Aircraft Engines and Propulsion

Abstract

Even considering the improvement possible, the gasturbine could hardly be considered a feasible application to airplanes, mainly because of the difficulty with the stringent weight requirements. Gasturbine Committee, US National Academy of Sciences (1940) It is gratifying to see the progressive clarification of ideas on the functioning of a simple device like a propeller, from the analogy with a screw jack to the complete theory based on the principles of fluid mechanics and using all the mathematical methods of this science. Theodore von Kármán (1954) There is a tendency in this age of high-speed aircraft to regard the reciprocating engine merely as an interesting holdover from the horse and buggy era of aviation. Yet in 1970, when over 105,000 aircraft will be operating in the category of general aviation, 99.7% of these airplanes will still be powered by piston engines. C.N. Van Deventer (1965) However great the progress in aerodynamic and structural efficiency has been over the years, the advances in light, compact and efficient powerplants have been paramount for the growth of fighter performance. Ray Whitford [24] (1999) 5.1 History of engine development All types of aircraft and rocket propulsion are based on the reaction principle derived from Newton's third law of motion: To every action there is 181