Coanda-1910
Encyclopedia
The Coandă-1910, designed by Romania
n inventor Henri Coandă
, was the first full-size attempt at a jet aircraft
. Built as a sesquiplane, it featured an experimental aircraft engine which Coandă called the "turbo-propulseur," a centrifugal compressor propulsion system with a multi-bladed rotary fan situated in a duct and driven by a conventional piston engine. The unconventional aircraft attracted attention at the Second International Aeronautical Exhibition
in Paris in October 1910, being the only exhibit without a propeller
. Coandă used a similar mechanism to drive a snow sled
, but did not develop it further for aircraft.
Decades later, after the practical demonstration of motorjet
s and turbojets, Coandă asserted that his turbo-propulseur was the first motorjet engine complete with fuel combustion in the air stream. He also said that he had made a single brief flight in December 1910, crashing just after take-off, the aircraft destroyed by fire. Two aviation historians countered Coandă's version of events, saying there was no proof that the engine had combustion in the air stream, and no proof that the aircraft ever flew.
In 2010, based on Coandă's 1910 jet experiments, the centennial of the jet aircraft was celebrated in Romania. A special coin and stamp were issued, and a working replica of the aircraft is under construction. At the European Parliament
, an exhibition commemorated the building and testing of the Coandă-1910.
of rockets from the Romanian Army
arsenal attached to model aircraft. In secret, at Spandau
in Germany, Coandă successfully tested a flying machine equipped with a single tractor propeller
, and two counter-rotating propellers
providing lift, powered by a 50-horsepower
(37 kW) Antoinette engine. Positioned along the fuselage centreline, the smaller rear lift propeller was mounted vertically, while the larger front one was inclined slightly forwards at 17 degrees
to the vertical. According to later claims, Coandă tested the aircraft at Cassel
, witnessed by the Chancellor of the German Empire Bernhard von Bülow
. It was around this time that Coandă's interest in jet propulsion began, and according to him the aircraft and a jet-propelled model were displayed in December 1907 at the Sporthalle (indoor sports arena) in Berlin.
Coandă continued his studies at Liege, Belgium, where together with his room-mate and friend Giovanni Battista Caproni
, he built the Coandă-Caproni box glider, based on the plans of gliders designed by Otto Lilienthal
and Octave Chanute
which he previously studied at Charlottenburg
and Spandau. In 1909 he was employed as technical director of the Liège-Spa Aeroclub, and at the end of that year, with the help of car manufacturer Joachim he built the Coandă-Joachim glider. Caproni was present when the glider was flown at Spa-Malchamps
, Belgium.
on 15 November 1909, Coandă moved to Paris. As a continuation of his Belgium experiments, and especially looking for a way to test wing airfoil
s at higher speeds, he contacted Ernest Archdeacon
, the co-founder of L'Aero-Club de France
, who in turn directed Coandă to Gustav Eiffel and Paul Painlevé
. With their assistance, he gained approval to test different wing configurations and air resistance on a platform built by Eiffel at the front of a locomotive on the North of France railway. In March, he started flying lessons at Reims with a René Hanriot monoplane.
In an atelier (work room) in the courtyard of his house, he started to build his slender sesquiplane and the unusual powerplant
, helped by his schoolfriend Cammarotta-Adorno. There, he tested the thrust of the powerplant on a dynamometer
, tests which are described in detail in the April 1910 edition of La Technique Aéronautique magazine. He filed for several patents for the mechanism and aircraft on 30 May 1910, with later additions to the existing patents.
These experiments resulted in the creation of the first jet propulsion assembly for aircraft, working on the reaction
principle.
Coandă exhibited the aircraft 15 October – 2 November 1910 at the Second International Aeronautical Exhibition, an annual event commonly referred to in aviation magazines as the Paris salon, or Paris flight salon. Together with Henri Fabre
's Hydravion, the first floatplane
, the aircraft and devices used for aerodynamic experiments were placed "in solitary state" in an upstairs gallery, separated from the series of aircraft on the main exhibit floor.
The aircraft construction was a novelty for the time. In contrast to the monoplane described in the July 1910 patent application, the exhibit was a sesquiplane, which complicated the construction, but in return solved lateral stability control issues. The cantilevered wings were held in place at three points by tubular steel struts without any bracing from flying wires
. According to Coandă's description the wings were built with metal spars, but existing photographs of the construction show a completely wooden internal structure. The trailing edges of the upper wing could be twisted separately or together for lateral control or braking during landing, and were controlled by pedals in the two-seat open cockpit. The fuselage, painted reddish-brown and highly polished, was described by The Technical World magazine as having a framework of steel; though the construction photographs indicate that it had a wooden framework. This was triangular in cross-section with convex ribs, strengthened with a covering of heat-shaped molded plywood and having strips of steel placed over the ribs. Tubular radiators for engine cooling were located on either side of the cockpit. The vertical struts from the wings were secured to the fuselage with steel collars fixed with screws. The fuselage terminated in a cruciform empennage
with control surfaces at 45° angles to vertical and horizontal. Four triangular surfaces at the rear of the tail were controlled using a pair of large Antoinette VII
-style steering wheels mounted outside of the cockpit, one on each side, and were used for pitch
and direction control. It was an early instance of what is now known as ruddervators
. Forward of the tail was a small horizontal stabiliser
. The fuel tank was located in the fuselage between the engine and the cockpit.
A remarkable feature of the aircraft was its powerplant. Instead of a propeller
, a 50 hp (37 kW) in-line water-cooled reciprocating internal combustion engine built by Pierre Clerget at a Clément-Bayard
workshop with funding from L'Aero-Club de France, placed in the forward section of the fuselage, drove a rotary compressor through a 1:4 gearbox (1,000 rpm on the Clerget turned the compressor at 4,000 rpm) which drew air in from the front and expelled it rearward under compression and with added heat. The compressor, with a diameter of 50 centimetres (20 in), was located within a cowling at the front of the fuselage. According to later Coandă descriptions, cast aluminium components were also made by Clerget to create a powerplant with a weight of 2.8 pounds
(1.3 kg
) per horsepower (equivalent to a power-to-weight ratio
of 0.36 hp/lb), a considerable achievement at the time.
Coandă's 1910s-era patents describe the inline piston engine's exhaust gases as being routed through heating channels or heat exchangers in contact with the central air flow, then sucked into the compressor inlet to reduce back-pressure on the engine while adding more heat and mass to the air flow. The "turbo-propulseur" as Coandă called it in the exhibition leaflet, was claimed to be capable of generating 220 Kilogram-force
(2,157 N; 485 lbf
) of thrust. The powerplant was referred to in reports at the time by different terms: a turbine without propellers, turbo-propulseur, ducted fan or a suction turbine.
Aviation reporters from The Aero and La Technique Aeronautique were doubtful that the powerplant could provide sufficient thrust. The engine was noted in The Aero, reprinted in Aircraft, as being "of remarkably small proportions in relation to the size of the machine." and "claimed to give an enormous wind velocity", but the intake area seemed too small to produce the stated thrust, and that "it also appears as if enormous power would be necessary to drive it", more than supplied by the Clerget.
