European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 19, 1945, Darmstadt, Hesse Rift rate according to you can hear the Metal pop As it contracts from the cold and see wrinkles in the Wing Johnston has hit 68 test the Jet engines adaptability to temperature extremes is one of its most remarkable when youre flying the the Only noise you hear is the roaring Rush of air Over the the rotary engine makes very Little and the sound of the Jet exhaust bursting in a continuous Stream from the Tail nozzle is not audible inside the on the ground you dont hear the up until its right on top of then it streaks past with a swoosh like the blast of a giant As the plane grows smaller in the the noise becomes a Low rumble like an express train a mile away on a quiet there is no sputtering or crackling As with propeller driven one of the strangest feelings comes the first time you land the says the Landing gear struts Are so Short that you keep coming Down and coming until it feels like youre Landing in a Hole in the because its so hard to hear the plane until its within easy machine gun ups of the future should make excellent strafing after Complete combustion is reached in the the Jet exhaust leaves no visible Trail of flame after making planes like the p59 Good for night fighting and hit run two things bother you right away when you see a up take you wonder what keeps the Nacelle openings from swallowing up passing and you worry about what would happen to a ground crewman if he walked close to the fuselage behind the Jet the Bird problem has been taken care of theres a wire Bird eliminator screen Over the actual air intakes in Side the but anybody who strays within 20 feet behind the Jet when the engine is turning up would probably look like hed tangled with a flame at any distance beyond 20 the Jet exhaust might Knock you for a but you probably get badly though we Are just now Able to talk freely about the existence of an american Jethro pulled military and Industrial Engi neers actually started work on up before Pearl our experiments were conducted with great As Long ago As August 1941 the word went around that Germany was developing an aircraft that would use an engine with a tur bin driven Allied pilots report that they have seen at least two types of German pro Pell Erless air Ray drive Over the Western one looked like the but the other was a Broa winged Bat shaped thing with no nothing has been heard of Italy Jet plane since it was publicized following a 168mile flight from Rome to Milan six Days before Pearl in recent the navys the ship that seagoing flyers Call the worlds Best Carrie based torpedo used four 330 he Jet units for Takeoff assist and gets into the air in less than half the Normal but the Avenger is not powered solely by our own Jet Progress depended on the develop ment of a highly specialized aircraft Power Plant whose prototype was designed in 1933 by Frank a Cadet at the Raf training whittle is now an Raf Wing his engine was running by 1937 and two years later the British air ministry placed its first order for a plane using whittles it was May 1941 before the British ship was meanwhile in the the National advisory committee on aeronautics had set up a group to study Jet in july 1941 Brit Ain sent copies of whittles design to army aircraft engineers who liked its in sep tember one whittle engine was delivered to the general electric company for be was selected to undertake the manufacture of the american Jet engine for several Jet propulsion utilizes Many principles and materials already applied to the manufacture of which be has been turning out for military Craft since the last and the British firm that built whittles engine was an associate of general be had taken a wooden lockup of a Gas Turbine engine to Wright Field As Long ago As but at that Date no materials had been devised that could be depended upon to stand up under the intense heat required for Jet Bell aircraft was assigned on to build the plane into which the be engine would be by now construction of both air frames and engines on the Bell and be designs has been Farmed out to other How secretly All these Steps were carried out was Best shown by whittles visit to the he registered under the name of Whitely at a hotel near a be hotel employees took him for an eccentric englishman with lots of because he asked for a private phone that didst go through the lobby ate his meals in his room and always called for the same fearing whittle moved into the Home of Reginald chief Engineer of Ges supercharger and up de he lived there three months and Standerwick wife didst learn his identity until whittle was already Back in England and the successful flight of an american Jet plane had been publicly the first Man to Fly the american up was Robert then chief test Pilot for at he is the company chief when Stanley heard that the first test was set for he was afraid no hangars or other line equipment would be available at the unrevealed base then under Miles from the nearest Stanley thought he would need some place to hide the new plane when it so he took an option on a los Angeles evangelists revival tent to rent at a but by test Day a hangar was on Stanley