James Burke's Connections shows how agriculture leads to new concepts/technologies - kind of like how clearing the fields requires irrigation, pest control, and fertilization, and some other similar connections. In a similar way, the Jet engine comes about from problems of previous technologies.
Propellers can't go beyond the speed of sound. They break; but, Frank Whittle points out another problem. The problem of going faster and further requires going higher. But, going higher means the piston engines loose efficiency and power.
Frank Whittle solution was kind of like enclosing the propellers, to accelerate the airflow into a series of turbines(propellers) around a midsection, where the air is ignited with fuel, and the heated ignites air goes out faster outside of the back. The idea that the reason why Frank Whittle invented the Jet engine is because the propellers break at supersonic speeds must be wrong here! But, the real reason is the piston engines loose power and efficiency at high altitudes.
- There's also ramjets. Ramjets only work at hypersonic speeds. The supersonic air gives the energy to ignite the fuel. Ramjets are still kind of a work in progress.
Kind of like the Jet engine going to Germany because Britain and the U.S. didn't show much interest , the ramjet appears to have gone to Russia and China.
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