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by WalterBright 395 days ago
All modern jet engines are based on Ohain's axial flow design, not Whittle's radial flow one. Ohain's engine first ran in 1937. The Heinkel HE178 was the first flying jet airplane, with Ohain's engine.

The Me262 was the first operational jet fighter, again with Ohain's engine.
2 comments
jansan 394 days ago
> The Me262 was the first operational jet fighter, again with Ohain's engine.

I think "Ohain's engine concept" would be more correct.

Ohain worked at Heinkel and developed the HeS 011 engine. However, the Me 262 was equipped with the Junkers Jumo 004, which was based on Ohain's design, but developed without him. The first test flights were actually done in 1942 with two BMW Typ P 3302 turbines (later called BMW 003).

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WalterBright 394 days ago
"Granted a patent for his turbojet engine in 1936, Ohain joined the Heinkel Company in Rostock, Germany. By 1937 he had built a factory-tested demonstration engine and, by 1939, a fully operational jet aircraft, the He 178. Soon after, Ohain directed the construction of the He S.3B, the first fully operational centrifugal-flow turbojet engine. This engine was installed in the He 178 airplane, which made the world's first jet-powered aircraft flight on August 27, 1939."

https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/courses/ww2/projects...

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BXLE_1-1-BitIs1 394 days ago
Axial flow made more demands on metallurgy of the time than centrifugal flow. The Viscount was the first turbine powered civil aircraft using RR Darts with two centrifugal compressor stages.

I enjoyed flying on the Viscount. It offered a much nicer passenger experience than the current crop of sardine cans.

Decades later I got in a lot of time flying the simulator that Air Canada donated to a tech school.

http://www.vickersviscount.net/Pages_Technical/Rolls-RoyceDa...

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