What is a jet engine? How an airplane jet engine works.

In science jet propulsion called the movement of a body that occurs when a part of it is separated from it. What does this mean?

Simple examples can be given. Imagine that you are in a boat in the middle of a lake. The boat is stationary. But here you are taking a heavy stone from the bottom of the boat and throwing it into the water with force. What will happen then? The boat will start moving slowly. Another example. We inflate the rubber ball, and then let the air freely escape from it. The deflating balloon will fly in the direction opposite to that in which the air stream rushes. The force of action is equal to the force of reaction. You threw the stone with force, but the same force made the boat move in the opposite direction.

A jet engine is built on this law of physics. The fuel burns in the heat-resistant chamber. The incandescent expanding gas formed during combustion escapes with force from the nozzle. But the same force pushes the engine itself (together with the rocket or aircraft in the opposite direction). This force is called thrust.

Principle jet propulsion known to mankind for a long time — simple rockets did the ancient Chinese. But in order to rise into the sky modern aircraft and rockets, engineers had to solve a lot of technical problems, and today's jet engines are quite complex devices.

Let's try to look inside the jet engines used in aviation. Let's talk about space rocket engines some other time.

So today jet aircraft fly on three types of engines:

Turbojet engine;

Turbofan engine;

Turboprop.

How are they arranged and how do they differ from each other? Let's start with the simplest - turbojet . The very name of this device tells us the keyword - "turbine". A turbine is a shaft around which metal blades are fixed. "petals" turned at an angle. If a stream of air (or water, for example) is directed to the turbine along the shaft, it will begin to rotate. If, on the contrary, the turbine shaft begins to rotate, its blades will drive a stream of air or water along the shaft.

Combustion is the combination of fuel with oxygen, a gas that is not very abundant in ordinary air. More precisely, it is quite enough for us to breathe it. But for "breath" jet engine combustion chambers oxygen is too much dissolved in the air.

What needs to be done to rekindle a dead fire? Correctly! Blow on it or wave it over it, for example, with a sheet of plywood. By forcing air, you "feed" embers are oxygenated and the flame ignites again. The turbine does the same in a turbojet engine.

As the aircraft moves forward, a jet of air enters the engine. Here the air meets the compressor turbines rotating at high speed. Word "compressor" can be translated into Russian as "compressor". Compressor turbine blades compress air about 30 times and "push through" it into the combustion chamber. The incandescent gas resulting from the combustion of the fuel rushes further to the nozzle. But on his way there is another turbine. Getting on her blades, a jet of gas causes her shaft to rotate. But the compressor turbines are attached to the same shaft. It turns out such a peculiar "push-pull". The compressor pumps air into the engine, the mixture of compressed air and fuel burns out, releasing hot gas, and the gas on the way to the nozzle rotates the compressor turbines.

An interesting question arises - how to start such an engine? After all, until compressed air enters the combustion chamber, the fuel will not start to burn. This means that there will be no hot gas that will rotate the compressor turbine. But until the compressor turbine spins, there will be no compressed air.

Turns out, the engine is started by an electric motor which is connected to the turbine shaft. The electric motor causes the compressor to rotate, and as soon as the necessary air pressure appears in the combustion chamber, fuel enters there and the ignition is activated. Jet engine earned!

Turbojet engine device.

Turbojet engines are very powerful and weigh relatively little. Therefore, they are usually installed on supersonic military aircraft, as well as on supersonic passenger liners. But such motors have serious shortcomings They make a lot of noise and burn too much fuel.

Therefore, on aircraft flying at subsonic speeds (less than 1200 kilometers per hour), the so-called.

Turbofan engine device.

Differ they are from a turbojet engine in that in front, to the compressor, another turbine with large blades is fixed on the shaft - a fan. It is she who first meets the flow of oncoming air and drives it back with force. Part of this air, as in a turbojet engine, enters the compressor and further into the combustion chamber, and the other part "wrap around" camera and is also thrown back, creating additional traction. More precisely, for turbofan engine the main jet thrust (approximately 3/4) is created by just this very air flow that drives the fan. And only 1/4 of the thrust is given by hot gases escaping from the nozzle.

