Enzo Ferrari

Was the first jet aircraft the Heinkel He178???




Henry Coanda (1886-1972)
"In October 1910 Grand Palais on Champs-Elysees in Paris was hosting the second International Aeronautical Exhibition. The most recent products of aviation were exposed. Many people were visiting the exhibition, some because of pure curiosity, attracted by the mirage of flight, others because they were particularly interested in some specific machines.

The most interesting machine, which attracted lots of people, and caused the visitors to gather in a crowd around it, was a red airplane which was missing the propeller; beside it, on a metallic shell, was written: COANDA-1910. This airplane caused the people to be so curious not only because it was missing the propeller, but also because of the fact that it was completely different from what people knew by that time an airplane looked like. It was a double-wing, one-seat plane equipped with a reactive engine. His main characteristics were:
span: 10.30 m
length: 12.50 m
lifting surface: 32.70 mxm
weight: 420 kg
propulsion force at sea level: 220 kgf
The news concerning the airplane's construction were mainly the following:

For the first time the main stubs of wings were made of steel instead of wood. The wings were for the first time equipped with mobile surfaces placed ahead of wing to increase lift (*these are mobile surfaces attached to the wing, which have the role to delay the separation of the boundary layer, thus increasing the critical flight incidence and the maximum lifting coefficient; in Romanian it is called volet - e.g volet Fowler, Taghi, Kruger etc.*).

The wings profile had a strong curvature; their shape was rectangular except for the fact that they were, of course, circular at the corners. The gasoline and lubricants were stored inside the upper wings (!) such as the drag was considerably reduced.

The two wings had different lengths and the superior (upper) wing was set ahead of the inferior one, which was shorter, such as the aerodynamic interference between these two surfaces were reduced. This construction, applied for the first time by Henri Coanda, was later called 'Sesquiplan'; it was re-invented 10 years later, being used for Fokker's, Brequet's, Potez's airplanes.

Paul Painleve - 1863-1933, Prof. at Sorbone, one of the pioneers of Flight Mechanics, who also flew with Wilbur Wright and Henri Farman even in 1908 - Sextrieux and Gustave Eiffel - 1832-1923, a pioneer of experimental aerodynamics, his first experiences being carried out from the tower which bears his name - were particularly interested in Coanda's machine. However they realized that the hour of the reactive airplane had not come yet (Eiffel: 'This boy should have been born 30 years later.').

The most interesting part of Coanda's plane was the propulsion system, a real revolution in the construction of airplanes engines, that would have to constitute the solution in the future.

The "air-reactive engine", invented and built for the first time by Henri Coanda, composed of a piston-engine with four cylinders, cooled with water; it developed 50 HP (Horse-Power) at 1000 rotations/minute. This piston-engine was connected to a rod which rotated the rotation multiplier; the movement was transmitted to the compressor which gained a rotation speed of 4000 rot./min.. In front of the compressor was placed the obturator - a device very similar to that of a photo-camera; this device could be controlled by the pilot such that the quantity of air that entered the compressor could be regulated. The air entered the burning rooms, (that had a ring-like section and were placed on both sides of the fuselage), from which, through some tubes, burned gases of the engine were evacuated and the propulsion force was generated.

The propulsion force at sea level obtained with this engine was 220 kgf, much larger than that obtained if the piston-engine would have been acted by a propeller.

Many visitors were suspicious about the possibility that this machine could take off since it was missing the propeller. They had never seen such a strange flying machine and never heard about an airplane without a propeller.

After the exhibition closed its doors, on December 16, 1910, Henri Coanda transported his airplane at Issy-les-Moulineaux. Here he only intended to verify the engine, not to fly. So Coanda got into his machine, and after several minutes of warming up, pushed the buttons that commanded the obturator and the rotation speed of the engine. The airplane began to move faster and faster, and flames and fume could be seen along the fuselage getting out from the engine. After a very short time, before Coanda could realize what was going on, the airplane was in the air. Impressed by the flames and worried about the fact that he had never piloted an airplane by then (only planors), Coanda lost the control of his machine which began to loose speed and height. In a short time it stroke the ground and began to burn.

This first flight was described by Coanda in 1964 as follows: "The machine gained height much faster than I thought; it was not my fault, but after a while it entered a glissade, stroke the ground and burned completely. I was very lucky I was not tied on the chair, such that I was pushed out when the airplane stroke the ground; otherwise I would have burned with it."

This attempt constitutes the first flight of an airplane equiped with an air-reactive engine, the first reactive flight of an airplane in the world. But lacking the financial support Coanda could not improve his invention such that a second reactive airplane made by Coanda could not be seen flying again.

So 30 years before Heinkel, Campini and Whittle, Coanda built and flew the first reactive airplane.

Some important aviation magazines mentioned the event latter (...):
The 'American Aviation' magazine, in its issue on December 5, 1955, included an article called 'Who was the parent of reactive aviation?' (*This is my translation of the Romanian title, I do not know the original, but it should be something of the kind*) which shows Coanda's priority.
The 'Aviation Magazine' no. 160, 1955, included an article by Andre Bie called 'The first turbo-propelled airplane in the world, which describes Coanda's plane.
Green and Cross, in their book 'The Jet Aircraft of the World', London 1955, also mentioned 'Coanda-1910' airplane.
The magazine 'Flying' in September 1956, included the article 'He flew in 1910' by Rene Aubrey, which describes Coanda's airplane and his flight."

If you want to know more about Henry Coanda check these biographical and activity notes.
Main reference:

"Romanian inventions and prioritites in aviation", Constantin C. Gheorghiu, Ed. Albatros, Bucharest, 1979 (in Romanian).

lemontree

I found a picture of the COANDA-1910

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Cheers!...on the rocks!!