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Military Precursors
The 20th century brought mankind on the brink of self-destruction. Mankind had done the work of the devil – and opened up the skies.
Already before WWI, Rene Lorin took out a patent on ramjet technology in France, disregarded. Jet propulsion had been invented in 1928 in England by Frank Whittle, authorities however renounced his invention. It was developed independently in Germany by the brothers von Ohain, in 1936 convincing Ernst Heinkel. Jet technology was anticipated also by the Kharkov Aviation Institute in the Soviet Union. According to Jefim Gordon/ Bill Gunston (‘Soviet X-Planes’), the very early drawing of a KhAl-2 by A.M. Lyul’ka and A.P. Yeremenko from Kharkov Aviation Institute “can still claim to have been the first design for a jet aircraft”. In France world’s first ramjet aircraft by René Leduc, based on René Lorin’s patent, was designed in 1938. Built by Breguet, it was “kept on arm’s length from German occupation authorities” (so reported via Wikipedia). Or was it tolerated? Completed and tested in 1947, it had its first powered flight in 1949, piloted by Jean Gonord. After two Leduc 0.10 ramjets, the 0.16 was built with additional jet engines, later removed. It is preserved in the Musee de l’Air et de l’Espace at Le Bourget.
World War II During the war, any development everywhere was pushed forward exclusively for military purposes. The first jet aircraft flying was the Heinkel He 178 with an engine by von Ohain in 1939, in Italy the Carponi-Campini N.1 with a piston-driven fan in 1940 and in England the Gloster E.28/29 with a Whittle engine in 1941. Equipped with a de Havilland engine, the Bell XP-59A “Airacomet” undertook America’s first jet flight in 1942. The XP-80, developed by Lockheed under chief designer “Kelly” Johnson, had its first jet flight in 1944. In Germany the Messerschmitt Me 262 with two BMW, then Junkers engines had its first jet flight in 1942. A rocket-powered “Interceptor” had been proposed already in 1939 by Wernher von Braun and was tried in 1944 with Ernst Bachem’s “Natter”. The different “V1” was merely an unmanned bomber. The delta-winged rocket fighter Me 163, designed by Alexander Lippisch, has appeared in 1941. It was the first aircraft to achieve 1,000 km/h. And Lippisch dreamt of future supersonic delta-winged jetliners. The first jet aircraft significantly bigger than a fighter was the Junkers Ju 287 bomber, developed also in a forward-swept wing version, mainly by H. Wocke and F. Freytag. The Horten brothers, pioneering ‘flying wings’, designed the Ho XVIII B-1 transatlantic jet bomber. Still in March 1945 Hitler’s (drug-consuming) Marshall Goering ordered to build it in a subterranean bunker at Kahla, seeing already New York in flames. The Ho IX fighter has been Horten’s first jet. German aircraft builders were preparing for future passenger jetliners, but the Western Allies interdicted aircraft development in the defeated country. The biggest wind tunnel had almost been completed by the Germans in the Oetztal valley in order to relocate the researches to this remote area of the Tyrolean Alps. Then the French relocated it to Modane. Japan has tested a Me 163B copy (the Walter engine had arrived by sea from Germany) and Nakajima started to copy the Messerschmitt jet fighter Me 262. In November 1944 the first flight of the rocket-powered suicide bomber Yokosuka MXY7 Ohka took place. The version 22 had a jet engine with a piston-engine driven fan. On August06, 1945 the Nakajima J9Y1 Kikka had its maiden flight, Japan’s first jet combat aircraft. German attempts of mastering gravity with the “Glocke” (bell) or the “Repulsine”, a flying saucer, are another matter, feeding ‘UFO’ rumors in the USA, years after the end of war.
Soviet Union In the USSR already in 1934 Sergei P. Korolyev schemed an experimental rocket plane and in 1940 the RP-318 undertook its first manned flight, piloted by Vladimir P. Fedorov. On March15, 1942, captain G.Ya. Bakhchivandzhi made the first flight on a BI-1 aircraft designed by A.Ya. Bereznyak and A.M. Isayev of the Bolkhovitinov EDB”, so reported by Bratukhin’s ‘Russian Aircraft’, describing it as “world’s first fighter-interceptor with liquid-rocket engine.” In 1944 the MiG OKB produced “doodles” of the (German) Me 163 and Me 263 (according to Gordon/ Gunston). The ramjet fighter project Kostikov 302 was completed as a rocket aircraft. The German experimental rocket plane DFS 346, designed by Felix Kracht, to be built by Siebel, was intended to reach Mach2. Siebel in Halle has been handed over by the US forces to the Soviets. In 1946 Siebel and Junkers technicians were brought by trains to Podberesye, north of Moscow. Development was continued under Hans Roessing and Russian pioneer Alexander Bereznyak. In 1951 the German pilot Wolfgang Ziese attained c.1,100 km/h, when the aircraft tumbled and Ziese escaped by separating the jettisonable nose. Development was stopped in favor of the more successful jet aircraft. In the Soviet Union the first order for a jet fighter was given in 1944, but only after WWII the I-300 (MiG-9) and the Yak-15 with German engines could make the first flight in 1946. Delivery of Rolls-Royce engines was permitted by the British government in 1947. In 1948 Heinkel engineer Dr. Siegfried Guenter was “taken by Soviet agents to the USSR, where he participated authoritative in the construction of the jet fighter MiG-15” (according to D. Herwig, H. Rode: Geheimprojekte der Luftwaffe). It was the Soviets’ first series production jet fighter.