Such an engine is much less noisy and burns much less fuel, which is very important for aircraft used to transport passengers.

Turboprop engine device.

The rotation of the turbine shaft is transmitted to a propeller - a propeller that pushes the aircraft forward. A propeller with huge blades cannot rotate at the same frantic speed as a turbine shaft. Therefore, the propeller is connected to the shaft by a gearbox that reduces the speed of rotation. And although the turboprop engine "eats" there is little fuel, which means it makes the cost of the flight cheaper, it cannot accelerate the plane to high speed. Therefore, today such motors are used mainly in transport aviation and on small passenger aircraft making local flights.

For experience you will need:

1. stronger thread;

2. wide straw for a cocktail;

3. balloon oblong shape;

4. skein of adhesive tape;

5. clothespin.

Pull the thread (it can be at an angle), passing it through the straw beforehand. Inflate the balloon, and so that it does not deflate, pinch it with a clothespin as shown in the figure on the left. Now tape the ball to the straw. The jet engine is ready!

On your marks! Unclip the clothespin. A stream of air will escape from the ball, and he, together with the straw, will slide forward along the thread.

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And what is its significance for modern aviation. Since its appearance on Earth, Man has directed his gaze to the sky. With what incredible ease birds soar in the ascending currents of warm air! And not only small specimens, but even such large ones as pelicans, cranes and many others. Attempts to imitate them, using primitive ones based on the muscular strength of the pilot himself, if they led to a kind of “flight”, then all the same, there could be no talk of mass implementation of the development - the designs were very unreliable, too many restrictions were imposed on the person using them.

Then came internal combustion engines and propeller motors. They turned out to be so successful that a modern jet engine and a screw-motor (propeller) engine still coexist in parallel. Of course, having undergone a number of modifications.

How did the jet engine come about?

Most of the technical solutions, the invention of which is attributed to Man, were actually peeped from nature. For example, the creation of a hang glider was preceded by observing the flight of birds soaring in the sky. The streamlined forms of fish and birds were also brilliantly argued, but already within the framework of technical means. A similar story did not bypass the jet engine. This principle movements are used by many Marine life- octopuses, squids, jellyfish, etc. Tsiolkovsky spoke about such an engine. Even more - he theoretically substantiated the possibility of creating an airship for flights in interplanetary space.

Underlies And rockets were known in ancient China. We can say that the idea of ​​creating a jet engine "was in the air", it was only necessary to see it and translate it into technology.

The structure of the engine and the principle of operation

At the heart of any jet engine is a chamber with an outlet ending in a bell tube. A fuel mixture is supplied inside the chamber, ignites there, turning into a gas high temperature. Since its pressure spreads evenly in all directions, pressing on the walls, the gas can only leave the chamber through a socket oriented in the opposite direction of the desired direction of movement. This makes what has been said easier to understand with an example: a man is standing on ice, holding a heavy crowbar in his hands. But as soon as he throws the crowbar to the side, he will receive an acceleration impulse and slide on the ice in the opposite direction to the throw. The difference in the flight range of the crowbar and the displacement of a person is explained only by their mass, the forces themselves are equal, and the vectors are opposite. Drawing an analogy with a jet engine: a person is an aircraft, and a crowbar is superheated gas from a chamber bell.

For all its simplicity, this scheme has several significant drawbacks - high fuel consumption and huge pressure on the chamber walls. Various solutions are used to reduce consumption: an oxidizer is also used as a fuel, which, by changing its state of aggregation, more preferred than liquid fuels; another option is an oxidizable powder instead of a liquid.

But the best solution is a ramjet engine. It is a through chamber, with an inlet and an outlet (relatively speaking, a cylinder with a socket). When the apparatus moves, air enters the chamber under pressure external environment, heats up and contracts. The supplied fuel mixture ignites and reports an additional temperature. Then it breaks out through the bell and creates an impulse, as in a conventional jet engine. In this scheme, the fuel is auxiliary element so its costs are much lower. It is this type of engine that is used in aircraft, where you can see the blades of a turbine that pumps air into the chamber.

Jet engines. History of jet engines.

Jet engines.

