In 1910 Henri Coandă filed a patent on a jet propulsion system which
used piston-engine exhaust gases to add heat to an otherwise pure air
stream compressed by rotating fan blades in a duct.
The "turbojet", was invented in the 1940s, independently by Frank
Whittle and Hans von Ohain. The first turbojet aircraft to fly was the
Heinkel He 178 prototype of the Luftwaffe on August 27, 1939.
The first flight of a jet engined aircraft to come to popular attention
was the Italian Caproni Campini N.1 motorjet prototype that flew on
August 27, 1940. It was the first jet aircraft recognised by the
Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (at the time the German He 178
program was still kept secret). Campini had proposed the motorjet in 1932.
The British experimental Gloster E.28/39 first took to the air on May
15, 1941, powered by Sir Frank Whittle's turbojet. After the United
States was shown the British work, it produced the Bell XP-59A with a
version of the Whittle engine built by General Electric, which flew on
October 1, 1942.
Seems the Italians beat the Yanks to the first public Jet Aircraft.
Looks like history is repeating itself with the E-Cat.
AG
On 1/7/2012 12:38 PM, Harry Veeder wrote:
I like how a dummy wooden prop was used to disguised the aircraft's
secret propulsion system.
Harry
On Fri, Jan 6, 2012 at 8:51 PM, Aussie Guy E-Cat
<aussieguy.e...@gmail.com> wrote:
http://www.aircraftowner.com/videos/view/americas-first-jet-flight-october-1942_1617.html
