their construction. Lack of nickel supply was a major cause.
Meteors and Vampires has centrifugal flow engines which had a larger cross section, and more drag than the German ones.
As an aside the Rover engine used in the JET1 car, and on industrial generator sets and firepumps was a smaller version of the whittle engine and used his patents. Firepumps powered by these were in use by RN until fairly recently

[ampan]

It's probable that basic principle behind the jet engine was known for many years - just like the atomic bomb. The hard bit was making it work. Sir Frank Whittle certainly did that. He might have been beaten to the punch by the Germans, but he certainly did not steal their work. So both deserve the credit.

[Flap Track 6]

To add to Exnomad's comments, axial flow compressors are more troublesome to control than their centrifugal cousins. Axials require handling bleed valves and/or variable geometry (such as variable vanes or variable area nozzles) to keep them from stalling and surging during part throttle operations and rapid accels and decels. The weaving of all this into a successful control system using hydromechanical means is even today a time consuming black art requiring much testbed work.
Sir Frank cleverly sidestepped this potential minefield by utilising a centrifugal compressor requiring little airflow control.

[LowNSlow]

I thought the Rover engines were axial flow machines??

Early Gas Turbine History
1791 First patent for a gas turbine (John Barber, United Kingdom)

1904 Unsuccessful gas turbine project by Franz Stolze in Berlin (first axial compressor)

1906 GT by Armengaud Lemale in France (centrifugal compressor, no useful power)

1910 First GT featuring intermittent combustion (Holzwarth, 150 kW, constant volume combustion)

1923 First exhaust-gas turbocharger to increase the power of diesel engines

1939 World’s first gas turbine for power generation (Brown Boveri Company), Neuchâtel, Switzerland
(velox burner, aerodynamics by Stodola)

[gruntie]

1923 First exhaust-gas turbocharger to increase the power of diesel engines

I understood that the RAE had such a turbocharger fitted to (& flying) on an RE-8, late in WW1.