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71-551: The Convair XB-53 was a proposed jet-powered medium bomber aircraft, designed by Convair for the United States Army Air Forces . With a radical tailless , forward-swept wing design, the aircraft appeared futuristic; however, the project was canceled before either of the two prototypes were completed. The project was originally designated XA-44 in 1945 under the old "attack" category. An unusual forward-swept wing -design powered by three J35-GE turbojets ,

142-414: A German pyrotechnical engineer who, in 1923, had purchased H.G. Cordes, a Bremerhaven firm famous for its manufacture of black-powder rockets used mainly for harpoons, signal devices and similar devices. Opel, Sander and Valier joined forces and combined into one entity the financing, the theoretical knowledge, and the practical capability necessary for success. Moreover, von Opel, Valier, and Sander said from

213-404: A comment by von Opel: "Felmy's willingness to risk his position to protect my first rocket flight from bureaucratic prohibitions is something I will never forget." The order for the catapult release could be given, but the first attempt failed. Fire and smoke leapt out of the big boosters, but the sustainers failed to ignite. The RAK-1 glided back to Earth at only 50 metres (164 ft.). At 11 a.m.

284-402: A flight such as man has never made before... The force of the rockets has expired. Visions cease; actuality calls. I must return to Earth.. Gliding with terrible bumps along the ground, the plane comes to a halt." Exact measurements of the flight were impossible. After he had levelled off to about 100 ft. (30.5 metres), the ground crew attempted to time the flight. It was determined that he

355-689: A glazed nose section. The swept-forward configuration would give the aircraft a greater climb rate and maneuverability. It looked promising enough at one point for the Army Air Force to consider canceling the XB-46 in favor of the XA-44, since there was not enough funding for both. Classified as a medium bomber, the XB-53 would have carried up to 12,000 pounds of bombs as well as 40 High Velocity Aerial Rockets (HVAR) mounted on underwing pylons. Convair argued for completion of

426-583: A hard landing, but it had made an emphatic point about rocket aviation and immensely popularized rockets as means of propulsion, causing a so called global "rocket rumble". The Mannheim Museum of Technology, Technoseum , has a replica of RAK.1 as the world's first dedicated rocket-plane on display, the execution of which Julius Hatry himself supervised. Technoseum also hosts original parts of the RAK.1 and Hatry's estate. According to Frank H. Winter in SPACEFLIGHT magazine,

497-446: A height of around 20 metres (65 ft) before hastily abandoning the Ente, which was burned beyond any hope of salvage. Despite the loss of the first rocket plane, von Opel immediately contracted with Julius Hatry for a specialized rocket aircraft. Hatry’s design for Opel was rather more elegant than the Ente. With a wingspan of 36 feet and length of 16 feet, the new aircraft Opel RAK.1 had

568-509: A lower exhaust speed than turbojets, and are mostly used for high sonic, transonic, and low supersonic speeds. High bypass turbofans are relatively efficient, and are used by subsonic aircraft such as airliners. Jet aircraft fly considerably differently than propeller aircraft . One difference is that jet engines respond relatively slowly. This complicates takeoff and landing maneuvers. In particular, during takeoff, propeller aircraft engines blow air over their wings and that gives more lift and

639-634: A maximum velocity of 95 mph (153 km/h) and had traversed a distance of circa 3 km. Data from J2mcL Planeurs - Hatry-Opel Rak 1, Les Ailes 10 October 1929 General characteristics Performance Shortly after the September 1929 flight of RAK.1, the Opel rocket experiments were brought to an end by the Great Depression and the Opel company focused its engineering capacities on vehicle development. Von Opel left Germany before 1930, first to

710-542: A quarter miles in flying inferno". On 30 September 1929, it first appeared as if the flight was never going to be made. At 9 a.m., von Opel entered the RAK.1 and prepared for liftoff. Just briefly before the anticipated launch, Major Hellmuth Felmy came up informing von Opel: "A telegram just came from the Oberpraesidium in Kassel. All flight tests are forbidden. Take off quick! I haven't had the telegram yet!". Winter reports on