The Coandă-1910 was reported sold to a "Mr. Weymann" in October 1910. A daily newspaper from Bucharest described in 1910 that the aircraft was constructed in Clerget's workshops and that it "will fly in 6–7 weeks near Paris, piloted by Weymann, one of the pilots celebrated at the Rennes aviation meeting." Another Bucharest newspaper listed the aircraft in November as "sold twice-over". It may be that the businessman and racing pilot Charles Terres Weymann
was the subject of the reports, and that he had expressed his willingness to buy the aircraft once tests had been carried out.
At the exhibition, reaction among observers was mixed. Some doubted the aircraft would fly, and focused on more likely machines such as the Sloan, the Voisin, or the Louis Paulhan
construction of a Henri Fabre
machine. Others gave special notice to the Coandă-1910, calling it original and ingenious. The reporter from La Technique Aeronautique wrote, "In the absence of definitive trials, permitting the precise yield of this machine, it is without doubt premature to say it will supersede the propeller ... the tentative is interesting and we watch it closely." The official exhibition report ignored the 'turbo-propulseur' engine and instead described Coandă's novel wing design, and the unusual empennage. On 15 November 1910, L'Aérophile wrote that if the machine were ever to develop as the inventor hoped, it would be "a beautiful dream".
After the exhibition the aircraft was moved to a Clément-Bayard workshop at Issy-les-Moulineaux
for further testing. This work is reflected by additions to the powerplant-related patents of 3 December. A group of modern-day Romanian investigators led by Dan Antoniu, having examined photographs from 1910, concluded that the rotary compressor featured at the exhibition was a hybrid between the one described in the initial 30 May 1910 patent and the one shown in a later patent application. They felt that the exhibition machine had a simpler director system, a different rotor with a smaller intake cone, and that the exhaust gas heat transfer system had not been implemented. According to Gérard Hartmann in his Dossiers historiques et techniques aéronautique française, the propulsion system generated only 17 kg of thrust, and to generate enough thrust for the aircraft to take off (estimated by Coandă at 24 kg) Coandă would have had to spin the "turbine" (the rotary compressor) at a speed of 7,000 rpm with the risk of it exploding. This was not tried, but Hartmann concluded that the experiment proved that the solution worked perfectly.
Henri Mirguet writing for L'Aérophile magazine in January 1912, recalled the previous exhibition's machine as the "chief attraction" of the 1910 salon. He wrote that Coandă answered his "pressing—and indiscreet—questions" about the 'turbo-propulseur'-powered aircraft at that earlier exhibit, telling him that the machine had attained a speed of 112 kilometres per hour (70 mph) during several "flight tests", an improbable answer about which Mirguet "reserved judgment", waiting for confirmation that never materialised.
, Coandă supervised the building of a motor sled, powered by a 30 hp (22 kW) Gregoire engine driving the 'turbo-propulseur'. The sled was blessed by Russian Orthodox priests at the Despujols plant near Paris on 2 December 1910. Starting the next day, it was exhibited for two weeks at the 12th Automobile Salon of France, alongside Gregoire-powered automobiles on the Gregoire stand. A number of automobile and general interest magazines published photographs or sketches of the sled. This was the second time in the autumn of 1910 that a version of Coandă's turbo-propulseur design was shown at the Grand Palais
of Paris.
Coandă continued to work on the Coandă-1910 project at the beginning of 1911, aiming to improve stability, increase the power of the 'turbo-propulseur', and to implement airfoil improvements. Coandă applied for new patents for aerodynamic investigations and improvements of the Coandă-1910.
Coandă described a different, more sturdy system for the attachment of the wings, which also enabled changes in the angle of attack
and the centre of gravity. He aimed to obtain more power from the propulsion system, and design drawings show the arrangement of two air-cooled rotary engine
s on the sides of the fuselage. The placement of the engines indicates that Coandă did not intend to inject fuel into the jet stream and ignite it, as the cooling of the engines would have been compromised. The patent was annotated with an additional claim on 19 July 1911 which brought significant changes, for instance retractable landing gear with dampers inside aerodynamic fairings with skids. The horizontal stabiliser was removed, a supporting surface was provided for each engine, and their accessories were covered to improve aerodynamics. Though Coandă continued to study rotary propulsion mechanisms, Antoniu believes that Coandă never implemented a practical solution because of the lack of funds.
In May 1911 Coandă filed English-language patents on the 'turbo-propulseur' design in the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as a second French-language patent filed in Switzerland, and he described it for the 1911 publication of L'Annuaire de l'Air.
The very expensive project of 1910 "which cost some one million francs of Coanda's own money", left Coandă with limited funds. The possibility of a new contract with the French government led Coandă to build the Coandă-1911. He wished to win an army-organised competition at Reims in October, one that required two engines in each aircraft as a fail-safe strategy. At the third aviation salon in Paris 1911, Coandă displayed a scale model of the aircraft which used two Gnôme rotary engines mounted back to back, connected by a bevel gear
to one propeller. The strange combination of two engines connected to one propeller was intended to drive a new turbine, but Coandă was unable to fund one and was forced to use a two-bladed propeller. During trials the assembly did not provide enough traction and a four-bladed propeller was ordered. The mounting support of the engines, initially intended for a jet propulsion version was not adequate for the new configuration, so the forward chassis had to be modified.
Henri Mirguet writing for L'Aérophile magazine in January 1912 said that the new 1911 aircraft retained the fuselage, the frame and the wing of Coandă's 1910 design, but did not keep the 'turbo-propulseur' or "the wooden wingloading surface including the forward longitudinal ribs". The aircraft was flown on 21 October 1911, but with modest results as the latest modifications, especially those related to the powerplant, did not compensate for the increased total weight of the aircraft. At the military contest, it did not meet the requirements for independent operation of each engine.contemporary photograph in Flight magazine of the 1911 aircraft at Rheims
Following the 1911 exhibition, at the personal request of Sir George White
, Coandă moved to the United Kingdom to take a position as chief engineer or chief designer at British and Colonial Aeroplane Company
for a few years. In the next four decades, Coandă worked on a great variety of inventions. During World War II he revived his earlier 'turbo-propulseur' engine: he was contracted by the German Army
in late 1942 to develop an air propulsion system for military ambulance snow sleds much like the one made for the Russian Grand Duke. The German contract concluded after one year, yielding no plans for production. Though Coandă had experimented with a variety of nozzles, and said that he had achieved a degree of success, no turbojet-engine-style fuel injection or combustion in the air stream was attempted.
Coandă and his 1910 aircraft were absent from much of aviation literature of the day. None of the annual issues of Jane's All the World's Aircraft
ever mentioned the Coandă-1910 or its 'turbo-propulseur' powerplant. As well, the Soviet engineer Nikolai Rynin
did not mention Coandă at all in his exhaustive nine-volume encyclopedia on jet and rocket engines, written in the late 1920s and early '30s.
, when the potential of reactive engines was recognised, a number of histories of the jet engine were written. A once-classified Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory
and Jet Propulsion Laboratory
study completed in 1946 described the Coandă-1910 as "probably not flown" but featuring "a mechanical jet propulsion device with a centrifugal blower", one in which heat from the Clerget piston engine "furnished auxiliary jet propulsion."
