Heinkel HeS 3

The HeS 3 is a jet engine, which was developed in the 1930s by Hans von Ohain. This engine was in a He 178 a few days before the start of the Second World War, the first jet aircraft in the world.

History

Ernst Heinkel received in 1935 pointing out that the physicist Hans von Ohain and his technical assistant, a car mechanic Max Hahn worked at the University of Göttingen on a new aircraft engine, which should work without propeller only by the recoil principle. Heinkel saw the possibilities committed the two and put them experienced designers to the side. Hans von Ohain had exhausted at this time his private means and was dependent on cooperation with a financially strong sponsor in order to continue his project. He thought he was almost done and was convinced to bring to trial run a prototype for 50,000 marks in a few months.

This optimism was premature, because until the first prototype ran, passed 18 months. In September 1937, in a remote hut the Heinkel Flugzeugwerke in Warnemünde, the first test run; However, this prototype was not yet operated with kerosene or gasoline but on hydrogen. Heinkel was thrilled by this success, he still hoped to be able to outperform the competition with his aircraft and aero-engine plants sustainably with this new drive. Already at that time was a Heinkel appropriate airframe in order ( later He 178 ).

In the aftermath of Ohains team worked tirelessly to further develop the HeS -3 jet engine. One of the main challenges of the project, however, was the development of an annular combustor, which ultimately led to the engine combustion chamber, a front - received, but which now ran on gasoline as fuel.

After 1938, two jet engines of the type HeS were completed 3 and this had proven their reliability after numerous run-ups, one of the engines was mounted under the fuselage of a still present in the plant type machine of the He 118. In the following flight testing the jet engine started without problems and accelerated the flying test bed considerably. More test flights followed and were similar successful until then but the 118 jet engine was completely gutted during the landing of He. Heinkel then decided to leave the second turbine install the same in the meantime finished He 178.

However, the actual thrust of the unit fell significantly short of the minimum requirement as well as the theoretical values ​​, which is why the test flight was delayed again. After multiple revision and adjustment of technical fuel supply was finally performed with a powered by a jet turbine aircraft on 27 August 1939 the world's first successful test flight. The flight was conducted by experienced pilots captain Warsitz, who had already participated in the trials of the rocket-powered He 176.