781-507: A second attempt was made, but the result was similar to the initial launch attempt. At about 3:30 or 4:00 in the afternoon another attempt was made. Aviation enthusiasts, von Opel's supporters and friends, and some of the media organizations were present. Stamer, Sander and von Opel's fiancee and future wife Margot Löwenstein (also known as Sellnik), were there as well. Sellnik, herself a pilot and one of Germany's six aviatrixes, had been another of von Opel's professional advisors on aviation for

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852-413: A shorter takeoff. These differences caught out some early BOAC Comet pilots. In aircraft overall propulsive efficiency η {\displaystyle \eta } is the efficiency, in percent, with which the energy contained in a vehicle's propellant is converted into useful energy, to replace losses due to air drag , gravity, and acceleration. It can also be stated as the proportion of

923-422: A speed that is the same as, or nearly the same as, the vehicle velocity. The exact formula for air-breathing engines as given in the literature, is where c is the exhaust speed, and v is the speed of the aircraft. For a long range jet operating in the stratosphere , the speed of sound is constant, hence flying at fixed angle of attack and constant Mach number causes the aircraft to climb, without changing

994-470: A true turbojet in that the turbine was driven by a piston engine, rather than combustion of the turbine gases - which was a much more complex solution. The British experimental Gloster E.28/39 first flew on May 15, 1941, powered by Sir Frank Whittle 's turbojet. The United States Bell XP-59A flew on October 1, 1942, using two examples of a version of the Whittle engine built by General Electric . The Meteor

1065-510: A typical sailplane wing , under which a pod was suspended to accommodate the pilot and sixteen of Sander's solid rocket engines each with 50 pounds of thrust. The tailplane was mounted on booms behind the wing and high out of the way of the rocket exhaust. The aircraft is sometimes referred to as the Opel-Hatry RAK.1 or Opel-Sander RAK.1 in acknowledgment of its builder or the supplier of its engines respectively. In still other references it

1136-490: Is called the RAK.3 to distinguish it from Opel's previous RAK.1 and RAK.2 rocket cars. As it happened, all three names, Opel, Sander, and Hatry were painted on the aircraft (with Opel’s most prominent), as was the RAK.1 designation. The first public flight came on Sept. 30, 1929. Before a large crowd assembled outside of Frankfurt, the intrepid von Opel made a successful flight of almost 3.5 km in 75 seconds, reaching an estimated top speed of around 150 km/h. RAK.1 made

1207-524: Is considered the first fatality of the dawning space age . His protégé Arthur Rudolph went on to develop an improved and safer version of Valier's engine. Sander was eventually engaged in the 1930s in German military projects under General Walter R. Dornberger but was imprisoned for treason by the Nazis and forced to sell his business, he died in 1938. Hatry tried to continue the work on his aircraft developments, but

1278-587: Is known as the Breguet range equation after the French aviation pioneer Louis Charles Breguet . Opel RAK.1 The Opel RAK.1 (also known as the Opel RAK.3 ) was the world's first purpose-built rocket-powered aircraft. It was designed and built by Julius Hatry under commission from Fritz von Opel , who flew it on September 30, 1929 in front of a large crowd at Rebstock airport near Frankfurt am Main . The RAK.1 plane

1349-650: Is the X-15 at Mach 6.85. The Space Shuttle , while far faster than the X-43 or X-15, was not regarded as an aircraft during ascent as it was carried ballistically by rocket thrust, rather than the air. During re-entry it was classed (like a glider) as an unpowered aircraft. The first flight was in 1981. The Bell 533 (1964), Lockheed XH-51 (1965), and Sikorsky S-69 (1977-1981) are examples of compound helicopter designs where jet exhaust added to forward thrust. The Hiller YH-32 Hornet and Fairey Ultra-light Helicopter were among

1420-427: Is the cycle efficiency and η p {\displaystyle \eta _{p}} is the propulsive efficiency. The cycle efficiency, in percent, is the proportion of energy that can be derived from the energy source that is converted to mechanical energy by the engine . For jet aircraft the propulsive efficiency (essentially energy efficiency ) is highest when the engine emits an exhaust jet at

