EXCITED BUT SILENT

New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 239, 21 January 1944, Page 8

EXCITED BUT SILENT

Air Experts and Jet Plane

No one knows yet what jet propulsion may do to aeronautics. We know only that the experts are excited about it. Excited but silent. The day after the revolution was announced the BBC arranged for two or three of the men most closely associated with it to come before the microphone in the Science Notebook session, They came-including Group-Cap-tain Whittle himself. But this is all they said:

Announcer: ERE’S news of a revolutionary development in aero-engines-jet propulsion. No one can say yet exactly what the successful development of this invention may mean. Its possibilities are far too vast, and no one can describe the engine or the plane it flies. They’re both on that list that is marked "Very Very secret," But here is the aeronautical expert, Mr. E. Coulston Shepherd. to give you his ideas about it. Mr. Shepherd As you’ve heard, this method of propulsion means that an aeroplane needs no air screw, The engine has to make a stream of gas instead. You may use an internal combustion engine in the aeroplane as a help to manufacture this stream or jet, or you may make the flow of the gas itself turn the compressor. This is a matter of choice and ultimatelv

of experience, Inventors have plumped for both methods. Which method GroupCaptain Whittle employs I’m not yet allowed to tell you, and I shan’t reallv help you to make your own guess if I say that in a patterned specification of 1936 he combined both ideas. Anyhow there’s no air-screw, and the aeroplane is driven forward by the blowing out of a powerful stream of gas behind it. It’s very much as though you blew up an ordinary toy balloon and then let it go. You remember how the air rushing out of the neck sends the balloon through the air. This principle applied to the aeroplane means that there is less head resistance (there aren’t any screws of course) and there is therefore no twisting slip-stream to disturb the flow of air over the wings and. past the body. You should get a faster airflow over the wings, which might be a positive advantage. Quite apart from, the terrific power that may be generated by a jet. these things should mean more of a lift and more speed for a given power. In Italy and Germany speeds above 500 miles an hour and. an amazing rate of climb were promised. We in this countrv have made so many flights in a jetdriven fighter that we know how much is to be expected of it. I’m betraying no secrets when I say that we’re expecting a great deal. In fact production is now contemplated. Our jet propulsion unit works and works well. And the might of the R.A.F. will eventually be greatlv increased by it. (Continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) Announcer: As Mr. Shepherd put it, it all sounds quite easy. As you’ve heard, there haye been many years of hard work since the idea first came to its inventor, and it was nearly two years ago when a plane without a propellor first flew. One of the men who watched this winged revolution make its first flight was Mr. L. L. White, the man who heard the inventor’s dream and helped to bring it into the reals of reality. _ Mr, White: It was within a few days of the first flight that I saw it myself, I thought as I looked at it that it appeared almost too simple. First it was the climax of long effort, Would it also be the entering of a new field of engineering devel»pment? Sawyer was in the cockpit. The engine started up with a hum and the shrill roar we knew so well from the test bench, The aeroplane moved down the airfield and took off exactly according to programme. It completed the schedule of tests exactly as planned. There was no drama, no excitement, Indeed I felt a little anxious and puzzled. Could it really be true? Everything seemed to be going too well, The plane came down and landed without a hitch. it was all right. One phase of the great adventure was complete. When it becomes possible to tell the full story of this achievement certain features will stand out. Most important of all, the birth of the idea in the mind of a young unknown R.A.F. cadet, and the combination of enthusiasm and devotion to science that carried him through every difficulty. Next perhaps the rather British way in which private enterprise and the State co-operated to provide the right conditions for this unique development. And finally the intimate collaboration of this country with the United States in the later stages. Announcer: And what of the inventor, GroupCaptain Whittle himself? He’s a modest man; he doesn’t talk much about himself, This is how he impressed Mr. White. Mr, White: It was in an office in London over eight years ago that I first met Whittle to hear about his ideas. His ability and determination deeply impressed me, and when I got home that evening I said I had met one of the great inventive engineers of our time; and it was true. Announcer: It certainly was true. No one can doubt that to-day. And now we bring you the voice of the great engineer himself, Group-Captain Whittle. Group-Captain Whittle: I would really rather not say much about jet propulsion aircraft. In fact I find this sudden publicity very embarrassing, so I would rather leave the subject for the present except to say that I have been devoting myself to it for a long time. The idea really had its roots in a science thesis I had to write in my first term as a cadet at Cranwell when I selected as my subject the future development of aircraft, But the main idea did not come to me until about eighteen months later when I was taking the instructors’ course at a central fl school, A great many people have played important parts in this work besides myself, and the results we have got have mainly been due to team work. Naturally I believe that there is a great future for this type of aircraft.