Hans von Ohain

Hans von Ohain
Hans von Ohain in the 1970s
Born
Hans Joachim Pabst von Ohain

(1911-12-14)14 December 1911
Dessau, Duchy of Anhalt, German Empire
Died13 March 1998(1998-03-13) (aged 86)
Melbourne, Florida, U.S.
EducationUniversity of Göttingen
OccupationEngineer (jet propulsion)
SpouseHanny von Ohain
Children4

Hans Joachim Pabst von Ohain (14 December 1911 – 13 March 1998) was a German physicist, engineer, and the designer of the first aircraft to use a turbojet engine.[1] Together with Frank Whittle and Anselm Franz, he has been described as the co-inventor of the turbojet engine. However, the historical timelines show that von Ohain was still a university student when, in January 1930, Whittle filed his first patent for a turbojet engine and successfully tested his first engine in April 1937, some 6 months before von Ohain. Additionally, prior to designing his engine and filing his own patent in 1935, von Ohain had read and critiqued Whittle's patents.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8] Von Ohain stated in his biography that "My interest in jet propulsion began in the fall of 1933 when I was in my seventh semester at Göttingen University. I didn't know that many people before me had the same thought."[3] Unlike Whittle, von Ohain had the significant advantage of being supported by an aircraft manufacturer, Heinkel, who funded his work.

When in 1935 von Ohain designed his overall engine layout, he based it for compactness on a centrifugal impeller (centrifugal or radial compressor) and a radial inflow turbine.[9]

Ultimately, this configuration had too many shortcomings to be put into production; however, aided by the enormous resources of the Heinkel Aircraft Company, a developed version was sufficient to power the He-178, and on 27 August 1939 von Ohain entered history as the designer of the world's first gas turbine to power an aircraft.

Von Ohain stayed with centrifugal designs, contributing his research to Heinkel's other projects such as the combined centrifugal/axial HeS8 and 011,[10] but ultimately none of his designs was put into production. Other competing German designers at Junkers and BMW, following the axial design layout, saw their engines brought into production, although they never solved some of the basic power and durability problems. Von Ohain nevertheless started the world's first jet engine industry in his homeland of Germany, with many prototypes and series productions built until 1945.

Von Ohain, having entered turbojet design some time later than Whittle, began working on his first turbojet engine designs during the same period that Whittle was building his WU engine in Britain. Their turbojet designs have been said by some to be an example of simultaneous invention.[11] However, von Ohain explains in his biography that, in 1935, while his own patent was being prepared (and before he had begun construction of an engine), his lawyer gave him a copy of Whittle's patent, which he read and critiqued. As a result, he was forced to modify his own application so as not to infringe on Whittle's design.[12]

The core of Ohain's first jet engine, the Heinkel HeS 1, which he described as his "hydrogen test engine," was run "in March or early April" according to Ohain (although Ernst Heinkel's diaries record it as September 1937).[13][14]

Work on the hydrogen test engine continued, but the engine required modifications to fix overtemperature problems and to fit a fuel system to enable it to run self-contained on liquid fuel, which was achieved in September 1937.[15][16] With the heavy backing of Heinkel, Ohain's jet engine was the first to power an aircraft, the Heinkel He 178 aircraft in 1939, which was followed by Whittle's engine within the Gloster E.28/39 in 1941.[17] Turbojet powered fighter aircraft from both Germany and Britain entered operational use virtually simultaneously in July 1944: the Me 262 on July 26 and the Gloster Meteor on July 27 of 1944.[18][19][20][21] The Me 262 was the first operational fighter jet and saw flight combat with hundreds of machines, while the few dozen Meteors saw limited action.

Although Von Ohain and Whittle both knew about axial flow compressors, they remained dedicated to improving centrifugal compressor engines to power respectively the Heinkel He 178 and the Gloster E.28/39 until the end of the Second World War. Axial flow compressor jet engines were instead developed in parallel by Anselm Franz (Junkers) and Hermann Oestrich (BMW) to design the similar Jumo 004 and BMW 003 engines,[22][23] designs that were eventually adopted by most manufacturers by the 1950s.[24][25]

After the war the two men met, became friends and received the Charles Stark Draper Prize for Engineering "for their independent development of the turbojet engine."[26][27]

  1. ^ "Hans Joachim Pabst von Ohain - German designer". britannica.com. 10 December 2023.
  2. ^ Golley,John-Genesis of the Jet Airlife Publishing 1995 p 86
  3. ^ a b Margaret Conner, Hans von Ohain: Elegance in Flight (Reston, Virginia: American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., 2001), page 31
  4. ^ "Who Invented the Jet Engine?".
  5. ^ The Father of the Jet Engine - Hans Von Ohain, 7 June 2014, retrieved 24 November 2023
  6. ^ Sack, Harald (14 December 2020). "Hans von Ohain and the Invention of the Jet Engine | SciHi Blog". Retrieved 24 November 2023.
  7. ^ "Hans von Ohain – The Other Father of Jet Engines and the Gas Turbine | Turbomachinery blog". blog.softinway.com. 12 January 2021. Retrieved 24 November 2023.
  8. ^ "The Converging Paths of Whittle and von Ohain". Air & Space Forces Magazine. Retrieved 24 November 2023.
  9. ^ Margaret Conner, Hans von Ohain: Elegance in Flight (Reston, Virginia: American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., 2001), page 131-133
  10. ^ Margaret Conner, Hans von Ohain: Elegance in Flight (Reston, Virginia: American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., 2001), page 124-131
  11. ^ Chedd-Angier-Lewis. "Draper Prize for Engineering". draperprize.org. Archived from the original on 17 October 2009.
  12. ^ Conner, Margaret (2001). hans von Ohain – Elegance in Flight. American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. ISBN 1563475200.
  13. ^ Margaret Conner, Hans von Ohain: Elegance in Flight (Reston, Virginia: American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., 2001), page 62
  14. ^ "The Converging Paths of Whittle and von Ohain".
  15. ^ "Who Invented the Jet Engine?".
  16. ^ Margaret Conner, Hans von Ohain: Elegance in Flight (Reston, Virginia: American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., 2001), page 63
  17. ^ Koehler 1999, p. 173.
  18. ^ Dorr 2013, p. 119.
  19. ^ Heaton, Colin D.; Lewis, Anne-Marien; Tillman, Barrett (15 May 2012). Thehe Me 262 Stormbird: From the Pilots Who Flew, Fought, and Survived It. Voyageur Press. ISBN 978-1-61058434-0.
  20. ^ Listemann 2016, p. 5.
  21. ^ "The Day Germany's First Jet Fighter Soared into History".
  22. ^ "Jumo 004B Engine". Archived from the original on 14 April 2019. Retrieved 12 July 2024.
  23. ^ "Design Analysis of BMW 003 Turbojet". Archived from the original on 29 September 2018. Retrieved 12 July 2024.
  24. ^ Experimental & Prototype US Air Force Jet Fighters, Jenkins & Landis, 2008
  25. ^ Foderaro, Lisa W. (10 August 1996). "Frank Whittle, 89, Dies; His Jet Engine Propelled Progress". The New York Times.
  26. ^ Klooster 2009, p. 459.
  27. ^ "1991 Recipients of the Charles Stark Draper Prize".