In the editorial lead to their article on Coandă's Augmented Flow, Flight terms it, "scarcely a jet". In the same year Geoffrey G. Smith chronicled technological development in his book Gas Turbines and Jet Propulsion for Aircraft, but did not mention Coandă.
In 1950's l'aviation d'Ader et des temps héroiques, the authors assert that Coandă flew the first jet aircraft at Issy-les-moulineaux for 30 metres (100 ft), ending with a crash.
In 1953, Flights treatment of aircraft in the 50 years since the Wright brothers
' flight included the Coandă-1910 "ducted fan" and said of Coanda that he "believes that he 'took off for a few feet, then came down hurriedly and broke two teeth, quoting J.W. Adderley's 1952 letter to the editor of Flight, after Adderley's discussion with Coandă in Paris at the end of World War II. Adderley said he "can definitely confirm that the power unit was of the ducted-fan type, similar in basic principles to the Caproni-Campini aircraft of the 1930s."
In the early 1950s, Coandă began to say that he had flown his 1910 aircraft himself, and that the 1910 powerplant was the first motorjet
, using fuel injection and combustion to create its thrust. In 1955 and 1956, a number of aviation articles presented the Coandă version of 1910 events. He said he took off and crashed in December 1910 in the presence of aircraft makers Louis Charles Breguet
and Gabriel Voisin
. Coandă himself spoke on the subject, notably before the Wings Club at New York's Biltmore Hotel on 18 January 1956 where he said "I intended to inject fuel into the air stream which would be ignited by the exhaust gases also channeled through the same circular vent." Martin Caidin
wrote "The Coanda Story" for the May 1956 issue of Flying, based on a personal interview in which Coandă said that he "intended to inject fuel into the air stream, which would be ignited by the exhaust gases also channeled through the same circular vent." For his article "He Flew In 1910", René Aubrey interviewed Coandă and wrote in the September 1956 Royal Air Force Flying Review that the flight took place on 16 December 1910, that fuel was certainly injected, and that it was "the first jet flight in the world". In Aubrey's relation of the interview, the aircraft stalled
after take-off, throwing Coandă clear, and "gently collapsed to the ground" where it burned. Aubrey wrote that the aircraft engine was "designed by a friend to Coandă's specification", and that its burning exhaust was "directed below and to each side of the fuselage, which was protected by asbestos in vulnerable places."
In Jet Age Airlanes of 1956, Coandă himself published an article entitled "The First Jet Flight". He submitted the same text that Caidin had written for Flying in May:
A collection of aviation stories was published in 1957 by Major Victor Houart, a friend of Coandă's, who wrote that he was an eyewitness the day Coandă flew and crashed. One chapter of the book describes how Houart, together with a group of French dragoon
s, watched as Coandă taxied twice around the airfield, lifted off to avoid the ruins of an old fortification wall, started flames from the engine by applying too much power, and was thrown from the aircraft the moment it hit the wall, with Coandă "not badly hurt". Houart's version put the fuel tank in the overhead wing, which was metal. In further statements, Coandă said that his 1910 aircraft had movable leading edge slot
s,The leading edge slot was patented by Handley Page in 1920 retractable landing gear and a fuel supply which was held in the overhead wing to reduce fuselage profile and thus drag. In 1965, Coandă presented a set of drawings, photographs and specifications of the 1910 aircraft to the National Air and Space Museum
(NASM), prepared by Huyck Corporation and received by Director S. Paul Johnston and early aviation curator Louis Casey.
Rocket engineer G. Harry Stine
worked alongside Coandă from 1961 to 1965 at Huyck Corporation, and interviewed him in 1962. In 1967, the magazine Flying
printed an account written by Stine, which described the landing gear as retracting into the lower wing, with the fuel tank hidden in the upper wing. Stine wrote that Coandă flew on 10 December 1910, and described the heat from the "two jet exhausts" as being "too much for me" after the powerplant was mounted in the aircraft. In the 1980s after Coandă's death, Stine wrote a magazine article and a book mentioning the 1910 aircraft, including new details such as the name of master mechanic Pierre Clerget as the friend who helped build the 'turbo-propulseur'. Stine's recounting of the 10 December flight included the group of eyewitness French dragoons, asbestos heat shields and metal deflector plates aft of the engine, intended taxiing with unintentional flight, a steep climb with a stall, Coandă thrown clear, and the aircraft crashing to the ground, burning. Stine gave his assessment that "Coanda's turbopropulseur had elements of a true jet", but that the patent application had no indication of the "critical stage—injection of fuel into the compressed air". He wrote that "although there were several jet-propelled aircraft in existence at an early time—the 1910 Coanda Jet and the 1938 Caproni Campini N.1—the first pure jet aircraft flight was made in Germany in 1938".
In 1965, Historian Emeritus Paul E. Garber
of the NASM interviewed Coandă, who related that the December 1910 flight was no accident, that he had seated himself in the cockpit intending to test five factors: aircraft structure, the engine, the wing lift, the balance of controls, and the aerodynamics. He said that the heat from the engine was "fantastic", but that he placed mica
sheets and deflecting plates to direct the jet blast away from the wooden fuselage. Garber wrote that as Coandă's aircraft began to move forward and rise from the ground, "the exhaust flame, instead of fanning outward, curved inward and ignited the aircraft." In this interview, Coandă said that he brought the aircraft back to earth under control, but the landing was "abrupt" and he was thrown clear of the airframe which was consumed completely by flame, the engine reduced to "a few handfuls of white powder."
, aviation historian at the Science Museum
in London, reacted to the mid-1950s assertion that Coandă built and flew the first jet engine aircraft. Gibbs-Smith wrote that "there has recently arisen some controversy about this machine, designed by the Rumanian-born and French-domiciled Henri Coanda, which was exhibited at the Paris salon in October 1910. Until recently it has been accepted as an all-wood sesquiplane, with cantilever wings, powered by a 50 hp Clerget engine driving a 'turbo-propulseur' in the form of a large but simple ducted air fan. This fan was fitted right across the machine's nose and the cowling covered the nose and part of the engine: the resulting 'jet' of plain air was to propel the aeroplane." He wrote that "no claims that it flew, or was even tested, were made at the time", and that the story of it flying suddenly appeared in the 1950s—the aircraft was thus "disinterred from its obscurity." He wrote that the airfield at Issy-les-Moulineaux, a former military exercise ground where the test supposedly took place, was under the constant observation of the French Army who owned it, and under observation by French aviation reporters and photographers, and by aviation experts from other countries. He said that the airfield was the "most famous, most used, most observed, and most reported-on 'airfield' in Paris", and that all events, let alone an exciting crash and destruction by fire, would have been carried in local papers, and described in military reports, but no contemporary accounts exist of the Coandă-1910 being tested, flown or destroyed. Gibbs-Smith countered the Coandă assertions point by point, saying that the aircraft did not have retractable undercarriage, did not have leading or trailing edge wing slots, did not have a fuel tank overhead in the wing, and did not have fuel injected into any turbine. Gibbs-Smith pointed out that the pilot would have been killed by the heat if any combustion had been initiated in the engine's air stream.
