From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Patent specification for improvements in the propulsion of aircraft and other vehicles.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 147\2\ scan0208 | |
| Date | 16th January 1930 | |
| PATENT SPECIFICATION Application Date: Jan. 16. 1930. No 1521 / 30. Complete Left: Oct 16. 1930. Complete Accepted: April 16. 1931. 347,206 PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION. Improvements relating to the Propulsion of Aircraft and other Vehicles. I, FRANK WHITTLE, of Glenhaven, Regent St.{Capt. P. R. Strong}, Coventry, British Subject, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:— 5 This invention concerns improvements relating to propulsion and whilst at present it is deemed to be particularly adapted to the propulsion of aircraft, it is not necessarily limited to this use 10 and may be adapted for the propulsion of other vehicles. The main object of this invention is to provide means whereby the principle of obtaining propulsive force in the one sense 15 of direction by the reaction caused by expelling fluid in the opposite sense of direction, may be applied efficiently to aircraft or other vehicles. It is believed that an embodiment of 20 this invention will provide a large thrust in proportion to its weight, that it will perform at greater altitudes than are at present obtainable, that it makes possible higher speeds than have up to the present 25 been obtained, that it will operate with any fuel now in use, and that it will have a reasonably low fuel consumption. Further that simplicity and convenient external form is achieved. 30 According to the invention, a heat cycle is employed, consisting of one, or more stages of compression, one or more stages of expansion and a heat addition between 35 the end of compression and the beginning of expansion, part of the work done in expansion being employed to do the work of compression, and the remainder to provide the fluid reaction. Describing the invention in a simple 40 form as applied to aircraft, there is a compression apparatus, consisting of a compressor, which may be a blower type compressor, a cylinder compressor, or a combination of the two, by means of 45 which air as the working fluid is compressed into a heating chamber where heat is added by the combustion of fuel. The air then expanding through apparatus designed to absorb sufficient of the work 50 of expansion to drive the compressor, and which may consist of a turbine rotor, or cylinder expander or a combination of the two, and which is on the same shaft as, or connected with the compressing mechanism. The air then passes through 55 a suitably designed tunnel to the atmosphere, either having velocity as a result of its passage through expansion apparatus, of being capable of further expansion through suitably designed nozzles at the 60 rear, or both. In another form, a portion of the air only may expand through the expansion apparatus which drives the compression apparatus, and the remainder expands to 65 the atmosphere providing fluid reaction. In more particularly describing the invention in an aircraft adaption, I propose to use a centrifugal rotary vane blower or turbo-compressor as a compressor. The 70 air intake is a tunnel situated in the nose of the aircraft and leading in an axial direction to the inlet orifice of blower. The gas is passed circumferentially through suitably designed passages 75 or diffusers into the heating chamber, which is of suitable material, and probably lagged externally to conserve heat. Into this chamber are directed burners for oil fuel and any further necessary details 80 of construction such as pilot burners, cleaning devices etc. At the rear of the heating chamber the gas passes through suitable nozzles to impinge on the buckets or blades of a De Laval or Curtis type 85 turbine wheel, the latter being mounted on the same shaft as the compressor. The gas passes into a tunnel after leaving the turbine and is led to the rear, where the final stage of expansion to the atmosphere 90 takes place through suitably designed nozzles. The invention is not limited to the mechanism detailed above. For instance, instead of the air passing through appara- 95 tus for driving compressor after heating, it may pass through and give up some of its heat to the water in a steam boiler, the steam so generated being utilised to drive the compression mechanism by 100 means of a steam turbine or other steam engine. This would then be a substitute for the gas turbine above specified. Controlling means may include fuel control, gas flow control, or mechanical 105 control of the speed of the blower and/or [Price 1/-] | ||