1491-565: Is therefore an important consideration. Jet aircraft are usually designed using the Whitcomb area rule , which says that the total area of cross-section of the aircraft at any point along the aircraft from the nose must be approximately the same as that of a Sears-Haack body . A shape with that property minimises the production of shockwaves which would waste energy. There are several types of engine which operate by expelling hot gas: The different types are used for different purposes. Rockets are

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1562-647: The Boeing 707 to enter service in 1958 and thus to dominate the market for civilian airliners. The underslung engines were found to be advantageous in the event of a propellant leak, and so the 707 looked rather different from the Comet: the 707 has a shape that is effectively the same as that of contemporary aircraft, with marked commonality still evident today for example with the 737 (fuselage) and A340 (single deck, swept wing, four below-wing engines). Turbofan aircraft with far greater fuel efficiency began entering service in

1633-766: The Nakajima J9Y Kikka , a modified, and slightly smaller version of the Me 262 that had folding wings. By the end of 1945, the US had introduced their first jet fighter, the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star into service and the UK its second fighter design, the de Havilland Vampire . The US introduced the North American B-45 Tornado , their first jet bomber, into service in 1948. It was capable of carrying nuclear weapons, but

1704-541: The 1950s and 1960s, and became the most commonly used type of jet. The Tu-144 supersonic transport was the fastest commercial jet aircraft at Mach 2.35 (2,503 km/h (1,555 mph)). It went into service in 1975, but was withdrawn from commercial service shortly afterwards. The Mach 2 Concorde entered service in 1976 and flew for 27 years. The fastest military jet aircraft was the SR-71 Blackbird at Mach 3.35 (3,661 km/h (2,275 mph)). Most people use

1775-598: The 1950s. The first flight of a jet-propelled aircraft to come to public attention was the Italian Caproni Campini N.1 motorjet prototype which flew on August 27, 1940. It was the first jet aircraft recognised by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (at the time the German He 178 program was still kept secret). Campini began development of the motorjet in 1932; it differed from

1846-542: The AVUS track in Berlin is not just the daring feat itself, but its aftermath: Both the public and academics have finally seen the light and have begun to believe in the future of the rocket as an engine for new rapid transit devices.« Otto Willi Gail, Illustrierte Zeitung, Leipzig, 1928 Opel, Sander, Valier and Hatry had engaged in a program that led directly to use of jet-assisted takeoff for heavily laden aircraft. The German Reich

1917-595: The German Reich government. Valier continued the rocket development after the Opel RAK break-up on his own. In collaboration with Heylandt-Werke, he also was focusing his efforts on liquid-fuelled rockets. Their first successful test firing with liquid fuel (five minutes) occurred in the Heylandt plant on 25 January 1930. Valier was killed less than a month later when an alcohol-fuelled rocket exploded on his test bench in Berlin. He

1988-492: The German military, which provided funding for further development of rockets as a replacement for artillery. This led to an array of military applications, among them Germany's V-2 terror weapon, the world’s first ballistic missile. After World War II, these German rocket and missile scientists and engineers would have an immense impact on missile and space programs by the United States of America. Walter J. Boyne , Director of

2059-496: The Meteor, as Projekt 1065, with initial plans drawn up by Waldemar Voigt's design team in April 1939. The Messerschmitt Me 262 was the first operational jet fighter , manufactured by Germany during World War II and entering service on 19 April 1944 with Erprobungskommando 262 at Lechfeld just south of Augsburg. An Me 262 scored the first combat victory for a jet fighter on 26 July 1944,

2130-515: The Moon , world boxing champion Max Schmeling and many more sports and show business celebrities: A world record for rail vehicles was reached with RAK3 on June 23, 1928, with the car attaining a top speed of 256 km/h over a 5-km stretch of straight track near Hanover. Some 20,000 spectators watched RAK 3 breaking the existing world speed record of railcars by nearly 40 km/h. The resulting international publicity after RAK2 and RAK3 demonstrations