In 1970 Gibbs-Smith wrote another account of the Coanda-1910, using much the same phrasing as in 1960:
In 2010, Antoniu wrote that he thought Gibbs-Smith speculated on the basis of the evidence of absence
that the aircraft was never tested or flown, but that Gibbs-Smith did not find any concrete evidence to support his position. Similarly, Antoniu was unable to find concrete proof of a test flight. Antoniu also wrote that Gibbs-Smith did not check the French patents claimed by Coandă in 1910 and 1911, describing the retractable gear, leading edge wing slot and upper wing fuel tank, and that he did not see photographs from private collections demonstrating aspects about which he wrote.
In 1980, NASM historian Frank H. Winter examined the 1965 drawings and specifications Coandă prepared while at Huyck Corporation, and wrote an article about Coandă's claim: "There is a wholly new description of the inner workings of the machine that does not occur in any of the accounts given [in the 1910s] and which defies all of the patent specifications." He said Coandă told various conflicting stories about his claimed 1910 flight, and that Coandă produced a set of altered drawings as proof of his claims:
In his article, Winter wondered why Coandă did not add the novel feature of fuel injection and air stream combustion to his May 1911 patent applications if that feature had been present during his supposed flying experience five months earlier. Rather, Winter noted that the August 1910 patent filings in French were essentially the same as the May 1911 ones in English, and that all the descriptions were applicable to air or water flowing through the device. He also noted that no mention was made in the early patents of asbestos or mica heat shields, or of any fuel injection or combustion.
While looking through aviation periodicals and Paris newspapers reporting for the month of December, 1910, Winter found that there was a spell of bad weather at Issy during which no flying took place. This situation occurred mid-month, the period covering the conflicting dates (10 and 16 December) that Coandă said his aircraft was tested, flown and crashed. In their regular "Foreign Aviation News" column, Flight magazine reported that the "blank period" of inclement weather at Issy ended on the 19th when Guillaume Busson tested a monoplane made by Armand Deperdussin. Other aircraft tests and piloting activities were listed, with no mention of Coandă or his machine.
Winter found that Camille (or Cosimo) Canovetti, an Italian civil and aviation engineer, had been working on a 'turbo-propulseur' aviation engine before Coandă, and had attempted to show an aircraft with such an engine at the Aviation Exposition in Milan in 1909. Canovetti took out patents on his machine in 1909, and more in 1910. Canovetti wrote in 1911 that the 1910 appearance of the Coandă engine "called general attention" to designs like his.
but give Hans von Ohain
the honour of designing the first jet engine to power an aircraft in manned flight, and Frank Whittle
the honour of completing and patenting the first jet engine capable of such flight. In their 1994 book American Aviation, authors Joe Christy and LeRoy Cook state that Coandă's 1910 aircraft was the first jet.
Aviation author Bill Gunston
changed his mind two years after publishing a 1993 book in which he gave Coandă credit for the first jet engine. Gunston's 1995 description began: "Romanian Henri Coanda built a biplane with a Clerget inline piston engine which, instead of turning a propeller, drove a centrifugal compressor blowing air to the rear. The thrust was said to be 220 kilograms [490 lb], a figure the author disbelieves. On 10 December 1910 the aircraft thus powered inadvertently became airborne, crashed and burned. Often called 'a turbine aeroplane', this was of no more significance than the Campini aircraft mentioned later, and Coanda wisely decided to switch to a propeller." In his publication of 1998 – World Encyclopedia of Aero Engines: All major aircraft power plants, from the Wright brothers to the present day – Gunston did not include Coanda; nor did he include Coanda in 2005's Jane's Aero-Engines or 2006's World Encyclopedia of Aero Engines.
Walter J. Boyne
, director of the National Air and Space Museum
and a prolific aviation author (more than 40 non-fiction books and 1,000 magazine articles) mentions Coandă in passing a few times in his works. Boyne discusses Coandă briefly in one of his books, The Leading Edge: "Professor Henri Coanda, whose scientific work was impeccable, designed and built a jet aircraft in 1910; it, like Martin's Kitten
, was superbly built and technically advanced—and could not fly." In a later magazine article sidebar, Boyne described more details: "Romanian inventor Henri Coanda attempted to fly a primitive jet aircraft in 1910, using a four-cylinder internal combustion engine to drive a compressor at 4,000 revolutions per minute. It was equipped with what today might be called an afterburner, producing an estimated 500 pounds [230 kg] of thrust. Countless loyal Coanda fans insist that the airplane flew. Others say it merely crashed."
In 1980 and 1993, Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation included an entry on the 1910 aircraft, calling it the "Coanda turbine" and describing it as "the world's first jet-propelled aircraft to fly". In 2003, Winter co-authored a book with fellow NASM curator F. Robert van der Linden: 100 Years of Flight: A Chronicle of Aerospace History, 1903–2003. In the book the Coandă-1910 is described as an unsuccessful ducted fan aircraft lacking documentation to substantiate any flight test.
Citing Carl A. Brown's 1985 A History of Aviation, Tim Brady, the Dean of Aviation at Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University, wrote in 2000: "the development of the jet is, broadly, the story of three men: Henri Coanda, Sir Frank Whittle, and Pabst von Ohain..." His description of Coandă's disputed test flight agreed that fuel injection and combustion had been initiated in the rotary compressor's vent, with the novel detail that the aircraft "flew for about a thousand feet [300 m] before crashing into a wall." In 1990 at the 24th Symposium of the International Academy of Astronautics, one of the papers presented included this sentence: "It is to Henri Coanda (1886–1972), a world famous inventor and pioneer of jet flight, that space engineering owes—beside one of the first model planes provided with a rocket engine (1905)—the construction and engine experiment of the first jet aircraft, the 'Coanda-1910'." In 2007 in his popular book Extreme Aircraft, Ron Miller wrote that the powerplant in the Coandă-1910 was one of the "earliest attempts" at a jet engine, but was unsuccessful—it was "incapable of actual flight", unlike the engines designed by Whittle and Ohain. The question of the Coandă-1910 being the first jet aircraft does not appear to be resolved, supporting Stine's view: "Whether Henri Coanda built the first true jet will probably be argued interminably."
In the 2000s, Dan Antoniu and other Romanian aviation experts investigated existing photographs of the Coandă-1910, leading them to believe that the aircraft presented at the exhibition was not finished, that it was exhibited with many improvisations. Antoniu published Henri Coandă and his technical work during 1906–1918, a 2010 book in which he said that the unfinished state of the aircraft led to Coandă filing several extra patents and starting a new series of studies with the aim of making the machine airworthy. For instance, Antoniu wrote that the exhaust pipes of the Clergét engine appeared free; there were no devices to redirect exhaust gases to the turbine as described in the patent, and there were no heat shields for crew protection. As well, the central attachment of the tubular struts holding the wings to the fuselage, with mere collars secured with screws, was judged by Antoniu as appearing potentially unsafe during take-off or landing because of the "considerable loads on the struts". The X-shaped empennage was covered at high angles by the horizontal stabiliser making it unusable, and any high-speed taxi would put the machine in danger of a nose-over.
