Paul Schmidt (26 March 1898 18 October 1976) was a German aerospace engineer and inventor based in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, mainly known for his contribution to the development of the

pulsejet file:Pulse Jet Engine.PNG, 300px, Diagram of a valved pulsejet. 1 - Air enters through valve and is mixed with fuel. 2 - The mixture is ignited, expands, closes the valve and exits through the tailpipe, creating thrust.3 - Low pressure in the engi ...

Life

Schmidt was born on 26 March 1898 in

Hagen Hagen () is a city in the States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany, on the southeastern edge of the Ruhr area, 15 km south of Dortmund, where the rivers Lenne and Volme meet the Ruhr (river), Ruhr. In 2023, the ...

, Westphalia. His early work involved efforts to improve the performance and efficiency of aircraft power plants. In 1928 he decided the most promising technology was intermittent thrust generation. With meagre resources, he worked on developing pulse engines. German ministry officials visited him in the early 1930s to make an assessment of his work. He initially started pushing the concept of the pulse engine in 1931. Patent DE523655 contained the first sketch of an impulsive duct. In the mid 1930s, the

Luftwaffe The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...

was interested in applying Schmidt's work . His development of the Pulse Engine was referred to as the Schmidtrohr (Schmidttube) and he obtained both German and British patents for it. He used the term "pulsating incineration" in reference to the re-ignition principles. While his early pulse engines performed poorly, he lost control of the project, though still remained involved. However, the project got more attention and government funding, following the start of the war. The

supported the project, and Schmidt's pulse engine, with extra development, was used to power the

V-1 flying bomb The V-1 flying bomb ( "Vengeance Weapon 1") was an early cruise missile. Its official Reich Aviation Ministry () name was Fieseler Fi 103 and its suggestive name was (hellhound). It was also known to the Allies as the buzz bomb or doodlebug a ...

, the first cruise missile. The engine was based on a 3.6 metre long tube resonator. It had a valve matrix at its entrance, and a laval nozzle at its exit, and used it for periodic re-ignition (at about 50 Hz).Peter O. K. Krehl "History of Shock Waves, Explosions and Impact" Schmidt died on 18 October 1976 in Munich.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schmidt, Paul German aerospace engineers 20th-century German inventors 1898 births 1976 deaths People from Hagen Engineers from Munich