2201-459: The OPEL RAK experimentations with Lippisch's design. Opel did not get the chance to fly it, however, as the aircraft was destroyed by an engine explosion on its second test flight. With a wingspan of just under 12 metres (40 ft), and a length of some 4.3 metres (14 ft), the Ente featured a canoe-like fuselage, canard surfaces, and rudders mounted outboard on a straight rectangular wing. Each of

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2272-574: The US and eventually to France and Switzerland where he died in 1971. He lived long enough to see the fulfillment of his dreams with the successful Apollo missions which can be traced back to Opel RAK. His sister Elinor von Opel had to flee Germany in 1935 with her sons, Ernst Wilhelm Sachs von Opel and Gunter Sachs von Opel, due a legal battle on her divorce, particularly bitter about the custody of both sons, and because of her public aversion to Nazi leadership, friends of her former husband Willy Sachs . Elinor's German assets were blocked and confiscated by

2343-581: The XB-46 prototype as a flying testbed, without armament and other equipment, and with the substitution of two XA-44s for the other two B-46 airframes on contract. The Air Force ratified this in June 1946 but the project did not progress, nor were additional B-46s built. The XB-53 program was reinstated in February 1949 but only for a short while. Data from General characteristics Performance Armament Related lists Jet aircraft Whereas

2414-483: The aircraft took off and flew a 1,500 metre (4,900 ft) circuit of the Wasserkuppe's landing strip. On the second flight, the team decided to try firing both rockets together for increased thrust over a shorter period. Something went wrong, however, and rather than burning properly, one of the rockets exploded, punching holes in both wings and setting the aircraft afire. Stamer was nevertheless able to bring it down from

2485-430: The aircraft’s two 200-newton-thrust (44 lbf) rocket engines were tightly packed with about 4 kilograms (8 lb) of black powder. Designed to fire in sequence, the rockets were ignited electrically by the pilot. An automatic counterweight system was set to adjust the aircraft’s center of gravity as the rocket fuel was consumed. An elastic launching rope was used to catapult the Ente into the air. After one false start,

2556-412: The attracted positive publicity for the science of rocketry, but also the Opel company. Nevertheless it was clear to the RAK program leadership, they had no plans to commercially produce rocket cars for end customers, the aim was the development and demonstration of a rocket-powered aircraft. The group continued their land projects and built RAK 2, designed by Volkhart from the ground up as a rocket car. It

2627-426: The car’s wheels on the ground at expected high speeds, the group attached behind each front wheel a small, wing-like stub, set at a negative angle of attack. For propulsion, they elected to use 12 black-powder rockets, mounted in four rows of three rockets each and ignited electrically. The propellant, similar to gunpowder, burned in a subsonic deflagration wave and not in a supersonic detonation wave. A demonstration for

2698-432: The course and personally went over every detail of the plane — cables, fittings and rockets... Finally I draw a deep breath and then ignite. Tremendous pressure! I feel the machine racing forward. It tries to rear like a horse. Thus I race into space as in a dream, without any feeling for space or time. The machine practically flies itself. I scarcely need to touch the wheel. I only feel the boundless intoxicating joy of making

2769-522: The day before the British Gloster Meteor entered operational service. The Me 262 had first flown on April 18, 1941, but mass production did not start until early 1944, with the first squadrons operational that year, too late for any effect on the outcome of the World War II . While only around 15 Meteors were operational during WW2, up to 1,400 Me 262 were produced, with 300 entering combat. Only

2840-474: The ducted-fan engine backfired, setting the aircraft on fire before any flights were ever made, and it lacked nearly all of the features necessary for a jet engine - including a lack of fuel injection, and any concern about hot jet efflux being directed at a highly flammable fabric surface. During the 1920s and 1930s a number of approaches were tried. A variety of motorjet , turboprop , pulsejet and rocket powered aircraft were designed. Rocket-engine research

2911-411: The engines in propeller-powered aircraft generally achieve their maximum efficiency at much lower speeds and altitudes, jet engines achieve maximum efficiency at speeds close to or even well above the speed of sound . Jet aircraft generally cruise most efficiently at about Mach 0.8 (981 km/h (610 mph)) and at altitudes around 10,000–15,000 m (33,000–49,000 ft) or more. The idea of