. A scale model is displayed in the French Air and Space Museum at Paris – Le Bourget Airport
. At the site of the historic Issy-les-Moulineaux airfield, a large plaque lists the three pioneers of flight most closely associated with the airfield: Louis Blériot
, Alberto Santos-Dumont
and Henri Farman. Later, a plaque honoring Coandă and Romanian aviation engineer Trajan Vuia
was placed on a nearby building under the auspices of the mayor of Issy-les-Moulineaux, L'Aéroclub de France, and the Romanian Association for Aviation History. A full-size functional replica of the plane is under construction at Craiova
, Romania by a team of engineers and test pilots from I.R.Av. Craiova.
In October 2010 the National Bank of Romania issued a commemorative silver coin
for the centennial of the building of the first jet aircraft. The 10-leu
piece is intended for coin collectors, with the official purchase price set at 220 leu. It represents the aircraft on the obverse side and a portrait of Coandă on the reverse, including Romanian words which translate to "first jet aircraft". The same month the philatelic section of the Romanian Post
, Romfilatelia, produced a limited edition philatelic folder and a stamp commemorating the centennial of jet aircraft. The stamp presents a modern internal schema of the Coandă-1910, a drawing of the injectors and burners, and a quote from Gustave Eiffel
: "This boy was born 30 if not 50 years too early". At the European Parliament
in December, president Jerzy Buzek
opened a centennial exhibition celebrating the building and testing of the Coandă-1910.
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n inventor Henri Coandă
Henri Coanda
Henri Marie Coandă was a Romanian inventor, aerodynamics pioneer and builder of an experimental aircraft, the Coandă-1910 described by Coandă in the mid-1950s as the world's first jet, a controversial claim disputed by some and supported by others...
, was the first full-size attempt at a jet aircraft
Jet aircraft
A jet aircraft is an aircraft propelled by jet engines. Jet aircraft generally fly much faster than propeller-powered aircraft and at higher altitudes – as high as . At these altitudes, jet engines achieve maximum efficiency over long distances. The engines in propeller-powered aircraft...
. Built as a sesquiplane, it featured an experimental aircraft engine which Coandă called the "turbo-propulseur," a centrifugal compressor propulsion system with a multi-bladed rotary fan situated in a duct and driven by a conventional piston engine. The unconventional aircraft attracted attention at the Second International Aeronautical Exhibition
Paris Air Show
The Paris Air Show is the world's oldest and largest air show. Established in 1909, it is currently held every odd year at Le Bourget Airport in north Paris, France...
in Paris in October 1910, being the only exhibit without a propeller
Propeller (aircraft)
Aircraft propellers or airscrews convert rotary motion from piston engines or turboprops to provide propulsive force. They may be fixed or variable pitch. Early aircraft propellers were carved by hand from solid or laminated wood with later propellers being constructed from metal...
. Coandă used a similar mechanism to drive a snow sled
Sled
A sled, sledge, or sleigh is a land vehicle with a smooth underside or possessing a separate body supported by two or more smooth, relatively narrow, longitudinal runners that travels by sliding across a surface. Most sleds are used on surfaces with low friction, such as snow or ice. In some cases,...
, but did not develop it further for aircraft.
Decades later, after the practical demonstration of motorjet
Motorjet
A motorjet is a rudimentary type of jet engine which is sometimes referred to as thermojet, a term now commonly used to describe a particular and completely unrelated pulsejet design.- Design :...
s and turbojets, Coandă asserted that his turbo-propulseur was the first motorjet engine complete with fuel combustion in the air stream. He also said that he had made a single brief flight in December 1910, crashing just after take-off, the aircraft destroyed by fire. Two aviation historians countered Coandă's version of events, saying there was no proof that the engine had combustion in the air stream, and no proof that the aircraft ever flew.
In 2010, based on Coandă's 1910 jet experiments, the centennial of the jet aircraft was celebrated in Romania. A special coin and stamp were issued, and a working replica of the aircraft is under construction. At the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
, an exhibition commemorated the building and testing of the Coandă-1910.
Early developments
Coandă was interested in achieving reactive propelled flight as early as 1905, conducting tests in BucharestBucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
of rockets from the Romanian Army
Romanian Land Forces
The Romanian Land Forces is the army of Romania, and the main component of the Romanian Armed Forces. In recent years, full professionalisation and a major equipment overhaul have transformed the nature of the force.The Romanian Land Forces were founded on...
arsenal attached to model aircraft. In secret, at Spandau
Spandau
Spandau is the fifth of the twelve boroughs of Berlin. It is the fourth largest and westernmost borough, situated at the confluence of the Havel and Spree rivers and along the western bank of the Havel, but the least populated.-Overview:...
in Germany, Coandă successfully tested a flying machine equipped with a single tractor propeller
Tractor configuration
thumb|right|[[Evektor-Aerotechnik|Aerotechnik EV97A Eurostar]], a tractor configuration aircraft, being pulled into position by its pilot for refuelling....
, and two counter-rotating propellers
Counter-rotating propellers
Counter-rotating propellers, found on twin- and multi-engine propeller-driven aircraft, spin in directions opposite one another.The propellers on both engines of most conventional twin-engined aircraft spin clockwise . Counter-rotating propellers generally spin clockwise on the left engine and...
providing lift, powered by a 50-horsepower
Horsepower
Horsepower is the name of several units of measurement of power. The most common definitions equal between 735.5 and 750 watts.Horsepower was originally defined to compare the output of steam engines with the power of draft horses in continuous operation. The unit was widely adopted to measure the...
(37 kW) Antoinette engine. Positioned along the fuselage centreline, the smaller rear lift propeller was mounted vertically, while the larger front one was inclined slightly forwards at 17 degrees
Degree (angle)
A degree , usually denoted by ° , is a measurement of plane angle, representing 1⁄360 of a full rotation; one degree is equivalent to π/180 radians...
to the vertical. According to later claims, Coandă tested the aircraft at Cassel
Kassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...
, witnessed by the Chancellor of the German Empire Bernhard von Bülow
Bernhard von Bülow
Bernhard Heinrich Karl Martin von Bülow , named in 1905 Prince von Bülow, was a German statesman who served as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs for three years and then as Chancellor of the German Empire from 1900 to 1909.Bülow was described as possessing every quality except greatness...
. It was around this time that Coandă's interest in jet propulsion began, and according to him the aircraft and a jet-propelled model were displayed in December 1907 at the Sporthalle (indoor sports arena) in Berlin.
Coandă continued his studies at Liege, Belgium, where together with his room-mate and friend Giovanni Battista Caproni
Giovanni Battista Caproni
Giovanni Battista Caproni , known as "Gianni" Caproni, was an Italian aeronautical engineer, civil engineer, electrical engineer, and aircraft designer who founded the Caproni aircraft-manufacturing company.-Early life and education:...