A jet engine is a device whose design allows obtaining jet thrust by converting the internal energy of the fuel supply into the kinetic energy of the jet stream of the working fluid.

The working body of the object with high speed flows out of the jet engine, and, in accordance with the law of conservation of momentum, a reactive force is formed that pushes the engine in the opposite direction. To accelerate the working fluid, it can be used as an expansion of a gas heated in one way or another to a high temperature (thermal jet engines), and others. physical principles, for example, the acceleration of charged particles in an electrostatic field (ion engine).

A jet engine allows you to create a traction force only due to the interaction of the jet stream with the working fluid, without support or contact with other bodies. In this regard, the jet engine found wide application in aviation and astronautics.

History of jet engines.

The Chinese were the first to learn how to use jet propulsion; solid-fuel rockets appeared in China in the 10th century AD. e. Such rockets were used in the East, and then in Europe for fireworks, signaling, and as combat ones.

Rockets of ancient China.

An important stage in the development of the idea of ​​jet propulsion was the idea of ​​using a rocket as an engine for aircraft. It was first formulated by the Russian revolutionary Narodnaya Volya N. I. Kibalchich, who in March 1881, shortly before his execution, proposed a scheme for an aircraft (rocket plane) using jet thrust from explosive powder gases.

N. E. Zhukovsky in his works "On the reaction of outflowing and inflowing fluid" (1880s) and "On the theory of ships set in motion by the reaction force of outflowing water" (1908) first developed the main issues of the theory of a jet engine.

Interesting works on the study of rocket flight also belong to the famous Russian scientist I. V. Meshchersky, in particular in the field general theory motion of bodies of variable mass.

In 1903, K. E. Tsiolkovsky, in his work "The study of world spaces with jet devices", gave a theoretical justification for the flight of a rocket, as well as circuit diagram rocket engine, which anticipated many fundamental and design features modern liquid rocket engines (LRE). So, Tsiolkovsky provided for the use of liquid fuel for a jet engine and its supply to the engine with special pumps. He proposed to control the flight of the rocket by means of gas rudders - special plates placed in a jet of gases emitted from the nozzle.

A feature of a liquid-propellant engine is that, unlike other jet engines, it carries with it the entire supply of oxidizer along with the fuel, and does not take the oxygen-containing air necessary for burning fuel from the atmosphere. This is the only engine that can be used for ultra-high-altitude flight outside the earth's atmosphere.

The world's first rocket with a liquid-propellant rocket engine was created and launched on March 16, 1926 by the American R. Goddard. It weighed about 5 kilograms, and its length reached 3 m. Goddard's rocket was fueled by gasoline and liquid oxygen. The flight of this rocket lasted 2.5 seconds, during which it flew 56 m.

Systematic experimental work on these engines began in the 1930s.

The first Soviet liquid-propellant rocket engines were developed and created in 1930-1931 at the Leningrad Gas Dynamics Laboratory (GDL) under the guidance of the future academician V.P. Glushko. This series was called ORM - an experienced rocket motor. Glushko applied some novelties, for example, cooling the engine with one of the fuel components.

In parallel, the development of rocket engines was carried out in Moscow by the Jet Propulsion Study Group (GIRD). Its ideological inspirer was F. A. Zander, and the organizer was the young S. P. Korolev. Korolev's goal was to build a new rocket apparatus - a rocket plane.

In 1933, F. A. Zander built and successfully tested the OR1 rocket engine, powered by gasoline and compressed air, and in 1932-1933, the OP2 engine, powered by gasoline and liquid oxygen. This engine was designed to be installed on a glider that was supposed to fly as a rocket plane.

Developing the work begun, Soviet engineers subsequently continued to work on the creation of liquid-propellant jet engines. In total, from 1932 to 1941, 118 designs of liquid-propellant jet engines were developed in the USSR.

In Germany, in 1931, rockets were tested by I. Winkler, Riedel, and others.

The first flight on a rocket-propelled aircraft with a liquid-propellant engine was made in the Soviet Union in February 1940. As power plant aircraft was used rocket engine. In 1941, under the leadership Soviet designer V. F. Bolkhovitinov, the first jet fighter aircraft with a liquid-propellant engine was built. His tests were carried out in May 1942 by the pilot G. Ya. Bakhchivadzhi. At the same time, the first flight of a German fighter with such an engine took place.