climbed into the ship and toyed with the he was eager to get into the but he contented himself with some fast pulling the ship just off the land ing strip for a few seconds at a the next Day Bell and army officials and several scientific bigwigs were on hand and watched Stanley Buzz the Field at 25 feet for 30 then he landed and took off after that the sky was the the first army Pilot to Fly the ship was now Lawrence chief of the aircraft project Section at Wright very few gis have had a Chance to tinker with the exceptions Are four pm on a maintenance Crew at Wright Earl Kohler of Jef Fred Terry of William Meyer of san and Hale Kern of the assembled plane is interesting to look German jets air Force pilots who Hove seen two types of German Jet planes Over the twinset me262 and the rarer single Jet say both ships can top 500 German Jet pilots Haven been anxious to tangle with our ordinarily they Lurk above make Only one dive at our bombers and then zoom right up at terrific Speed on an Angle As Steep As 45 degrees and maintain their largest Force of jets met so far by the fifteenth a Force was Over no fifteenth Pilot has claimed a but a ninth air Force f47 Valmore Beaudrault of one on the Western he believes a Good Pilot in a Good conventional fighter can take a German Jet Pilot by outta neutering turning sharply in Side the enemy ship each time he makes a and by making him use up his slim fuel but its just As interesting to see the Jet propulsion engine by the up Power plants Are rolling out of a be factory that used to build Street you get your Best under standing of the whole theory of Jet propulsion by seeing an engine in breakdown or sketched As on the preceding Jet propulsion has been known to scientists and laymen alike for and you can name dozens of everyday the most common Are the rotary Lawn sprinkler and a blowup balloon thrown into the As the air squeezes out of the neck of the it makes the balloon Fly around in the same the Lawn sprinkler turns in one direction because of the Force of the water shooting from the Little Jet in the opposite As Well As the aircraft Are examples of a simple physical Law every action produces a re action equal in Force and opposite in a rocket is a form of Jet a rocket must carry its own Supply of oxygen and the fuel ignites with the Aid of expands the burning gases to a Point of tremendous then ejects the Force of the ejection throws the rocket in the opposite a Jet propulsion engine performs the same except that it does not have to carry its own no High Grade fuel is needed for Jet propel kerosene is the most often used so but Standerwick of be says the perfect fuel for this Type of engine has yet to be Ezra Kotcher of the fighter engineering Materiel says the up will Fly on anything from Coal Oil to Napoleon a Jet propulsion engine that cruises at 400 Mph weighs on third As much As a conventional aircraft engine of equivalent As opposed to propeller driven up becomes More efficient As the Altitude the tips of the propellers on some of our swiftest planes revolve so fast that the combined Speed of prop rotation and Forward motion approaches the Speed of sound and its accompanying flight without spinning propellers to worry Jet propelled planes apparently can be limited in Speed Only by flying so fast that the wings Are travelling at the Speed of at that the compressibility of effective along the whole leading Edge of the would be a Tough problem to the advantages of Jet propulsion Over conventional aircraft can be summed up like this More greater less weight per horsepower at altitudes of equal operating fewer hence less danger of serious breakdown and fewer men needed in maintenance Jet propulsion one big disadvantage May be the Factor that will keep it out of commercial usage until a solution is at less than 400 a Jet propelled plane requires up to twice As much fuel for operation As a conventional Craft of equal test Pilot Johnston believes that Jet propulsion As we know it now is merely a step toward future aviation Power plants that will make even our most advanced designs look we May be moving toward Jet engines that will Power a propeller that can be feathered or retracted when greater thrust is he Orville who with his brother Wilbur made the first successful flight in heavier than air Craft in has said that the Day when up will completely replace conventional aircraft is a Long Way one possibility that has been suggested is the use of a Jet propelled transport for an executives this would be a 10or 12place Job that would make one or two flights daily nonstop from coast to carrying the nations top business and governmental leaders to con such a plane could probably take you from coast to coast in six hours or this is in the realm of but Law rence president of the Bell aircraft soberly foresees tremendous possibilities for up after the within five years no military fighter planes will be built which do not incorporate the Jet propulsion Bell there is no doubt that Jet powered planes will make All present types obsolete in years to this will give military aircraft Industry a huge bombers As Well As fighters will use Jet engines in some and probably civilian transport planes Page 4