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2982-458: The first commercial jet service, from London to Johannesburg , in 1952 with the de Havilland Comet jetliner . This highly innovative aircraft travelled far faster and higher than propeller aircraft, was much quieter, smoother, and had stylish blended wings containing hidden jet engines. However, due to a design defect, and use of aluminium alloys, the aircraft suffered catastrophic metal fatigue which led to several crashes, which gave time for

3053-519: The first instance of powered flight, a large number of jet engine designs were suggested. René Lorin , Morize, Harris proposed systems for creating a jet efflux. After other jet engines had been run, Romanian inventor Henri Coandă claimed to have built a jet-powered aircraft in 1910, the Coandă-1910 . However, to support this claim, he had to make substantial alterations to the drawings which he used to support his subsequently debunked claims. In fact

3124-439: The first rocket-powered flights but also the speed records of the land vehicles, were described in the media as the start of a new era: »… Nevertheless, few, if any, among the many thousands of onlookers who witnessed the demonstration on the AVUS track could help but feel that we are poised at the beginning of a new era.« (…) P. Friedmann, Das Motorrad No. 12/1928, June 9, 1928 »The amazing thing about Opel’s rocket run on

3195-602: The initial plan was a course from Frankfurt to Rüsselsheim, site of the Opel Automobile Works and about 16 km due southwest. At the last minute, however, the Government intervened in the name of safety: There was fear that he might crash into a village or railroad station. He was thus obliged to confine the flight to the immediate environs of the Rebstock Airport, set in an otherwise uninhabited forest glade. As for

3266-558: The jet engine was not new, but the technical problems involved did not begin to be solved until the 1930s. Frank Whittle , an English inventor and RAF officer, began development of a viable jet engine in 1928, and Hans von Ohain in Germany began work independently in the early 1930s. In August 1939 the turbojet powered Heinkel He 178 , the world's first jet aircraft, made its first flight. A wide range of different types of jet aircraft exist, both for civilian and military purposes. After

3337-476: The many helicopters where the rotors were driven by tip jets . Jet-powered wingsuits exist – powered by model aircraft jet engines – but of short duration and needing to be launched at height. Because of the way they work, the typical exhaust speed of jet engines is transonic or faster, therefore most jet aircraft need to fly at high speeds, either supersonic or speeds just below the speed of sound (" transonic ") so as to achieve efficient flight. Aerodynamics

3408-576: The mechanical energy actually used to propel the aircraft. It is always less than 100% because of kinetic energy loss to the exhaust, and less-than-ideal efficiency of the propulsive mechanism, whether a propeller , a jet exhaust, or a fan. In addition, propulsive efficiency is greatly dependent on air density and airspeed. Mathematically, it is represented as η = η c η p {\displaystyle \eta =\eta _{c}\eta _{p}} where η c {\displaystyle \eta _{c}}

3479-399: The oldest type, and are mainly used when extremely high speeds are needed, or operation at extremely high altitudes where there is insufficient air to operate a jet engine. Due to the extreme, typically hypersonic , exhaust velocity and the necessity of oxidiser being carried on board, they consume propellant extremely quickly, making them impractical for routine transportation. Turbojets are

3550-500: The press and public, von Opel this time sincerely wished to keep them within limits, "to avoid any possible trouble with the unruly crowds." According to Winter, von Opel had invited a few newspaper media and granted exclusive American rights to The New York Times and Fox Movietone for filming. Nevertheless, Universal Newsreel of the US also found a way to report on the flight with film footage as "Speeds through air in rocket airplane - Fritz von Opel, millionaire daredevil, goes one and

3621-614: The press on April 11, 1928, in Rüsselsheim was arranged: Opel engineer and race driver Kurt C. Volkhart developed and tested the Opel-RAK 1, a converted racing car equipped with Sander rockets instead of an internal combustion engine, which was the first rocket powered automobile. During the April 1928 experiments, piloted by Volkhart, RAK 1 reached the symbolic speed of 100 km/h in just eight seconds. Von Opel, Sander and Valier were satisfied by RAK 1’s performance, and in particular by