In 1943, the United States tested the first American jet aircraft on which a liquid-propellant engine was installed. In Germany, in 1944, several fighters were built with these Messerschmitt-designed engines.

In addition, liquid propellant rocket engines were used on German V2 rockets, created under the direction of W. von Braun.

In the 1950s, liquid rocket engines were installed on ballistic missiles, and then on space rockets, artificial satellites, automatic interplanetary stations.

The rocket engine consists of a combustion chamber with a nozzle, a turbopump unit, a gas generator or a steam-gas generator, an automation system, control elements, an ignition system and auxiliary units (heat exchangers, mixers, drives).

The idea of ​​air jet engines (VRD) has been put forward more than once in different countries. The most important and original works in this regard are the studies carried out in 1908-1913 by the French scientist Renault Laurent, who proposed a number of schemes for ramjet engines (ramjet engines). These engines use as an oxidizer atmospheric air, and the compression of the air in the combustion chamber is provided by the dynamic pressure of the air.

In May 1939, for the first time in the USSR, a rocket with a ramjet engine designed by P. A. Merkulov was tested. It was a two-stage rocket (the first stage was a powder rocket) with a take-off weight of 7.07 kg, and the fuel weight for the second stage of the ramjet was only 2 kg. During the test, the rocket reached a height of 2 km.

In 1939-1940, for the first time in the world, the Soviet Union carried out summer tests of jet engines installed as additional engines on an aircraft designed by N.P. Polikarpov. In 1942, ramjet engines designed by E. Senger were tested in Germany.

The jet engine consists of a diffuser, in which, due to kinetic energy airflow compresses the air. Fuel is injected into the combustion chamber through the nozzle and the mixture ignites. The jet stream exits through the nozzle.

The operation of the WFD is continuous, so there is no starting thrust in them. In this regard, at flight speeds less than half the speed of sound, jet engines are not used. The use of WFD is most effective at supersonic speeds and high altitudes. The takeoff of an aircraft with a jet engine is carried out using solid or liquid propellant rocket engines.

Another group of jet engines, turbocompressor engines, received more development. They are divided into turbojet, in which thrust is created by a jet of gases flowing from a jet nozzle, and turboprop, in which the main thrust is created by a propeller.

In 1909, the design of a turbojet engine was developed by engineer N. Gerasimov. In 1914, a Russian lieutenant navy M. N. Nikolskoy designed and built a model of a turboprop aircraft engine. The gaseous combustion products of a mixture of turpentine and nitric acid served as the working fluid for driving the three-stage turbine. The turbine worked not only on the propeller: the exhaust gaseous products of combustion, directed to the tail (jet) nozzle, created jet thrust in addition to the thrust force of the propeller.

In 1924, V.I. Bazarov developed the design of an aircraft turbocompressor jet engine, which consisted of three elements: a combustion chamber, a gas turbine, and a compressor. For the first time, the compressed air flow here was divided into two branches: the smaller part went into the combustion chamber (to the burner), and the larger part was mixed with the working gases to lower their temperature in front of the turbine. This ensured the safety of the turbine blades. The power of the multistage turbine was used to drive the centrifugal compressor of the engine itself and partly to rotate the propeller. In addition to the propeller, thrust was created by the reaction of a jet of gases passed through the tail nozzle.

In 1939, the construction of turbojet engines designed by A. M. Lyulka began at the Kirov Plant in Leningrad. His trials were interrupted by the war.

In 1941, in England, the first flight was made on an experimental fighter aircraft equipped with a turbojet engine designed by F. Whittle. It was equipped with a gas turbine engine that drove a centrifugal compressor that supplied air to the combustion chamber. Combustion products were used to create jet thrust.

By the end of the Second World War, it became clear that the further effective development of aviation is possible only with the introduction of engines that use the principles of jet propulsion in whole or in part.

The first aircraft with jet engines were created in Nazi Germany, Great Britain, the USA and the USSR.

