How jet engines work is fascinating. Unfortunately for me, I don’t really understand how they work. Which is fortunate for you, because you don’t care about how they work. So let’s examine how they changed the plane design game.
A recap: before jets, planes used piston engines (the same kind that power cars). The engines were much larger (the P-51 Mustang (c. 1944) had 12 cylinders producing 1390 horsepower, whereas a 2011 Ford Mustang maxes out at 8 cylinders producing 550 hp). In cars, the rotational energy coming from the engine spins wheels. In a plane, that energy spins propellers that push air backwards and the plane forwards.
In jets, the air being pushed backwards is the same air reacting with the fuel. This creates a lot more power: about 4x as much per pound compared to a piston engine. (This reaction also spins a turbine, which also does some of the pushing and continues the reaction. I’m not completely clear, but it seems to help).
Plane designers had a new toy. It was far more powerful, and like Wile E. Coyote with an Acme Rocket, they were eager to use it. And about as successful: this new technology had its own problems (they were flaky and dangerous) and revealed latent problems in existing designs (what’s aerodynamic at 300mph is clunky at 600mph).
A recap: before jets, planes used piston engines (the same kind that power cars). The engines were much larger (the P-51 Mustang (c. 1944) had 12 cylinders producing 1390 horsepower, whereas a 2011 Ford Mustang maxes out at 8 cylinders producing 550 hp). In cars, the rotational energy coming from the engine spins wheels. In a plane, that energy spins propellers that push air backwards and the plane forwards.
In jets, the air being pushed backwards is the same air reacting with the fuel. This creates a lot more power: about 4x as much per pound compared to a piston engine. (This reaction also spins a turbine, which also does some of the pushing and continues the reaction. I’m not completely clear, but it seems to help).
Plane designers had a new toy. It was far more powerful, and like Wile E. Coyote with an Acme Rocket, they were eager to use it. And about as successful: this new technology had its own problems (they were flaky and dangerous) and revealed latent problems in existing designs (what’s aerodynamic at 300mph is clunky at 600mph).
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