The Heinkel HeS 1 ''(HeS - Heinkel Strahltriebwerke)'' was Germany's first jet engine, which was a stationary test item that ran on

hydrogen Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-to ...

History

In 1933,

Hans von Ohain Hans Joachim Pabst von Ohain (14 December 191113 March 1998) was a German physicist, engineer, and the designer of the first operational jet engine. Together with Frank Whittle he is called the "father of the jet engine". His first test unit ra ...

wrote his PhD thesis at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

on the topic of an optical

microphone A microphone, colloquially called a mic or mike (), is a transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, hearing aids, public address systems for concert halls and publ ...

that could be used to record sound directly to film.

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad. The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', ''E ...

bought the patent for RM 3,500, a large sum. Ohain used the money to invest in his real interest, the

gas turbine A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas generator or core) and are, in the directio ...

. In 1934 von Ohain contracted his mechanic, Max Hahn, to build a prototype of his concept. Later referred to as the "garage engine", it quickly burned out due to the use of low-temperature metals. Nevertheless, it was successful and piqued the interest of his professor, Robert Pohl. In February 1936, Pohl wrote to

Ernst Heinkel Dr. Ernst Heinkel (24 January 1888 – 30 January 1958) was a German aircraft designer, manufacturer, '' Wehrwirtschaftsführer'' in Nazi Germany, and member of the Nazi party. His company Heinkel Flugzeugwerke produced the Heinkel He 178, th ...

on behalf of von Ohain, telling him of the design and its possibilities. Heinkel arranged a meeting where his engineers were able to grill von Ohain for hours, during which he flatly stated that the current "garage engine" would never work but there was nothing wrong with the concept as a whole. The engineers were convinced, and in April, von Ohain and Hahn were set up at Heinkel's works at the Marienehe airfield outside

Rostock Rostock (), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (german: link=no, Hanse- und Universitätsstadt Rostock), is the largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the state ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

Warnemünde (, literally ''Mouth of the Warnow'') is a seaside resort and a district of the city of Rostock in Mecklenburg, Germany. It is located on the Baltic Sea and, as the name implies, at the estuary of the river Warnow. is one of the world's busi ...

. Once moved, a study was made of the airflow in the engine, and several improvements made over a two-month period. Much happier with the results, they decided to produce a completely new engine incorporating all of these changes, running on

gas. The resulting Heinkel-Strahltriebwerk 1 (HeS 1), German for ''Heinkel Jet Engine 1'', was built by hand-picking some of the best machinists in the company, much to the chagrin of the shop-floor supervisors. Hahn, meanwhile, worked on the combustion problem, an area he had some experience in. The engine was extremely simple, made largely of sheet metal. Construction started late in the summer of 1936, and completed in March 1937. First run occurred on September 1937. Although the engine was never intended to be a flight-quality design, it proved beyond a doubt that the basic concept was workable. While work on the HeS 1 continued, the team had already moved on to the design of a flight-quality design, the HeS 3.

References

Bibliography

* * * Sterling Michael Pavelec, "The Jet Race and the Second World War", Greenwood, 2007, pg. 18–22 {{Hirth aeroengines Centrifugal-flow turbojet engines Heinkel aircraft engines Jet engines