In the USSR, the first fighter project, with a WFD developed by A. M. Lyulka, was proposed in March 1943 by the head of OKB-301 M. I. Gudkov. The aircraft was called Gu-VRD. The project was rejected by experts, due to lack of confidence in the relevance and advantages of the WFD in comparison with piston aircraft engines.

German designers and scientists working in this and related fields (rocket science) found themselves in more advantageous position. The Third Reich planned the war, and counted on winning it due to technical superiority in weapons. Therefore, in Germany, new developments that could strengthen the army in the field of aviation and rocketry were subsidized more generously than in other countries.

The first aircraft equipped with a HeS 3 turbojet engine (TRD) designed by von Ohain was the He 178 aircraft (Heinkel Germany). It happened on August 27, 1939. This aircraft exceeded in speed (700 km/h) the piston fighters of its time, the maximum speed of which did not exceed 650 km/h, but it was less economical, and therefore had a shorter range. In addition, it had higher takeoff and landing speeds than piston aircraft, which required a longer, better-surfaced runway.

Work on this topic continued almost until the end of the war, when the Third Reich, having lost its former advantage in the air, made an unsuccessful attempt to restore it by supplying for military aviation jet aircraft.

Since August 1944, the Messerschmitt Me.262 jet fighter-bomber equipped with two turbojet engines Jumo-004 manufactured by Junkers. The Messerschmitt Me.262 aircraft significantly outperformed all of its "contemporaries" in terms of speed and rate of climb.

From November 1944, the first jet bomber Arado Ar 234 Blitz began to be produced with the same engines.

The only jet aircraft of the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition that formally took part in World War II was the Gloucester Meteor (Great Britain) with a Rolls-Royce Derwent 8 turbojet engine designed by F. Whittle.

After the war, in all countries that had aviation industry, intensive developments in the field of air-breathing engines begin. Jet engine building has opened up new opportunities in aviation: flying at speeds exceeding the speed of sound, and the creation of aircraft with a carrying capacity many times greater than the carrying capacity of piston aircraft, as a result of a higher power density. gas turbine engines compared to pistons.

The first domestic serial jet aircraft was the Yak-15 fighter (1946), developed in record time on the basis of the Yak-3 airframe and the adaptation of the captured Jumo-004 engine, made in the engine-building design bureau of V. Ya. Klimov.

A year later, the first, completely original, domestic turbojet engine TR-1, developed in the Design Bureau of A. M. Lyulka, passed state tests. Such fast pace The development of a completely new sphere of engine building has an explanation: the group of A. M. Lyulka has been dealing with this issue since pre-war times, but the green light was given to these developments only when the country's leadership suddenly discovered the backlog of the USSR in this area.

The first domestic jet passenger airliner was the Tu-104 (1955), equipped with two turbojet engines RD-3M-500 (AM-3M-500), developed in the Design Bureau of A. A. Mikulin. By this time, the USSR was already among the world leaders in the field of aircraft engine building.

Invented in 1913, the ramjet engine (ramjet) also began to be actively improved. Since the 1950s, a number of experimental aircraft and production aircraft have been created in the United States. cruise missiles for different purposes with this type of engine.

Having a number of disadvantages for use on manned aircraft (zero thrust in place, low efficiency at low flight speeds), ramjet engines have become the preferred type of ramjet for unmanned expendable projectiles and cruise missiles, due to its simplicity, and, therefore, cheapness and reliability.

In a turbojet engine (TRD), the air entering during flight is compressed first in the air intake, and then in the turbocharger. Compressed air is fed into the combustion chamber, where liquid fuel (most often aviation kerosene) is injected. Partial expansion of the gases formed during combustion occurs in the turbine that rotates the compressor, and the final expansion occurs in the jet nozzle. An afterburner can be installed between the turbine and the jet engine, designed for additional combustion of fuel.

Now turbojet engines (TRD) are equipped with most military and civil aircraft, as well as some helicopters.

In a turboprop engine, the main thrust is created by a propeller, and additional (about 10%) - by a jet of gases flowing from a jet nozzle. The principle of operation of a turboprop engine is similar to a turbojet (TR), with the difference that the turbine rotates not only the compressor, but also the propeller. These engines are used in subsonic aircraft and helicopters, as well as for the movement of high-speed ships and cars.