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3692-402: The previous several months. After the flight (according to one account), she was the first to run up and congratulate him. Ten minutes after the flight, von Opel wrote down his impressions, which he afterwards dispatched to The New York Times as his exclusive. "My first rocket flight!," he began. "...For today's flight I have trained for a year... For an hour before this morning's start I inspected

3763-422: The project was developed in parallel with Convair's XB-46 . The original design had a wing with a 12° forward-sweep and a solid nose section, but when the Army Air Force revamped the advanced attack aircraft requirement into a light bomber requirement in 1946, the aircraft was redesignated XB-53 and the wing redesigned with a 30° forward-sweep and 8° dihedral that was borrowed from German wartime research, but also

3834-549: The rocket-propelled Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet was a faster operational aircraft during the war. Around this time, mid 1944, the United Kingdom's Meteor was being used for defence of the UK against the V-1 flying bomb  – the V-1 itself a pulsejet -powered aircraft and direct ancestor of the cruise missile  – and then ground-attack operations over Europe in the last months of

3905-409: The second oldest type; they have a high, usually supersonic, exhaust speed and low frontal cross-section, and so are best suited to high-speed, usually supersonic, flight. Although once widely used, they are relatively inefficient compared to turboprop and turbofans for subsonic flight. The last major aircraft to use turbojets were Concorde and Tu-144 supersonic transports . Low bypass turbofans have

3976-460: The start that their experiments with cars were only a prelude to grander experiments with air- and spacecraft: They agreed on the final goal for Opel RAK of working on rocket-powered aircraft at the same time they were building their famous rocket cars, as pre-condition for the anticipated spaceflight application. The group went to an Opel race car, “RAK 1.” The RAK 1 demonstrator was stripped of its engine and radiator to reduce weight. To help keep

4047-586: The tarpaulin off the Opel RAK 2 and carefully pushed it to the start. Eventually the rockets were installed and connected to the ignition mechanism. Police cleared the AVUS track and von Opel drove the RAK 2 car to a record-setting speed of 238 km/h, successfully mastering the challenge of insufficient downforce from the wings for these velocities. The RAK 2 rockets were operational for a ride of circa three minutes, watched by 3,000 spectators and world media, among them Fritz Lang , director of Metropolis and Woman in

4118-484: The term 'jet aircraft' to denote gas turbine based airbreathing jet engines , but rockets and scramjets are both also propelled by jet propulsion. Cruise missiles are single-use unmanned jet aircraft, powered predominantly by ramjets or turbojets or sometimes turbofans, but they will often have a rocket propulsion system for initial propulsion. The fastest airbreathing jet aircraft is the unmanned X-43 scramjet at around Mach 9–10. The fastest manned (rocket) aircraft

4189-578: The value of the local speed of sound. In this case: V = a M {\displaystyle V=aM} where M {\displaystyle M} is the cruise Mach number and a {\displaystyle a} the local speed of sound. The range equation can be shown to be: R = a M c T C L C D l n W 1 W 2 {\displaystyle R={\frac {aM}{c_{T}}}{\frac {C_{L}}{C_{D}}}ln{\frac {W_{1}}{W_{2}}}} which

4260-533: The war. In 1944 Germany introduced the Arado Ar 234 jet reconnaissance and bomber aircraft into service, though chiefly used in the former role, with the Heinkel He 162 Spatz single-jet light fighter appearing at the end of 1944. USSR tested its own Bereznyak-Isayev BI-1 in 1942, but the project was scrapped by leader Joseph Stalin in 1945. The Imperial Japanese Navy also developed jet aircraft in 1945, including

4331-455: Was being carried out in Germany and the first aircraft to fly under rocket power was the Lippisch Ente , in 1928. The Ente had previously been flown as a glider. The next year, in 1929, the Opel RAK.1 became the first purpose-built rocket aircraft to fly. The turbojet was invented in the 1930s, independently by Frank Whittle and later Hans von Ohain . The first turbojet aircraft to fly

