Early Gas Turbine History
1791 First patent for a gas turbine (John Barber, United Kingdom)
1904 Unsuccessful gas turbine project by Franz Stolze in Berlin (first axial compressor)
1906 GT by Armengaud Lemale in France (centrifugal compressor, no useful power)
1910 First GT featuring intermittent combustion (Holzwarth, 150 kW, constant volume combustion)
1923 First exhaust-gas turbocharger to increase the power of diesel engines
1930 First patent for gas turbine jet engine by Sir Frank Whittle
1937 First 1000 HP turboprop CS-1 by György Jendrassik in Budapest
1939 World’s first gas turbine for power generation by Brown Boveri Company, installed in Neuchâtel, Switzerland
1939 First flight of jet engine powered aircraft (von Ohain’sengine on He 178)
World’s first industrial gas turbine – 1939
From Prof. Edward Taylor’s paper collection
World’s first industrial gas turbine “Neuchatel”, 2007
ASME Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark in Birr, Switzerland (ALSTOM Headquarters)
GT Neuchatel operated for 63 years (generator failure in 2002) [picture courtesy of ASME]
No future for aircraft gas turbine engines...
National Academy of Sciences, Committee on Gas Turbines (June 1940):
“In its present state … the gas turbine engine could hardly be considered a feasible application to airplanes mainly because of the difficulty in complying with stringent weight requirements imposed by aeronautics.”
Frank Whittle and Hans von Ohain
First turbojet-powered aircraft – Ohain’s engine on He 178
The world’s first aircraft to fly purely on turbojet power, the Heinkel He 178.
Its first true flight was on 27 August, 1939.
First Patent by Whittle for Turbojet Engine in 1930
Whittle W-1 (1941)
Rolls-Royce Trent
“Whittle … stressed the great simplicity of his engine. Hives [Director of Rolls Royce] commented, ‘We’ll soon design the bloody simplicity out of it.’ ” [From Genesis of the Jet]
