The Jet Engine

Jul 11, 2016 34 Replies

BTW, Whittle initially used petrol as fuel, before changing to paraffin. That's better known outside the UK as kerosene.



Someone on here thinks he knows about Jet Engines. Besides quoting Wikipedia at the rest of us are there any on here that actually do know a thing or two about them for I would love to learn more.



I recently read Stanley Hooker's autobiography on them (twice) but he left great gaps in the narrative. Some things are self explanatory, to the expert, that leave most of us lost and disenchanted.


Check out this Youtube channel:

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It's by a Canadian who overhauls Jet engines for a living.

Here is his website:

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More stuff there than you can shake a stick at.

Philip

Catch this while it is still available

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(two episodes IIRC).

Some of the buildings where Whittle worked are, AFAIK, still part of the AMEC site at Whetstone (formerly occupied by GEC). Typical 40's blockwork single story buildings with Critall windows. Very like wartime and post war RAF and other MOD sites.

I don't know a great deal, but I do know that jets don't care what fuel they're run on, as long as it is delivered correctly. I have taken part in testing generator sets with the industrial version of the Rolls-Royce RB-211 (has only two compressor/turbine spools instead of the three of the aviation version). They were set up with two sets of fueling nozzles, so as to start up on diesel (120 litres a minutes at full load of 24MW IIRC - it was 20 years ago) and once running, the power could be used to run the North-sea rig they were on and as production started, they'd switch over to running on natural gas from the well.

I was astounded when I was told that Bloodhound(?) used a Formula 1 engine to deliver the fuel.

It was initially to use a Cosworth CA2010 engine now cosworth have closed their partnership agreement. It will use a 550bhp Jaguar Supercharged V8

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Your post indicates that they do in fact care, and need different nozzles for different fuels

I'd be surprised. They are not designed for a long service life. Rebuilt after every race.

Whether or not the story was true, I don't think a point defence ground-air missile needs much service life - and it might be hard to find the bits to rebuild after a "race" ;-)

Sssh, don't tell Andy Green what he's sitting in/on is really a missile!

Presumably he was referring to the land speed 1000mph car which does indeed use such an engine as a fuel pump.

That would make more sense. A proved reliable production engine - rather than cutting edge stuff.

On 11-Jul-16 2:44 PM, Steve Walker wrote: ...

During WW2, Germany worked on a ram jet that would run on coal.

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Ooops! I grew-up in Lincolnshire where there were fields of Bloodhounds pointing skywards and didn't know about the car. My apologies to Mr Plowman for attempted humour.

There are a couple of good groups that might be worth joining ... tends to be people building their own jets ... the videos are very entertaining. Often using old turbo chargers and truck exhausts.

I did a lot of looking around in the past about pulse jets .... here is one such diy job

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They also require different drivers in different nations. Is it possible for you to be more pedantic or will you realise how silly you become first?

I have a dual fuel van but they both run in the same engine, fool.

Unless the Iranians want to let the Chinese take a look at one.

The overheating problem was the second thing they had to overcome once they sorted the compressor out. If the maker of that engine had put wa water methanol mixture in it like they used in boosted merlins, it would have run cheaper safer longer.

Maybe there is a law prohibiting the use of different nozzles in jet aircraft that would have prevented them using number 6 (but number 4 mixed would have been OK) if only I'd been there to get them to try it -or to plug a turnip into it.

If I remember right, Dave, it was a TV screening. I must go to Bloodhound Web and have a look.

LOL. Wow, I just can't imagine the rates.

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