Seven years after the first flight of a heavier than air aircraft, Henri Coanda built the first jet aircraft, in 1910, known as the Turbine Airplane, which was a modified propeller driven biplane. However, his design featured a vehicle powered by a turbine engine, instead of a piston, called an “Air-Reaction Engine”. This aircraft craft was even displayed at an exposition in Paris, after the plane was created, even though the first publicly stated build jet was the Heinkel He 178, built Twenty-nine years later in 1939.
This primitive design was flawed compared to conventional jet turbine engines by the fact because the shaft of this jet engine was connected to a gear box, leading to an early 50 horsepower water cooled engine. This small motor was only capable of rating at four thousand rotation per minute and was meant to act as a motor to compressor turbine. The front of the aircraft had something called an “obstructor” which was built to control the amount of airflow into the entrance of the compressor. This compressor would send air into something called a “burning room” where engine fuel was added and ignited by the unmuffle exhaust from the engine. This intern created a hot high-pressure exhaust which was blead thrust through a set of tubes and down the fuselage of the craft which was steel-plated, in this section, to protect the biplane from the hot exhaust.
Unfortunately, this milestone in aviation had a crash, and never had its well-deserved fame after. While the engine was being tuned one day, the aircraft started to roll forward. Without hesitation Coanda response was to jump in the vehicles and try flying it for himself, even though he wasn’t an experienced pilot. Coanda managed to crash his craft instead of properly landing it. Luckily, he survived his crash, and was able to further develop his scientific theories and inventions. However, immediately after this crash, the young scientist noticed something strange. The flames from the engine were around the curvature on the fuselage. Coanda’s next task was to devote his time to studying this new phenomenon, which would later be called the Coanda effect. This was the phenomenon that occurs when liquids moving near a curve at a high-speed follow follows the surface of the curve solid. He found out that if air is moved quickly enough it will do the same thing, when accelerated by a thrust system, much like this new type of turbine engine he previously invented. Not only did he coin the “Coanda Effect” he also started working on designs for aircraft, that would use these similar concepts to form lift. These experiments and designs lead to three patents in France for a new type of propulsion system in 1938.
Nothing came of any of Coanda’s idea, until 1940, when Paris became occupied by the Nazis, and his technological research became available to the Third Reich. Right away the Germans had Coanda, and his family taken away a sent to work on building this new type of craft, which would be power by the latest jet engines supplied by Germany.
Coanda new flying machine, that was requested by the Nazis, was something that was much more reminiscent of a flying saucer, rather than a typical airplane like his original invention. With a diameter of 20 meter, it was supposed to utilizes a dozen Jumo 004Bs jet engines, organized in a radial pattern, around the air frame. Each one of these jet engines sent trust into three nozzles per engine, which would then bleed trust evenly at the base of the craft, providing lift. Engine nozzles pointed would produce the same amount of thrust to lift the vehicle, while engines nozzles pointed out the sides of the vehicle would be controlled and used to maneuver the craft once it achieved lift.
Coanda’s flying disk was a masterpiece of jet technology which would later be copied by Avrocar. However, the Germans did not pursue Coanda’s design of flying saucer as much as other disk vehicles they worked on, with only smaller scaled vehicle being built for wind tunnel test. The design was viewed as unsatisfactory by the Nazi high command since it was uneconomical during a three-front war. The type of jet engines needed to build and fly these vehicles was in short supply during the war, with the main competition for the much-needed jet engines being the famed Me-262 and the Ar-234. Coanda’s machine would also require an extensive amount of jet fuel, which was in short supply during the war.
As the war went progressed on in the allies’ favor, and with the Nazis having to retreat from Europe, Coanda kept of researching and studying aerodynamics on smaller models. However, it was not in vain, in 1949 America, after discovering his work, and then soon after deemed his design of flying saucer as a plausible design. Three years after that, in 1952, the Cornell Aeronautics Lab was able to produce a workable model of Coanda’s flying saucer. Furthermore, the prototype of this exotic propulsion system had multiple positive test results, which further proved Coanda design a success. The Avro VZ-9V, later built in 1958 by Canada, was based on a similar system, although this design, proved futile to the Canadians.
It’s interesting to note that Coanda kept up with his research, even filing patents, up until the 60’s. However there has been no public updates on any of these designs and protypes being pursued.
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