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React Eng

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Turar Saule
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3 views1 page

React Eng

Uploaded by

Turar Saule
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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English

JET PROPULSION
Near the end of World War II, Allied pilots were startled by a new German fighter plane. It had no
propeller, flew with a deep roar, and flashed through the air at a speed of more than 500 miles (800
kilometers) per hour. This amazing airplane was a jet-propelled Messerschmitt Me-262.
Today jet fighters fly through the stratosphere more swiftly than sound. Jet airliners fly higher, faster,
and farther than ever before.
Jet propulsion speeds missiles to their targets. In addition, rockets boost Earth satellites into orbit.
Although most uses of jet propulsion have been for flight, it can also be applied to hydraulic jet
propulsion for small, high-speed boats and pleasure craft. In such applications water is taken in at the
forward end of the boat, compressed by high-pressure pumps, and discharged through a nozzle at
the rear of the craft. The need for efficient pumps and the limitations of boat speeds have not made
hydraulic jet propulsion an attractive or economic alternative to propeller-driven vessels.
Jet propulsion is the driving forward of a body by means of a jet of gas or fluid. The idea dates back
to the 1st century AD when Hero of Alexandria built an engine called an aeolipile. He mounted a
hollow metal globe with projecting tubes between two pipes so it could spin. Steam entered the
globe through the pipes. As it escaped through the bent tubes, the jets of steam spun the globe.
Hero's machine illustrates a scientific principle that Sir Isaac Newton formulated in 1687. Newton's
third law of motion states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. In Hero's
machine the jets of steam escaping from the tubes are the action, the spinning of the globe the
reaction. The same principle applies to jet engines, and for this reason they are called reaction
engines.
Newton himself designed a jet-propelled carriage called Newton's Wagon. A water-filled sphere was
heated by fire, creating steam. A large nozzle projected back from the sphere. As the steam escaped
from the nozzle, it propelled the wagon forward.
There are two general types of jet propulsion air-breathing and nonair-breathing engines. Air-
breathing engines use oxygen from the atmosphere in the combustion of fuel. They include the
turbojet, turboprop, ramjet, and pulse-jet. The term jet is generally used only in reference to air-
breathing engines.
Nonair-breathing engines carry an oxygen supply. They can be used both in the atmosphere and in
outer space. They are commonly called rockets and are of two kinds liquid-propellant and solid-
propellant.
Air-breathing engines may be further divided into two groups, based on the way in which they
compress air for combustion. The turbojet and turboprop each has a compressor, usually turbine-
driven, to take in air. They are called gas-turbine engines. The ramjet and the pulse-jet do not have
compressors.

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