The earliest solid propellant jet engines (RTTD) were used in combat missiles. Their widespread use began in the 19th century, when missile units appeared in many armies. AT late XIX century, the first smokeless powders were created, with more stable combustion and greater efficiency.

In 1920-1930, work was underway to create jet weapons. This led to the appearance of rocket launchers - "Katyusha" in the Soviet Union, six-barreled rocket mortars in Germany.

Obtaining new types of gunpowder made it possible to use solid-propellant jet engines in combat missiles, including ballistic ones. In addition, they are used in aviation and astronautics as engines of the first stages of launch vehicles, starting engines for aircraft with ramjet engines and brake engines for spacecraft.

A jet solid propellant engine (RTTZ) consists of a housing (combustion chamber), which contains the entire supply of fuel and a jet nozzle. The body is made of steel or fiberglass. The nozzle is made of graphite or refractory alloys. The fuel is ignited by an igniter. Thrust can be controlled by changing the combustion surface of the charge or the area of ​​the critical section of the nozzle, as well as by injecting liquid into the combustion chamber. The direction of thrust can be changed by gas rudders, a deflecting nozzle (deflector), auxiliary control engines, etc.

Jet solid propellant engines are very reliable, do not require complex maintenance, can be stored for a long time, and are always ready to start.

Types of jet engines.

Nowadays, jet engines of various designs are used quite widely.

Jet engines can be divided into two categories: rocket jet engines and air-jet engines.

Solid propellant rocket engine (RDTT) - a solid fuel rocket engine - an engine that runs on solid fuel, is most often used in rocket artillery and much less frequently in astronautics. It is the oldest of the heat engines.

Liquid propellant rocket engine (LRE) is a chemical rocket engine that uses liquids, including liquefied gases, as rocket fuel. By the number of components used, one-, two- and three-component rocket engines are distinguished.

Direct-flow air-jet;

Pulsating air-jet;

Turbojet;

Turboprop.

Modern jet engines.

The photo shows an aircraft jet engine during testing.

The photo shows the process of assembling rocket engines.

Jet engines. History of jet engines. Types of jet engines.

the site and Rostec remember the people who made the rockets fly.

origins

“The rocket will not fly by itself” - this phrase is attributed to many famous scientists. And Sergei Korolev, and Wernher von Braun, and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. It is believed that the idea of ​​rocket flight was formulated almost by Archimedes himself, but even he could not imagine how to make it fly.

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

To date, there are many varieties of rocket engines. Chemical, nuclear, electrical, even plasma. However, rockets appeared long before man invented the first engine. The words "nuclear fusion" or " chemical reaction” hardly said anything to the inhabitants of ancient China. But the rockets appeared there. The exact date it is difficult to name, but, presumably, this happened during the reign of the Han Dynasty (III-II centuries BC). The first mention of gunpowder also belongs to those times. The rocket, which rose up due to the force generated by the explosion of gunpowder, was used in those days exclusively in peaceful purposes- for fireworks. These rockets, which is characteristic, had their own supply of fuel, in this case, gunpowder.

Konrad Haas is considered the creator of the first combat missile

The next step was taken only in 1556 by the German inventor Konrad Haas, who was a specialist in firearms in the army of Ferdinand I - Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Haas is considered the creator of the first combat rocket. Although, strictly speaking, the inventor did not create it, but only laid theoretical basis. It was Haas who came up with the idea of ​​a multi-stage rocket.

The scientist described in detail the mechanism for creating an aircraft from two missiles that would be separated in flight. “Such an apparatus,” he assured, “could develop tremendous speed.” The ideas of Haas were soon developed by the Polish general Kazimir Semenovich.

In 1650, he proposed a project to create a three-stage rocket. However, this idea was never put into practice. That is, of course, it was, but only in the twentieth century, several centuries after the death of Semenovich.

Rockets in the army

The military, of course, will never miss the opportunity to adopt the new kind destructive weapons. In the 19th century, they had the opportunity to use a rocket in battle. In 1805, the British officer William Congreve demonstrated at the Royal Arsenal gunpowder rockets of unprecedented power for those times. There is an assumption that Congreve "stole" most of the ideas from the Irish nationalist Robert Emmet, who used some kind of rocket during the 1803 uprising. You can argue on this topic forever, but nevertheless, the rocket that the British troops adopted is called the Congreve rocket, not the Emmett rocket.

