Topic > Brief history of the gas turbine engine and trends in future development

The gas turbine engine is one of the simplest engine concepts in history. Even a child who inflates a balloon and releases it to move forward has seen how the gas turbine or simply jet energy works. Today's jet engine is the logical progression of the supercharger and turbocharger. These two concepts gave rise to the concept of connecting the compressor and turbine together and rotating them simultaneously. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The history of the gas turbine begins around 150 BC, when a scientist named Hero built a toy called the “Aeolipile.” It consists of sphere and tubes bent together with the boiler. The steam expelled from the bent tubes caused the sphere to rotate according to Newton's third law of motion. Similarly, Leonardo da Vinci made a sketch in which a chimney bag was spinning due to hot gases exploding in a chimney. We should be aware that the gas turbine engine is mainly based on Newton's first and third laws of motion. In 1687 he also built a steam wagon. This device was operated by directing steam through a nozzle. In 1791, an Englishman John Barber acquired the patent for his carriage. This carriage had no horses. Instead, it consists of a propeller, a compressor and a turbine to drive the carriage. Also, in 1872, F. Stolze built a multi-stage turbine engine with a flow compressor. But it never works alone. In the early 1930s, many enthusiastic scientists pursued the simple jet engine concept to overcome the limitations of piston engines and the propeller. Among them was a British boy, Frank Whittle. In 1928, as a cadet, he researched jet-powered aircraft. After graduating from Cambridge University, he built his first jet model, but it failed. It took another three years to build the next model, but it wasn't powerful enough to power the plane. Meanwhile, another scientist in Germany named Hans von Ohioan built a working engine with the support of the Heinkel company. In 1939, they pioneered the first turbojet aircraft, the Heinkel HE-178. It remained in the air for a short time. What's fascinating is that, throughout the history of aviation, the Wright brother's first flight, the first supersonic flight, the first blind flight, and this first turbojet flight, were all very short flights. But Germany was unwilling to announce that it had invented the first successful turbojet engines. In September 1939, World War II began with Germany invading Poland. In 1939 and 1940, Germany showed no interest in promoting massive production of turbojet engines. But after the defeat against British air superiority, mass production began. At that time Heinkel was competing with his bitter rival Willly Messerschmitt. In 1941, Messerschmitt won the mass production competition for the Luftwaffe with its more agile and powerful ME-262. Delivered 225 ME-262s to the Luftwaffe for close air combat. This surprisingly fast ME-262 also showed its prowess in March 1945 when they intercepted the Flying Fortress bombers although they were outnumbered fifty to one. Meanwhile in Britain, Frank Whittle built his first workable turbo jet aircraft by collaborating with Rolls Royce in 1941 named as Gloster Meteor Plane, E28. Likewise, the United States was far behind Europe in gas turbine engine design. But General Hap Arnold, of the US Air Force, volunteered to import Whittle's turbo jet from Great Britain..