A jet aircraft is an aircraft (nearly always a fixed-wing aircraft) propelled by jet engines. Jet aircraft generally fly much faster than propeller-powered aircraft and at higher altitudes – as high as 10,000–15,000 metres (33,000–49,000 ft). At these altitudes, jet engines achieve maximum efficiency over long distances. The engines in propeller-powered aircraft achieve their maximum efficiency at much lower altitudes. Some jet aircraft can move faster than sound.
Two engineers, Frank Whittle in the United Kingdom and Hans von Ohain in Germany, developed the concept independently during the late 1930s. The concept had been discussed as early as August 1928 by Frank Whittle, but Hans von Ohain also wrote in February 1936 to Ernst Heinkel, telling him of the design and its possibilities. However, it can be argued that A. A. Griffith, who published a paper in July 1926 on compressors and turbines, also deserves credit.
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A number of jet powerplants were suggested from the first instances of powered flight. René Lorin, Morize, Harris proposed systems for creating a jet efflux.[1] In 1910 Henri Coandă filed a patent on a jet propulsion system which used piston-engine exhaust gases to add heat to an otherwise pure air stream compressed by rotating fan blades in a duct.
The "turbojet", was invented in the 1940s, independently by Frank Whittle and Hans von Ohain. The first turbojet aircraft to fly was the Heinkel He 178 prototype of the German Air Force, the Luftwaffe, on August 27, 1939.[2]
The first flight of a jet engined aircraft to come to popular attention was the Italian Caproni Campini N.1 motorjet prototype that flew on August 27, 1940.[3] It was the first jet aircraft recognised by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (at the time the German He 178 program was still kept secret). Campini had proposed the motorjet in 1932.
The British experimental Gloster E.28/39 first took to the air on May 15, 1941, powered by Sir Frank Whittle's turbojet.[4] After the United States was shown the British work, it produced the Bell XP-59A with a version of the Whittle engine built by General Electric, which flew on October 1, 1942.
The first operational jet fighter was the Messerschmitt Me 262,[5] made by Germany during late World War II. It was the fastest conventional aircraft of World War II – although the rocket-powered Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet was faster. It had first flown in 1941 but mass production started in 1944 with the first squadrons operational that year, too late for a decisive effect on the outcome of the war. About the same time, mid 1944, the United Kingdom's Gloster Meteor was being committed to defence of the UK against the V1 flying bomb – itself a jet-powered aircraft – and then ground-attack operations over Europe in the last months of the war. In 1944 Germany introduced into service the Arado Ar 234 jet reconnaissance and bomber, though chiefly used in the former role. USSR tested its own Bereznyak-Isayev BI-1 in 1942, but the project was scrapped by Joseph Stalin in 1945. The Imperial Japanese Navy also developed jet aircraft in 1945, including the Nakajima J9Y Kikka, a crude copy of the Me 262. By the end of 1945, the US had introduced their next jet fighter, the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star into service and the UK its second fighter design, the de Havilland Vampire
The US introduced the North American B-45 Tornado, their first jet bomber, into service in 1948. Although capable of carrying nuclear weapons it was used for reconnaissance over Korea.
On November 8, 1950, during the Korean War, United States Air Force Lt. Russell J. Brown, flying in an F-80, intercepted two North Korean MiG-15s near the Yalu River and shot them down in the first jet-to-jet dogfight in history.
The UK put the English Electric Canberra into service in 1951 as a light bomber. It was designed to fly higher and faster than any interceptor.
BOAC operated the first commercial jet service, from London to Johannesburg, in 1952 with the de Havilland Comet jetliner. The Comet was initially ahead of rivals, but a series of crashes gave time for the Boeing 707 to enter service in 1958 and dominate the market for civilian airliners.
Turbofan aircraft began entering service in the 1950s and 1960s, and this is the most common type of jet in use today.
The Tu-144 supersonic transport was the fastest commercial jet plane at Mach 2.35 (1,555 mph, 2,503 km/h). It went into service in 1975, but soon stopped flying. The Mach 2 Concorde aircraft entered service in 1976 and flew for 27 years.
The fastest military jet plane was the SR-71 Blackbird at Mach 3.35 (2,275 mph, 3,661 km/h).
Most people use the term 'jet aircraft' to denote gas turbine based airbreathing jet engines, but rockets and scramjets are both also propelled by jet propulsion.
The fastest airbreathing jet aircraft is the unmanned X-43 scramjet at around Mach 9–10. The fastest manned (rocket) aircraft is the X-15 at Mach 6.85.
The Space Shuttle, while far faster than the X-43 or X-15, is not regarded as an aircraft during ascent as it is carried ballistically by rocket thrust, rather than the air. During re-entry it is classed (like a glider) as an unpowered aircraft.
Because of the way they work, the typical exhaust speed of jet engines is transonic or faster, therefore most jet aircraft need to fly at high speeds, either supersonic or speeds just below the speed of sound ("transonic") so as to achieve efficient flight. Aerodynamics is therefore an important consideration.
Jet aircraft are usually designed using the Whitcomb area rule, which says that the total area of cross-section of the aircraft at any point along the aircraft from the nose must be approximately the same as that of a Sears-Haack body. A shape with that property minimises the production of shockwaves which would waste energy.
Jet engines come in several main types:
The types are used for different aircraft. Turbojets are seldom used, but was used on Concorde; it has a high exhaust speed and low frontal cross-section, and so is best suited to high-speed flight. Low bypass turbofans have a lower exhaust speed than turbojets and are used for transonic and low supersonic speeds. High bypass turbofans are used for subsonic aircraft and are quite efficient and are widely used for airliners.
Rockets have extremely fast exhaust speeds and are mainly used when high speeds or extremely high altitudes are needed.
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