, he built the Coandă-Caproni box glider, based on the plans of gliders designed by Otto Lilienthal
Otto Lilienthal
Otto Lilienthal was a German pioneer of human aviation who became known as the Glider King. He was the first person to make well-documented, repeated, successful gliding flights. He followed an experimental approach established earlier by Sir George Cayley...
and Octave Chanute
Octave Chanute
Octave Chanute was a French-born American railway engineer and aviation pioneer. He provided the Wright brothers with help and advice, and helped to publicize their flying experiments. At his death he was hailed as the father of aviation and the heavier-than-air flying machine...
which he previously studied at Charlottenburg
Charlottenburg
Charlottenburg is a locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, named after Queen consort Sophia Charlotte...
and Spandau. In 1909 he was employed as technical director of the Liège-Spa Aeroclub, and at the end of that year, with the help of car manufacturer Joachim he built the Coandă-Joachim glider. Caproni was present when the glider was flown at Spa-Malchamps
Spa, Belgium
Spa is a municipality of Belgium. It lies in the country's Walloon Region and Province of Liège. It is situated in a valley in the Ardennes mountain chain, some southeast of Liège, and southwest of Aachen. As of 1 January 2006, Spa had a total population of 10,543...
, Belgium.
1910s
With the opening of the École supérieure d'aéronautique et de constructions mécaniquesÉcole Nationale Supérieure de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace
The École Nationale Supérieure de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace , founded in 1909, is one of the most prestigious and selective grandes écoles in France. It was the world's first dedicated aerospace engineering school and is considered to be one of the best in Europe in that field...
on 15 November 1909, Coandă moved to Paris. As a continuation of his Belgium experiments, and especially looking for a way to test wing airfoil
Airfoil
An airfoil or aerofoil is the shape of a wing or blade or sail as seen in cross-section....
s at higher speeds, he contacted Ernest Archdeacon
Ernest Archdeacon
Ernest Archdeacon , was a prominent French lawyer of Irish descent who was associated with pioneering aviation in France before the First World War. He made his first balloon flight at the age of 20. He commissioned a copy of the 1902 Wright No. 3 glider but had only limited success...
, the co-founder of L'Aero-Club de France
Aéro-Club de France
The Aéro-Club de France was founded as the Aéro-Club on 20 October 1898 as a society 'to encourage aerial locomotion' by Ernest Archdeacon, Léon Serpollet, Henri de la Valette, Jules Verne and his wife, André Michelin, Albert de Dion, Alberto Santos-Dumont, Henry Deutsch de la Meurthe, and Henry de...
, who in turn directed Coandă to Gustav Eiffel and Paul Painlevé
Paul Painlevé
Paul Painlevé was a French mathematician and politician. He served twice as Prime Minister of the Third Republic: 12 September – 13 November 1917 and 17 April – 22 November 1925.-Early life:Painlevé was born in Paris....
. With their assistance, he gained approval to test different wing configurations and air resistance on a platform built by Eiffel at the front of a locomotive on the North of France railway. In March, he started flying lessons at Reims with a René Hanriot monoplane.
In an atelier (work room) in the courtyard of his house, he started to build his slender sesquiplane and the unusual powerplant
Aircraft engine
An aircraft engine is the component of the propulsion system for an aircraft that generates mechanical power. Aircraft engines are almost always either lightweight piston engines or gas turbines...
, helped by his schoolfriend Cammarotta-Adorno. There, he tested the thrust of the powerplant on a dynamometer
Dynamometer
A dynamometer or "dyno" for short, is a device for measuring force, moment of force , or power. For example, the power produced by an engine, motor or other rotating prime mover can be calculated by simultaneously measuring torque and rotational speed .A dynamometer can also be used to determine...
, tests which are described in detail in the April 1910 edition of La Technique Aéronautique magazine. He filed for several patents for the mechanism and aircraft on 30 May 1910, with later additions to the existing patents.
These experiments resulted in the creation of the first jet propulsion assembly for aircraft, working on the reaction
Reaction engine
A reaction engine is an engine or motor which provides propulsion by expelling reaction mass, in accordance with Newton's third law of motion...
principle.
Coandă exhibited the aircraft 15 October – 2 November 1910 at the Second International Aeronautical Exhibition, an annual event commonly referred to in aviation magazines as the Paris salon, or Paris flight salon. Together with Henri Fabre
Henri Fabre
Henri Fabre was a French aviator and the inventor of Le Canard, the first seaplane in history.Henri Fabre was born into a prominent family of shipowners in the city of Marseilles. He was educated in the Jesuit College of Marseilles, where he undertook advanced studies in sciences. He then studied...
's Hydravion, the first floatplane
Floatplane
A floatplane is a type of seaplane, with slender pontoons mounted under the fuselage; only the floats of a floatplane normally come into contact with water, with the fuselage remaining above water...
, the aircraft and devices used for aerodynamic experiments were placed "in solitary state" in an upstairs gallery, separated from the series of aircraft on the main exhibit floor.
The aircraft construction was a novelty for the time. In contrast to the monoplane described in the July 1910 patent application, the exhibit was a sesquiplane, which complicated the construction, but in return solved lateral stability control issues. The cantilevered wings were held in place at three points by tubular steel struts without any bracing from flying wires
Flying wires
The flying wires of an aircraft work in conjunction with other wing components such as spars and interplane struts to transmit flight loads. Most commonly used on biplane aircraft they are also used on monoplanes and triplanes.-Purpose:...
. According to Coandă's description the wings were built with metal spars, but existing photographs of the construction show a completely wooden internal structure. The trailing edges of the upper wing could be twisted separately or together for lateral control or braking during landing, and were controlled by pedals in the two-seat open cockpit. The fuselage, painted reddish-brown and highly polished, was described by The Technical World magazine as having a framework of steel; though the construction photographs indicate that it had a wooden framework. This was triangular in cross-section with convex ribs, strengthened with a covering of heat-shaped molded plywood and having strips of steel placed over the ribs. Tubular radiators for engine cooling were located on either side of the cockpit. The vertical struts from the wings were secured to the fuselage with steel collars fixed with screws. The fuselage terminated in a cruciform empennage
Empennage
The empennage , also known as the tail or tail assembly, of most aircraft gives stability to the aircraft, in a similar way to the feathers on an arrow...
with control surfaces at 45° angles to vertical and horizontal. Four triangular surfaces at the rear of the tail were controlled using a pair of large Antoinette VII
Antoinette VII
|-See also:* Antoinette III* Antoinette IV* Antoinette V* Antoinette VI* Antoinette military monoplane-References:* World Aircraft Information Files. Brightstar Publishing: London. File 889 Sheet 63....
-style steering wheels mounted outside of the cockpit, one on each side, and were used for pitch
Flight dynamics
Flight dynamics is the science of air vehicle orientation and control in three dimensions. The three critical flight dynamics parameters are the angles of rotation in three dimensions about the vehicle's center of mass, known as pitch, roll and yaw .Aerospace engineers develop control systems for...
and direction control. It was an early instance of what is now known as ruddervators
V-tail
In aircraft, a V-tail is an unconventional arrangement of the tail control surfaces that replaces the traditional fin and horizontal surfaces with two surfaces set in a V-shaped configuration when viewed from the front or rear of the aircraft...
. Forward of the tail was a small horizontal stabiliser
Stabilizer (aircraft)
In aviation, a stabilizer provides stability when the aircraft is flying straight, and the airfoil of the horizontal stabilizer balances the forces acting on the aircraft....
