JET ENGINES

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24911, 26 June 1946, Page 4

JET ENGINES

DEVELOPMENT IN BRITAIN

GERMAN SCIENTISTS TO HELP (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, May 9. German scientists, many of whom are leading aeronautical authorities, are coming to Britian to co-operate with British scientists in hastening the development of aero-dynamics, to solve the problems created by the jet engine. This announcement was made by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Supply (Mr Arthur Woodburn). The scientists, all of whom are hpnNazis, will work at Farnborough, Hampshire, where they will live in a special hostel and will be waited on by German prisoners of war. They have been working in German research stations and will be paid the same salaries as they received there. Similar parties are to go to America and Russia. Some of the men coming to Britain are world renowned for their researches in this field of science. They include Professor Busemann, an expert in aero-dynamics, Professor Ernst Schmidt, a specialist in gas turbines, and Dr. Encke, of Gottingen University, an expert in the design of an important part of the jet engine. Mr Woodbum said that this country led the world in the development of jet engines, though tremendous problems of metallurgy were met with. When Britain captured the air speed record of 606 m.p.h., jet engines had to be held back. Tliey could easily have gone at a greater speed if the development in aero-dynamics and in the structure of aeroplanes had kept pace with the progress of the jet engine. Since then the jet engine had forged ahead again and its development was going on by leaps and bounds. The problem of the age was that of aero-dynamics and the means of surpassing the speed of sound. “We believe,” Mr Woodbum added, “that we are on the verge of solving the problem.” In the disarmament of Germany, he continued, it was decided that this vital realm of research should not be left intact in Germany. There were some research stations in each of. the British, American, and Russian zones, and care had been taken to render them useless from the point of view of war. But in those stations were scientists who, in their own way, were pre-eminent and who, among world scientists, held considerable renown. America, Russia, and Britian had now agreed that so many of these scientists should go to each of the three countries to co-operate with their own. scientists. About 25 would be coming to this country.