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4402-550: Was enormous and gave the science of rocketry a major boost. A replica of the RAK 2 rocket-propelled car is on display at the Opel museum in Rüsselsheim , another one at the "Deutsches Museum" in Munich. After testing at Wasserkuppe , in June 1928, Fritz von Opel had purchased an Alexander Lippisch -designed sailplane , the Ente , and fitted it with rockets. Fritz Stamer was the pilot during

4473-634: Was far larger and more streamlined than its predecessor. The RAK 2 was powered by 24 rockets packing 264 pounds of explosives. On May 23, 1928, Fritz von Opel himself demonstrated the car, Opel RAK 2, on the Avus Speedway near Berlin . Prior to the start Professor Johann Schütte, Chairman of the Scientific Society of Aviation, and Fritz von Opel held prophetic speeches on the future of rocket-based aviation and spaceflight. After these introductory remarks, mechanics August Becker and Karl Treber then took

4544-518: Was first to test the approach in August 1929 when a battery of solid rocket propellants supported a Junkers Ju-33 seaplane to get airborne. The Opel RAK experiments had a tremendous influence on Lippisch, whose experience with the rocket-powered "Ente" eventually paved the way to the Messerschmitt Me-163 , the first operational rocket fighter craft. The Opel RAK experiments excited also the interest of

4615-627: Was one of the co-founders of the German Verein für Raumschiffahrt , or "Spaceflight Society", a group of later highly influential scientists who would play a major role in making rocket spaceflight a reality. As an early spaceflight advocate, Valier was more interested in publicizing rocketry than marketing Opel automobiles but came to the conclusion that building a successful rocket-powered car would achieve both goals. Von Opel confirmed his interest in realizing Valier's proposal. On behalf of von Opel, Valier eventually contacted Friedrich Wilhelm Sander ,

4686-474: Was part of a series of rocket-powered vehicles that were developed and demonstrated within the Opel RAK program, the world's first large-scale rocket program. The idea to build and race a rocket-powered car as an intermediate step to realize rocket-powered aviation and even spaceflight was suggested to von Opel by Max Valier . After the World War I, Valier became highly interested in rocketry. Valier, in 1927, he

4757-418: Was sidelined by the Nazis since he had a Jewish grandfather. He had to start anew and became a screenwriter and documentary filmmaker. Finally, Hatry is drawn into theater and fiction. As last survivor of the original RAK.1 aircraft team, he died in 2000. The impact of Opel RAK was both immediate and long-lasting on later spaceflight pioneers, but also on the general audience and media. The experiments, not only

4828-476: Was the Heinkel He 178 , on August 27, 1939 in Rostock (Germany), powered by von Ohain's design. This was largely a proof of concept, as the problem of " creep " (metal fatigue caused by the high temperatures within the engine) had not been solved, and the engine quickly burned out. Von Ohain's design, an axial-flow engine, as opposed to Whittle's centrifugal flow engine, was eventually adopted by most manufacturers by

4899-428: Was the first production jet, with the first orders for production examples being made on 8 August 1941, the prototype first flying on 5 March 1943 and the first production aircraft flying on 12 January 1944, while the first orders for production Me 262 aircraft were not issued until 25 May 1943, and the first production Me 262 did not fly until 28 March 1944 despite the Me 262 program having started earlier than that of

4970-518: Was then going at 90 mph (150 km/h). According to Heinz Gartmann, "a downward gust of wind, coinciding with the edge of the landing ground, caused him to make a forced landing after only using up five rockets. At a speed of 80 mph (129 km/h) this was a difficult feat, and Opel hit the ground with a crash as the landing-skid broke and the cockpit floor was shaved away, leaving him hanging by his safety-belt with an inch to spare." Officially, von Opel had been aloft for an estimated 75 seconds, attaining

5041-622: Was used for reconnaissance over Korea. On November 8, 1950, during the Korean War , United States Air Force Lt. Russell J. Brown, flying in an F-80 , intercepted two North Korean MiG-15s near the Yalu River and shot them down in the first jet-to-jet dogfight in history. The UK put the English Electric Canberra into service in 1951 as a light bomber . It was designed to fly higher and faster than any interceptor . BOAC operated

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