The Incredible Technology Behind Jet Engines

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[Noah-hdje]

The pace of early aircraft development is still one of the most unbelievable human achievements. To go from the the Kittyhawk to jet planes in under 40 years was insane.

[VICHEL]

As an aerospace engineer who specialized in propulsion, this video is very nice. Very comprehensive way to explain in layman's terms an extemely complicated topic. A quick detail on turbofans, they are substantially quieter than a regular turbojets due to the air bypass, which is nother advantage and quite a massive on at that. Approved!

[RobertoVernina]

I've got a topic for you: the Internet! Everybody uses it but very few people knows _how_ it works: how the "network of networks" work and what it does really mean, the various services (e-mail, the Web, FTP), what's really a VPN.... It's a vast subject, but it should also be possible to reduce it to layman's terms without wandering too much or go too deep into the intricate technicalities - just like you did in this video.

[donchernoff]

Excellent video but you neglected to mention the key technologies that makes modern jet engines so efficient. Thermodynamics requires the engine be run at higher temperatures to improve efficiency and the blades in the turbine section bear the brunt of these high temperatures. In some of these engines the blades actually run at temperatures ABOVE the melting point of the metal they are made from. The two key technologies that allow for this are are cooling channels within the blades to air cool them so they don't melt. The other key technology is single-crystal turbine blades. In short, typical alloys begin to deform under heat and stress and turbine blades are under a lot of heat and stress (from spinning so fast) so they want to elongate, or "creep" to use the metallurgy term. To get around this problem the blades where heat treated to directionally re-crystalize the grain structure which worked for a while until they wanted to run the engines even hotter. To solve that problem they figured out a way to make the turbine blades as a single crystal with no grains, hence no grain boundaries and therefore no creep. This is a key technology that is highly guarded trade-secret and only a few companies in the world know how to do this. Materials Science to the rescue!

[frocat]

This video provided about 75% of the information on turbine engines that we covered in my Aircraft Systems class way back in 1999, and did it in a lot less time. Lots of excellent information here, particularly for folks who aren't aviation/aerospace professionals. Well done, Simon.

[MarkRLeach]

Small correction, at 4:12 you say the 'gas wants to diffuse'. This is the wrong term. The hot gas wants to expand, not quite the same thing. Diffusion is the net movement from a region of higher concentration to a region of lower concentration, nothing to do with temperature. Keep up the good work!

[nickhahn]

Steam power technology would be pretty cool in a video. Locomotives, steam turbines, air ejectors.

Amazing what you can do with a bit of boiled water.

[Royce]

More, please! There are other channels that cover similar topics, in similar easy-to-understand ways, but I appreciate your guys' take!

[dan]

Love the new content, let’s hear about lasers and the future applications of them

[EAcapuccino]

The name Frank Whittle comes to mind!
Oh and Rolls Royce! 👌

[jakefeingold]

If you threw a turbojet onto one of those styrofoam airplane models with the plastic propellers you get at the dentist office, you'd essentially have a turbo fan

[mattprior]

Great video, it could have been a proper 90min deep dive epic and we would all enjoy it!

[LtSkEt]

I think the two World Wars that would sadly occur in the first half of the 20th century definitely acted as a catalyst to powered flight, specifically the developments made around the time of World War II, as necessity is the mother of invention. Particularly the contributions of Sir Frank Whittle, and his efforts to create the first jet engine as a major innovation in the history of aviation. Receiving a patent for his design for the turbojet engine in 1930 and then founding Power Jets LTD in 1936 to further develop his ideas. Leading to the first successful jet engines being tested in 1937 and, although disputed, still one of the first jet powered aircraft, utilizing Whittle’s Jet engine in the Gloster E.28 & E.29, with them first taking to the skies in 1941. Obviously, Germany’s efforts cannot be ignored, with the Heinkel HE 178, designed by Ernst Heinkel. With his prototype jet aircraft first flying in August on 1939. The U.S. can certainly not be ignored in terms of contributions to the field of jet powered aviation, with the Bell P-59 twin jet engine powered aircraft that took its maiden flight on October 1st 1942. Although impressive, all three of these aircraft didn’t really see much, if any action during World War II but, what followed would set off the biggest change in commercial aviation in the history of jet powered flight with the advent of massive Jet powered passenger planes, like the British built De-Havilland Comet taking its maiden flight in 1952 and the American built Boeing 707, first taking flight in 1954 and entering into commercial passenger use in 1958 with PAN-AM. De-Havilland obviously then suffered issues with the Comet, due to its design leading to the forming of stress crack in the fuselage after cycles of pressurization and depressurization, causing it to break up mid flight on multiple occasions. This then caused the British to loose their lead to Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, Lockheed etc. However, the joint venture between BAC and Aérospatiale to design and build the magnificent Concorde. Quite possibly, one of the most advanced, safest and definitely, the fastest and most beautiful (imo) commercial aircraft ever build but, despite these accolades, it was technically a financial failure. Due to legislation restricting supersonic flight over land and its one crash that was as a result of a freak accident causing a fuel leek in the left wing fuel tank when a huge piece of a blown 747 tire from the plane taking off before it, being left of the runway, was then thrown up, hitting the left wing with sufficient force to rupture the left wing fuel tank causing it to burst the plastic welds. Fuel leaked out of the left wing and into the hot jet exhaust of the two left engines, igniting it and causing a fire that consumed the plane until it finally crashed only shortly after takeoff. That combined with increased fuel prices due to the then recent breakout of war in the Middle East, was the death knell in that magnificent aircraft’s illustrious history. Now we have the duopoly of Boeing and Airbus and innovation has seemingly stagnated and as an American, it pains me to see the serious decline of the once great Boeing Company. I hope that serious innovation will soon return to the field of passenger jet aircraft design and production.

[TheBin-fcgh]

Definitely a great format! Would love more of this

[brentcoates]

As an aspiring A&P with my powerplant written test in a week. This is a nice refresher

[jlward]

I want to give this video a mega thumbs up. I've been waiting on this one. I was hoping it was maybe like 4 hours, but I'll settle for 20 minutes! Thanks again for bringing this to us.

[Ethan]

Definitely like this new video idea Simon and Co! Would love a video on the inner workings of a standard/typical vehicle engine

[ignitionfrn]

0:40 - Chapter 1 - The basic principles
1:10 - Mid roll ads
2:25 - Back to the video
9:35 - Chapter 2 - Turbojets & turbofans
14:30 - Chapter 3 - Turboprops & turboshafts
17:40 - Chapter 4 - The ones with no or few moving parts

[niravdarmesh]

21:00 The X-43 refers to the entire hypersonic test vehicle, not just the engine. It was an integrated system where the airframe itself functioned as part of the scramjet engine.

[diminios]

Isn't it fun that even though it's a turbine, and not a bunch of cylinders, it still operates to the rule of "suck, squeeze, bang, blow"?