Jet engines of the Axis powers
The jet engines of the Axis powers include turbine air jet engines , deflagration jet engines and rocket engines , which were developed or used in the German Reich and its allies during World War II .
Turbine air jet engines
Building on the work of Hans von Ohain , the first turbine air jet engines were built in Germany from 1936 at Ernst Heinkel Flugzeugwerke , which initially had a centrifugal compressor, as was also typical for the jet engines of the Allies. As a result, however, the German jet engine development oriented itself towards the axial compressors that have dominated to this day, which offered the advantage of a smaller diameter and thus a significantly lower air resistance . In addition, axial compressors offer the possibility of using a larger number of compressor stages one behind the other and do not have any deflection losses caused by the radial guidance of the working fluid. These advantages outweigh the typically higher efficiencies of radial compressor and turbine components.
The German jet engine development was severely hindered by the poor availability of high temperature-resistant alloys , so that the jet engines were only ready for use at a late stage and only had a short service life.
Rocket engines
The development of rocket engines was also promoted at Ernst Heinkel Flugzeugwerke , where Wernher von Braun worked from 1935 on a liquid fuel rocket motor, which was first used in a Heinkel He 112 as an auxiliary drive, then in a Heinkel He 176 as the only aircraft engine. Hellmuth Walter had developed a second type of rocket motor, which was built into the Me 163 developed by Alexander Lippisch at Messerschmitt and made the first operational rocket fighter possible.
Pulso thrust jet engines
Germany was also a leader in the development of pulso thrust jet engines or deflagration jet engines . The use of Pulso engines for propelling aircraft has been considered and tested several times. Since these engines could only serve as auxiliary engines because the aircraft first had to be accelerated to airspeed by another engine, they were not used in manned aircraft.
The Fieseler Fi 103 V-1 cruise missile ( retaliation weapon 1) developed by Robert Lusser , on the other hand, was powered by Argus thrust tubes and was mass-produced.