. The fuel tank was located in the fuselage between the engine and the cockpit.
A remarkable feature of the aircraft was its powerplant. Instead of a propeller
Propeller (aircraft)
Aircraft propellers or airscrews convert rotary motion from piston engines or turboprops to provide propulsive force. They may be fixed or variable pitch. Early aircraft propellers were carved by hand from solid or laminated wood with later propellers being constructed from metal...
, a 50 hp (37 kW) in-line water-cooled reciprocating internal combustion engine built by Pierre Clerget at a Clément-Bayard
Clément-Bayard
Clément-Bayard was a French manufacturer of automobiles, aeroplanes and airships founded in 1903 by the entrepreneur Adolphe Clément-Bayard . The name celebrated the Chevalier Pierre Terrail, seigneur de Bayard who saved the town of Mézières in 1521...
workshop with funding from L'Aero-Club de France, placed in the forward section of the fuselage, drove a rotary compressor through a 1:4 gearbox (1,000 rpm on the Clerget turned the compressor at 4,000 rpm) which drew air in from the front and expelled it rearward under compression and with added heat. The compressor, with a diameter of 50 centimetres (20 in), was located within a cowling at the front of the fuselage. According to later Coandă descriptions, cast aluminium components were also made by Clerget to create a powerplant with a weight of 2.8 pounds
Pound (mass)
The pound or pound-mass is a unit of mass used in the Imperial, United States customary and other systems of measurement...
(1.3 kg
Kilogram
The kilogram or kilogramme , also known as the kilo, is the base unit of mass in the International System of Units and is defined as being equal to the mass of the International Prototype Kilogram , which is almost exactly equal to the mass of one liter of water...
) per horsepower (equivalent to a power-to-weight ratio
Power-to-weight ratio
Power-to-weight ratio is a calculation commonly applied to engines and mobile power sources to enable the comparison of one unit or design to another. Power-to-weight ratio is a measurement of actual performance of any engine or power sources...
of 0.36 hp/lb), a considerable achievement at the time.
Coandă's 1910s-era patents describe the inline piston engine's exhaust gases as being routed through heating channels or heat exchangers in contact with the central air flow, then sucked into the compressor inlet to reduce back-pressure on the engine while adding more heat and mass to the air flow. The "turbo-propulseur" as Coandă called it in the exhibition leaflet, was claimed to be capable of generating 220 Kilogram-force
Kilogram-force
A kilogram-force , or kilopond , is a gravitational metric unit of force. It is equal to the magnitude of the force exerted by one kilogram of mass in a gravitational field...
(2,157 N; 485 lbf
Pound-force
The pound force is a unit of force in some systems of measurement including English engineering units and British gravitational units.- Definitions :...
) of thrust. The powerplant was referred to in reports at the time by different terms: a turbine without propellers, turbo-propulseur, ducted fan or a suction turbine.
Aviation reporters from The Aero and La Technique Aeronautique were doubtful that the powerplant could provide sufficient thrust. The engine was noted in The Aero, reprinted in Aircraft, as being "of remarkably small proportions in relation to the size of the machine." and "claimed to give an enormous wind velocity", but the intake area seemed too small to produce the stated thrust, and that "it also appears as if enormous power would be necessary to drive it", more than supplied by the Clerget.
The Coandă-1910 was reported sold to a "Mr. Weymann" in October 1910. A daily newspaper from Bucharest described in 1910 that the aircraft was constructed in Clerget's workshops and that it "will fly in 6–7 weeks near Paris, piloted by Weymann, one of the pilots celebrated at the Rennes aviation meeting." Another Bucharest newspaper listed the aircraft in November as "sold twice-over". It may be that the businessman and racing pilot Charles Terres Weymann
Charles Terres Weymann
Charles Terres Weymann was an early aeroplane racing pilot and businessman. He was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on 2 August 1889 of an American father and Haitian motherIt is said that Charles Weymann's mother was Cornelie Miot, herself Haitian and daughter of Charles Miot and Lesinska Cecile...
was the subject of the reports, and that he had expressed his willingness to buy the aircraft once tests had been carried out.
At the exhibition, reaction among observers was mixed. Some doubted the aircraft would fly, and focused on more likely machines such as the Sloan, the Voisin, or the Louis Paulhan
Louis Paulhan
Isidore Auguste Marie Louis Paulhan, known as Louis Paulhan, was a pioneering French aviator who in 1910 flew "Le Canard", the world's first seaplane, designed by Henri Fabre....
construction of a Henri Fabre
Henri Fabre
Henri Fabre was a French aviator and the inventor of Le Canard, the first seaplane in history.Henri Fabre was born into a prominent family of shipowners in the city of Marseilles. He was educated in the Jesuit College of Marseilles, where he undertook advanced studies in sciences. He then studied...
machine. Others gave special notice to the Coandă-1910, calling it original and ingenious. The reporter from La Technique Aeronautique wrote, "In the absence of definitive trials, permitting the precise yield of this machine, it is without doubt premature to say it will supersede the propeller ... the tentative is interesting and we watch it closely." The official exhibition report ignored the 'turbo-propulseur' engine and instead described Coandă's novel wing design, and the unusual empennage. On 15 November 1910, L'Aérophile wrote that if the machine were ever to develop as the inventor hoped, it would be "a beautiful dream".
After the exhibition the aircraft was moved to a Clément-Bayard workshop at Issy-les-Moulineaux
Issy-les-Moulineaux
Issy-les-Moulineaux is a commune in the southwestern suburban area of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. On 1 January 2003, Issy-les-Moulineaux became part of the Communauté d'agglomération Arc de Seine along with the other communes of Chaville, Meudon, Vanves and Ville-d'Avray...
for further testing. This work is reflected by additions to the powerplant-related patents of 3 December. A group of modern-day Romanian investigators led by Dan Antoniu, having examined photographs from 1910, concluded that the rotary compressor featured at the exhibition was a hybrid between the one described in the initial 30 May 1910 patent and the one shown in a later patent application. They felt that the exhibition machine had a simpler director system, a different rotor with a smaller intake cone, and that the exhaust gas heat transfer system had not been implemented. According to Gérard Hartmann in his Dossiers historiques et techniques aéronautique française, the propulsion system generated only 17 kg of thrust, and to generate enough thrust for the aircraft to take off (estimated by Coandă at 24 kg) Coandă would have had to spin the "turbine" (the rotary compressor) at a speed of 7,000 rpm with the risk of it exploding. This was not tried, but Hartmann concluded that the experiment proved that the solution worked perfectly.
Henri Mirguet writing for L'Aérophile magazine in January 1912, recalled the previous exhibition's machine as the "chief attraction" of the 1910 salon. He wrote that Coandă answered his "pressing—and indiscreet—questions" about the 'turbo-propulseur'-powered aircraft at that earlier exhibit, telling him that the machine had attained a speed of 112 kilometres per hour (70 mph) during several "flight tests", an improbable answer about which Mirguet "reserved judgment", waiting for confirmation that never materialised.