The military began using rockets at the dawn of the 19th century

Launch of Congreve's Rocket, 1890

The weapon was repeatedly used during the Napoleonic Wars. In Russia, Lieutenant General Alexander Zasyadko is considered a pioneer of rocket science.

He not only improved the Congreve rocket, but also thought about the fact that the energy of this destructive weapon could be used for peaceful purposes. Zasyadko, for example, was the first to express the idea that with the help of a rocket it would be possible to fly into space. The engineer even calculated exactly how much gunpowder would be needed to get the rocket to the moon.

Zasyadko was the first to propose the use of rockets for space flight

On a rocket to space

Zasyadko's ideas formed the basis of many works by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. This famous scientist and inventor theoretically substantiated the possibility of space flight using rocket technology. True, he proposed using not gunpowder as fuel, but a mixture of liquid oxygen with liquid hydrogen. Similar ideas were expressed by Tsiolkovsky's younger contemporary Herman Oberth.

He also developed the idea of ​​interplanetary flights. Oberth was well aware of the complexity of the task, but his work was not at all fantastic. The scientist, in particular, proposed the idea of ​​a rocket engine. He even conducted experimental tests of such devices. In 1928, Oberth met a young student, Wernher von Braun. This young physicist from Berlin was soon to make a breakthrough in rocket science and bring many of Oberth's ideas to life. But more about that later, because two years before the meeting of these two scientists, the first liquid-fueled rocket in history was launched.

Rocket era

This significant event took place on March 16, 1926. And the main character was the American physicist and engineer Robert Goddard. Back in 1914, he patented a multi-stage rocket. Soon he was able to realize the idea proposed by Haas almost four hundred years before. Goddard proposed using gasoline and nitrous oxide as fuel. After a series of unsuccessful launches, he succeeded. On March 16, 1926, at his aunt's farm, Goddard launched a rocket the size of human hand. In just over two seconds, she flew 12 meters into the air. It is curious that Bazooka will be created later on the basis of the works of Goddard.

The discoveries of Goddard, Oberth and Tsiolkovsky had a great resonance. In the USA, Germany, and the Soviet Union, societies of rocket scientists began to spring up spontaneously. In the USSR, already in 1933, the Jet Institute was created. In the same year, a fundamentally new type of weapon appeared - rockets. The installation for their launch went down in history under the name "Katyusha".

In Germany, Wernher von Braun, already familiar to us, was engaged in the development of Oberth's ideas. He created rockets for the German army and did not leave this occupation after the Nazis came to power. Moreover, Brown received fabulous funding from them and unlimited possibilities for work.

When creating new rockets, slave labor was used. It is known that Brown tried to protest against this, but received a threat in response that he himself might be in the place of forced laborers. Thus, a ballistic missile was created, the appearance of which was predicted by Tsiolkovsky. The first tests took place in 1942. In 1944, the V-2 long-range ballistic missile was adopted by the Wehrmacht. With its help, they fired mainly at the territory of Great Britain (the rocket flew to London from Germany in 6 minutes). "V-2" carried terrible destruction and instilled fear in the hearts of people. Its victims were at least 2700 civilians Foggy Albion. In the British press, the V-2 was called the "winged horror".

The Nazis used slave labor to build rockets

After the war

Since 1944, the American and Soviet military have been "hunting" for Brown. Both countries were interested in his ideas and developments. The scientist himself played a key role in solving this issue. Back in the spring of 1945, he gathered his team for a council, which decided the question of who, at the end of the war, would be better off surrendering. Scientists have come to the conclusion that it is better for the Americans to surrender. Brown himself was captured almost by accident. His brother Magnus, seeing an American soldier, ran up to him and said: "My name is Magnus von Braun, my brother invented the V-2, we want to surrender."