Outsider Regions Early development in other regions is mentioned here only as a curious matter of vanishing dictatorships. The Pulqui I, the first jet aircraft built in South America, flew in 1947. It was an unsuccessful fighter designed by Dewoitine at Cordoba works in Argentina. In 1950 it was followed by Kurt Tank’s Pulqui II, based on the German Ta 183 design. This project as well as the purchase of V2 missile designs and the start of nuclear developments under president Peron was supported by Nazi booty, hidden and laundered in Switzerland, and prominent Nazis were transferred to Argentina by the “Berner Schlepperzentrale”. Later also Reimar Horten migrated to Argentina. The Egyptian jet fighter HA-300, the first jet aircraft built in Africa, flew in 1964. This project by Willy Messerschmitt has been developed for dictator Franco in Spain since 1954. It was sold to Egypt in 1960, at the time of dictator el-Nasser. The development of a new supersonic engine was undertaken by Ferdinand Brandner, who had designed the turboprop engines for the Tupolev Tu-95 bomber. Tests of this E-300 engine were carried out with the HF-34 fighter from India. That plane was developed by Kurt Tank, the famous Focke-Wulf engineer, but then India decided for MiG fighters from the Soviet Union, its preferred trading partner. In 1969 Egypt’s HA-300 program was stopped in favor of buying Soviet MiG-21s. According to Frederick Forsyth (Daily Mail), Nasser’s weapon development, including missiles, was financed by Nazi funds, laundered in Switzerland during 1944/45. In 1969 Egypt’s HA-300 program was stopped in favor of buying Soviet MiG-21s. When schoolmate Hans Hauser has died in the Egyptian desert, officially by a motorcar defect, the other schoolmate Dr. Michael Heim, journalist, knew that it was arranged by Nasser’s secret forces, for Hans as a simultaneous interpreter knew too many secrets. Much later the historian Ronen Bergman was quoted (by Juedische Allgemeine 11/2018) describing the Israeli secret service Mossad’s “actions against former missile engineers of the German ‘Wehrmacht’, who in Nasser’s Egypt were engaged in developing new weapons for being used against Israel.” In Yugoslavia under dictator Tito, who clashed with Stalin in 1948, SOKO completed in 1961 its own Galeb and then Jastreb jet fighters. SOKO collaborated in fighter development with Romania, targeting to lower dependence on the Soviets.
Outsider Ideas In Germany, development of the first ground effect vehicle during the 60s was credited to Alexander Lippisch. The vertical-take-off Dornier Do 31E had its test flight in 1967. A civilian version Do 231C with 14 engines “was under consideration to carry 100 passengers” (according to The Encyclopedia of World Aircraft) and, of course, the project was thrown away. Hawker-Siddeley studied a V/STOL project HS 141, too eneconomic. VTOL enthusiasm has culminated in the Bell X-22, described as “one of the most bizarre” vertical-take-off vehicles. A matter of intelligence services were the mysterious hybrids, dubbed the “Caspian Sea Monsters”. In the book ‘Soviet X-Planes (edited in 2000), Yefim Gordon and Bill Gunston described the design work by Roberto Lodovico Bartini, who has migrated in 1923 from Mussolini’s Italy to the Soviet Union. “Bartini spent part of 1959 scheming a giant marine vehicle called M, capable to rise from the water, to glide just above the sea or to fly at high altitude. The design bureau G.M. Beriev at Taganrog was ordered to build three VVA-14 prototypes. Only the VVA-14M1 started successful test flights in 1972, and after Bartini’s death two years later the program stalled. Professor A.G. Bratukhin presented in his book ‘Russian Aircraft’ (edited in Moscow, 1995) Bartini’s experimental VVA-14 even with an Aeroflot label. The BNA (the German CIA) supposed Russian vehicles much bigger than the VVA-14. A later TV report (e.g. by N24 in 2017) showed the Ekranoplan of design bureau S.M. Alexeyev with 8 front jet engines for take-off from the sea and 2 additional jets in the rear for flight. It was built at Gorky (Nizhni Novgorod) on the Volga river, promoted by Khrushchev, ousted in 1964. Nevertheless it had its first test flight in 1966, top-secret. However, it was discovered by US satellites and the legend of the ‘Caspian Sea Monster’ was borne. Also the earlier idea of Claudius Dornier (the son of pioneer Claude Dornier) of a 1,000-ton flying boat for cargo led to nothing. Let’s concentrate on realistic developments – and admire nowadays’ jetliners…
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