Hans von Ohain
German aerospace engineer
Died when: 86 years 89 days (1034 months)Star Sign: Sagittarius
Hans Joachim Pabst von Ohain (14 December 1911 – 13 March 1998) was a German physicist, engineer, and the designer of the first operational jet engine.
His first test unit ran on hydrogen in March 1937, and it was a later development that powered the world's first flyable all-jet aircraft, the experimental Heinkel He 178 (He 178 V1) in late August 1939.
In spite of these early successes, which started the world´s first jet producing industry in Germany, other German designs quickly eclipsed Ohain's, and none of his engine designs entered widespread production or operational use.
Von Ohain started to develop his first turbojet engine designs independently during the same period that Frank Whittle was working on his own similar designs in Britain, and their turbojet designs are said by some to be an example of simultaneous invention.
The core of Ohain's first jet engine, the Heinkel HeS 1, which he described as his "hydrogen test engine" was run "in March or early April" according to Ohain (although Ernst Heinkel's diaries record it as September 1937).
The engine required modifications to cure overtemperature problems and to fit a fuel system to enable it to run self-contained on liquid fuel which was achieved in September 1937.
Ohain's jet engine was the first to fly operationally within the Heinkel He 178 aircraft in 1939, which was followed by Whittle's engine within the Gloster E.28/39 in 1941.
Operational jet fighter aircraft from both Germany and Britain entered operational use virtually simultaneously in July, 1944.After the war the two men met, became friends and received the Charles Stark Draper Prize for Engineering "for their independent development of the turbojet engine." Von Ohain´s design, an axial-flow engine, as opposed to Whittle's centrifugal flow engine, was eventually adopted by most manufacturers by the 1950's.
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