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Aviation History
1944
1944 - 0391.PDF
FEBRUARY 24TH, 1944 FLIGHT lQf) B.T.H. and the Jet British Manufacturer's Share in Development IT has already been mentioned in these columns that in the development of the turbine-compressor power plant for his jet propulsion system Grp. Capt. Frank Whittle, R.A.F., was able to draw on the accumulated experience and manufacturing skill of the British Thomson- Houston Co., Ltd. A brief account of this collaboration, resulting in the successful plant which advanced jet propul sion' of aircraft from theory and experiment to practical operation, can now be disclosed. The Company was first approached by Grp. Capt. Whittle in September, 1931, in connection with a paper he was preparing on '' The Turbo Compressor and Super charging of Aero Engines" for the Journal of the Royal Aeronautical Society. In view of the Company's experi ence with turbo compressors and superchargers operating at high speeds, they were able to furnish certain data which were incorporated in this paper. During 1933 the B.T.H. Co. carried out a comprehensive investigation of the possibilities of various gas turbine cycles from the point of view of the use of this type of "J£ime mover ior generating power. In January, 1936, Grp. Capt. Whittle contacted the B.T.H. Co. in regard.to the development of a jet propul sion plant for aircraft. The Company had gained experi ence in the manufacture and operation of the 10,000-kW steam turbo-alternator which they supplied to the Detroit Edison Co., U.S.A. The turbine of this aggregate had successfully operated in commercial service at an initial temperature of 538 deg. C, and as a result the Company had available information as to materials which would probably stand up to the stresses to be met in an aircraft propulsion unit. In view of this, and their long experience in building high-speed turbines and compressors, B.T.H. decided to collaborate and an order for the first experi mental unit was placed by Power Jets, Ltd. In this design air is drawn into the compressor, com pressed, heated by the combustion of injected liquid fuel, partially expanded in the turbine wheel which drives the compressor, and expelled through an exhaust pipe to pro vide the propulsive thrust by reaction. The first propulsion unit was completed and run on a test held in April, 1937- As was to be expected, several defects were revealed and extensive modifications were carried out in the design. Further plants were built by the B.T.H. Co. incorporating various improvements which experience on the test bed had shown to be necessary. Gradually, difficulties inherent in such a development were overcome ; a plant was installed in a monoplane built by the Gloster Aircraft Co., Ltd., and successfully flown for the first time in May, 1941. A similar plant manufactured by the B.T.H. Co. was sent to their associated company in the U.S.A.—the General Electric Company—in September, 1941, after information regarding the development had been disclosed in July of that year to General Arnold, of the U.S.A.A.F. EMPIRE AIR TRAINING CUT FORECAST MR- CHARLES GAVAN POWEK, Cana, told the Canadian House of Common now on there must be '' contraction and n British Commonwealth air training plan. He was answering a question put by Fl M.P., about the recent retirements of se officers. It was necessary, he said, that there shou at the top of the Air Force, and his Depar a "definite retirement policy." There could not be a stagnation at the top of the Service Air Minister, sntly that from Jpansion '' in the t. James Sinclair, ] high Air Force leneck lent had adopted in which so many young and motion. The young men had " room at the top." There was no stigma or reproach in the officers, but it was a " ruthlesr necessity ii Air Force was to continue in the war an< young dynamic organisation we all want Mr. Power told the Commons^,there was Ottawa between the Canadiai; Balfour and the British Air conditions of service for ouiinaw^'.^me able men were earning pro- been shown that there was retirement of senior the Royal Canadian afterwards to b^ it to be." General Eisenhower talking to officers in the ante-room during a visit to the R.A.F. Staff College. Air Vice-Marshal C. E. H. Medhurst, Commandant of the college, is on his left.
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