A jet engine is a type of reaction engine, discharging a fast-moving jet of heated gas that generates thrust by jet propulsion. While this broad definition may include rocket, water jet, and hybrid propulsion, the term jet engine typically refers to an internal combustion air-breathing jet engine such as a turbojet, turbofan, ramjet, or pulse jet. In general, jet engines are internal combustion engines.
A ramjet, or athodyd, is a form of airbreathing jet engine that uses the forward motion of the engine to produce thrust. Since it produces no thrust when stationary ramjet-powered vehicles require an assisted take-off like a rocket assist to accelerate it to a speed where it begins to produce thrust. Ramjets work most efficiently at supersonic speeds around Mach 3 and can operate up to speeds of Mach 6.
A vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft is one that can take off and land vertically without relying on a runway. This classification can include a variety of types of aircraft including helicopters as well as thrust-vectoring fixed-wing aircraft and other hybrid aircraft with powered rotors such as cyclogyros/cyclocopters and gyrodynes.
The turbojet is an airbreathing jet engine which is typically used in aircraft. It consists of a gas turbine with a propelling nozzle. The gas turbine has an air inlet which includes inlet guide vanes, a compressor, a combustion chamber, and a turbine. The compressed air from the compressor is heated by burning fuel in the combustion chamber and then allowed to expand through the turbine. The turbine exhaust is then expanded in the propelling nozzle where it is accelerated to high speed to provide thrust. Two engineers, Frank Whittle in the United Kingdom and Hans von Ohain in Germany, developed the concept independently into practical engines during the late 1930s.
Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG was a German manufacturer of civil and military aircraft before and during World War II. Many of the company's successful fighter aircraft designs were slight modifications of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190. It is one of the predecessor companies of today's Airbus.
Henrich Focke was a German aviation pioneer from Bremen and also a co-founder of the Focke-Wulf company. He is best known as the inventor of the Fw 61, the first successful German helicopter.
An airplane, or aeroplane, informally plane, is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and wing configurations. The broad spectrum of uses for airplanes includes recreation, transportation of goods and people, military, and research. Worldwide, commercial aviation transports more than four billion passengers annually on airliners and transports more than 200 billion tonne-kilometers of cargo annually, which is less than 1% of the world's cargo movement. Most airplanes are flown by a pilot on board the aircraft, but some are designed to be remotely or computer-controlled such as drones.
The Convair XFY Pogo was an experiment in vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) tail-sitter. The Pogo had delta wings and three-bladed contra-rotating propellers powered by a turboprop engine. It was intended to be a high-performance fighter aircraft capable of operating from small warships. Landing the XFY-1 was difficult, as the pilot had to look over his shoulder while carefully working the throttle to land.
The Hiller X-18 was an experimental cargo transport aircraft designed to be the first testbed for tiltwing and V/STOL technology.
The Focke-Wulf Triebflügel, or Triebflügeljäger, literally meaning "thrust-wing hunter", was a German concept for an aircraft designed in 1944, during the final phase of World War II as a defence against the ever-increasing Allied bombing raids on central Germany. It was a vertical take-off and landing tailsitter interceptor design for local defense of important factories or areas which had small or no airfields.
A tip jet is a jet nozzle at the tip of some helicopter rotor blades, used to spin the rotor, much like a Catherine wheel firework. Tip jets replace the normal shaft drive and have the advantage of placing no torque on the airframe, thus not requiring the presence of a tail rotor. Some simple monocopters are composed of nothing but a single blade with a tip rocket.
The General Electric T31 was the first turboprop engine designed and built in the United States.
The Dornier Do 29 was an experimental aircraft developed by Dornier Flugzeugwerke and the Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt in the 1950s, used to test a tilting-propeller system for short takeoff and landing (STOL) aircraft. The concept was proved to be successful in flight testing; however, no further development of the system or aircraft was proceeded with, and at the conclusion of its test program the Do 29 was retired.
An airbreathing jet engine is a jet engine that ejects a propelling (reaction) jet of hot exhaust gases after first taking in atmospheric air, followed by compression, heating and expansion back to atmospheric pressure through a nozzle. Alternatively the reaction jet may include a cold jet of ducted bypass air which has been compressed by a fan before returning to atmospheric pressure through an additional nozzle. These engines are gas turbine engines. Engines using only ram for the compression process, and no turbomachinery, are the ramjet and pulsejet.
Many variations of aircraft engine starting have been used since the Wright brothers made their first powered flight in 1903. The methods used have been designed for weight saving, simplicity of operation and reliability. Early piston engines were started by hand, with geared hand starting, electrical and cartridge-operated systems for larger engines being developed between the wars.
The Focke-Wulf Fw 260 Flamingo and Focke-Wulf Fw 300 were a pair of related VTOL airliner projects, designed by Focke-Wulf during the early 1960s. Neither aircraft was built.
The Focke-Wulf Super Lorin was a proposed German jet interceptor project. Designed towards the end of World War II by engineer Heinz von Halen, the project remained only a factory design exercise, and never received an RLM airframe number before the surrender of Nazi Germany.
The Focke-Wulf Volksjäger, meaning "People's Fighter" in German, was a German emergency fighter project for the Luftwaffe. It was designed by Focke-Wulf industries towards the end of World War II as part of the defense effort against the devastating Allied bombing raids.
The German VFW SG 1262Schwebegestell was designed and built in 1965 by Vereinigte Flugtechnische Werke (VFW) as an experimental aircraft to assist with the development of several vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) military aircraft types that included the VFW VAK 191B, the EWR VJ 101 and the Dornier Do 31 transport. The 1262 designation relates to the initial numbering of the VAK 191B project by Focke-Wulf.