R-7 Koroleva - the first rocket used to fly into space

In the US, Wernher von Braun continued to work on rockets. Now, however, he worked mainly for peaceful purposes. It was he who gave a tremendous impetus to the development of the American space industry by designing the first launch vehicles for the United States (of course, Brown also created combat ballistic missiles). His team in February 1958 launched the first American artificial satellite Earth. Soviet Union ahead of the United States with the launch of the satellite by almost half a year. On October 4, 1957, the first artificial satellite was launched into Earth orbit. When it was launched, the Soviet R-7 rocket, created by Sergei Korolev, was used.

R-7 became the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile, as well as the first rocket used for space flight.

Rocket engines in Russia

In 1912, a plant for the production of aircraft engines was opened in Moscow. The company was part of the French society "Gnome". Here, among other things, engines for aircraft were created. Russian Empire during the First World War. The plant successfully survived the Revolution, received a new name "Icarus" and continued to work under the Soviet regime.

The plant for the production of aircraft engines appeared in Russia in 1912

aircraft engines were created here both in the 1930s and in the 1940s, the war years. The motors that were produced at Icarus were installed on advanced Soviet aircraft. And already in the 1950s, the enterprise began to produce turbojet engines, including those for the space industry. Now the plant belongs to OJSC Kuznetsov, which got its name in honor of the outstanding Soviet aircraft designer Nikolai Dmitrievich Kuznetsov. The enterprise is part of the state corporation Rostec.

Current state

Rostec continues to produce rocket engines, including those for the rocket industry. AT last years production volumes are growing. Last year, information appeared that Kuznetsov received orders for the production of engines for 20 years in advance. Engines are created not only for the space industry, but also for aviation, energy and freight rail transport.

In 2012, Rostec tested a lunar engine

In 2012, Rostec conducted tests of the lunar engine. The specialists managed to revive the technologies that were created for the Soviet lunar program. The program itself, as we know, was eventually curtailed. But forgotten, it seems, developments have now found new life. It is expected that the lunar engine will be widely used in the Russian space program.

Jet engines are currently widely used in connection with the exploration of outer space. They are also used for meteorological and military missiles of various ranges. In addition, all modern high-speed aircraft are equipped with jet engines.

In outer space, it is impossible to use any other engines, except for jet engines: there is no support (solid liquid or gaseous), starting from which spaceship could get a boost. The use of jet engines for aircraft and rockets that do not go beyond the atmosphere is connected with thewhat jet engines can provide top speed flight.

Jet engine device.

Simply according to the principle of operation: outboard air (in rocket engines- liquid oxygen) is sucked intoturbine, there it mixes with fuel and burns, at the end of the turbine forms the so-called. “working body” (jet stream), which moves the car.

At the beginning of the turbine is fan, which sucks air from the external environment into the turbine. Two main tasks- primary air intake and cooling of the entire engineengine as a whole, by pumping air between the outer shell of the engine and internal parts. This cools the mixing and combustion chambers and prevents them from collapsing.

Behind the fan is a powerful compressor which forces air at high pressure into the combustion chamber.

The combustion chamber mixes fuel with air. After the formation of the fuel-air mixture, it is ignited. In the process of ignition, there is a significant heating of the mixture and surrounding parts, as well as volumetric expansion. Actually, a jet engine uses a controlled explosion to propel itself. The combustion chamber of a jet engine is one of the hottest parts of it. She needs constant intensive cooling.. But even this is not enough. The temperature in it reaches 2700 degrees, so it is often made of ceramics.

After the combustion chamber, the burning fuel-air mixture is sent directly to turbine. The turbine consists of hundreds of blades, which are pressed by the jet stream, causing the turbine to rotate. The turbine, in turn, rotates shaft on which are fan and compressor. Thus, the system is closed and requires only a supply fuel and air for its functioning.

There are two main classes of jet engines bodies:

Air jet engines- jet engine atmospheric air is used as the main working fluid in the thermodynamic cycle, as well as when creating engine jet thrust. Such engines use the energy of oxidation of combustible oxygen from the air taken from the atmosphere. The working fluid of these engines is a mixture of productscombustion with the rest of the intake air.

rocket engines- contain all components of the working fluid on board and able to work in any environment, including in airless space.

Types of jet engines.

- classic jet engine- used mainly on fighters in various modifications.