Related developments
The additional 'turbo-propulseur' patent application 13.502, dated 3 December 1910, was implemented on a double-seat motorised sled commissioned by Cyril Vladimirovich, Grand Duke of Russia. With the help of Despujols, a boat maker, and the motor manufacturer GregoireAutomobiles Gregoire
Automobiles Grégoire was a French car manufacturer, established in 1902, that operated for about twenty years in the early 20th century. The company was the creation of Pierre Joseph Grégoire ....
, Coandă supervised the building of a motor sled, powered by a 30 hp (22 kW) Gregoire engine driving the 'turbo-propulseur'. The sled was blessed by Russian Orthodox priests at the Despujols plant near Paris on 2 December 1910. Starting the next day, it was exhibited for two weeks at the 12th Automobile Salon of France, alongside Gregoire-powered automobiles on the Gregoire stand. A number of automobile and general interest magazines published photographs or sketches of the sled. This was the second time in the autumn of 1910 that a version of Coandă's turbo-propulseur design was shown at the Grand Palais
Grand Palais
This article contains material abridged and translated from the French and Spanish Wikipedia.The Grand Palais des Champs-Elysées, commonly known as the Grand Palais , is a large historic site, exhibition hall and museum complex located at the Champs-Élysées in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France...
of Paris.
Coandă continued to work on the Coandă-1910 project at the beginning of 1911, aiming to improve stability, increase the power of the 'turbo-propulseur', and to implement airfoil improvements. Coandă applied for new patents for aerodynamic investigations and improvements of the Coandă-1910.
Coandă described a different, more sturdy system for the attachment of the wings, which also enabled changes in the angle of attack
Angle of attack
Angle of attack is a term used in fluid dynamics to describe the angle between a reference line on a lifting body and the vector representing the relative motion between the lifting body and the fluid through which it is moving...
and the centre of gravity. He aimed to obtain more power from the propulsion system, and design drawings show the arrangement of two air-cooled rotary engine
Rotary engine
The rotary engine was an early type of internal-combustion engine, usually designed with an odd number of cylinders per row in a radial configuration, in which the crankshaft remained stationary and the entire cylinder block rotated around it...
s on the sides of the fuselage. The placement of the engines indicates that Coandă did not intend to inject fuel into the jet stream and ignite it, as the cooling of the engines would have been compromised. The patent was annotated with an additional claim on 19 July 1911 which brought significant changes, for instance retractable landing gear with dampers inside aerodynamic fairings with skids. The horizontal stabiliser was removed, a supporting surface was provided for each engine, and their accessories were covered to improve aerodynamics. Though Coandă continued to study rotary propulsion mechanisms, Antoniu believes that Coandă never implemented a practical solution because of the lack of funds.
In May 1911 Coandă filed English-language patents on the 'turbo-propulseur' design in the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as a second French-language patent filed in Switzerland, and he described it for the 1911 publication of L'Annuaire de l'Air.
The very expensive project of 1910 "which cost some one million francs of Coanda's own money", left Coandă with limited funds. The possibility of a new contract with the French government led Coandă to build the Coandă-1911. He wished to win an army-organised competition at Reims in October, one that required two engines in each aircraft as a fail-safe strategy. At the third aviation salon in Paris 1911, Coandă displayed a scale model of the aircraft which used two Gnôme rotary engines mounted back to back, connected by a bevel gear
Bevel gear
Bevel gears are gears where the axes of the two shafts intersect and the tooth-bearing faces of the gears themselves are conically shaped.Bevel gears are most often mounted on shafts that are 90 degrees apart, but can be designed to work at other angles as well...
to one propeller. The strange combination of two engines connected to one propeller was intended to drive a new turbine, but Coandă was unable to fund one and was forced to use a two-bladed propeller. During trials the assembly did not provide enough traction and a four-bladed propeller was ordered. The mounting support of the engines, initially intended for a jet propulsion version was not adequate for the new configuration, so the forward chassis had to be modified.
Henri Mirguet writing for L'Aérophile magazine in January 1912 said that the new 1911 aircraft retained the fuselage, the frame and the wing of Coandă's 1910 design, but did not keep the 'turbo-propulseur' or "the wooden wingloading surface including the forward longitudinal ribs". The aircraft was flown on 21 October 1911, but with modest results as the latest modifications, especially those related to the powerplant, did not compensate for the increased total weight of the aircraft. At the military contest, it did not meet the requirements for independent operation of each engine.contemporary photograph in Flight magazine of the 1911 aircraft at Rheims
Following the 1911 exhibition, at the personal request of Sir George White
George White (businessman)
Sir George White, 1st Baronet was an English businessman and stockbroker based in Bristol. He was instrumental in the construction of the Bristol tramways and became a pioneer in the construction of electric tramways in England. In 1910 he formed, with his brother Samuel, the Bristol Aeroplane...
, Coandă moved to the United Kingdom to take a position as chief engineer or chief designer at British and Colonial Aeroplane Company
Bristol Aeroplane Company
The Bristol Aeroplane Company, originally the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company, was both one of the first and one of the most important British aviation companies, designing and manufacturing both airframes and aero engines...
for a few years. In the next four decades, Coandă worked on a great variety of inventions. During World War II he revived his earlier 'turbo-propulseur' engine: he was contracted by the German Army
Heer (1935-1945)
The Heer was the Army land forces component of the German armed forces from 1935 to 1945, the latter also included the Navy and the Air Force...
in late 1942 to develop an air propulsion system for military ambulance snow sleds much like the one made for the Russian Grand Duke. The German contract concluded after one year, yielding no plans for production. Though Coandă had experimented with a variety of nozzles, and said that he had achieved a degree of success, no turbojet-engine-style fuel injection or combustion in the air stream was attempted.
Coandă and his 1910 aircraft were absent from much of aviation literature of the day. None of the annual issues of Jane's All the World's Aircraft
Jane's All the World's Aircraft
Jane's All the World's Aircraft is an aviation annual publication founded by Fred T. Jane in 1909. It is published by Jane's Information Group....
ever mentioned the Coandă-1910 or its 'turbo-propulseur' powerplant. As well, the Soviet engineer Nikolai Rynin
Nikolai Rynin
Nikolai Alekseevich Rynin was a Russian civil engineer, teacher, aerospace researcher, author, historian, and promoter of space travel....
did not mention Coandă at all in his exhaustive nine-volume encyclopedia on jet and rocket engines, written in the late 1920s and early '30s.
Later claims
At the beginning of the jet ageJet age
The Jet Age is a period of history defined by the social change brought about by the advent of large aircraft powered by turbine engines. These aircraft are able to fly much higher, faster, and farther than older piston-powered propliners, making transcontinental and inter-continental travel...
, when the potential of reactive engines was recognised, a number of histories of the jet engine were written. A once-classified Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory
Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory
The Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology , was a research institute created in 1926, at first specializing in aeronautics research. In 1930, Hungarian scientist Theodore von Kármán accepted the directorship of the lab and emigrated to the United States. Under...
and Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center located in the San Gabriel Valley area of Los Angeles County, California, United States. The facility is headquartered in the city of Pasadena on the border of La Cañada Flintridge and Pasadena...
study completed in 1946 described the Coandă-1910 as "probably not flown" but featuring "a mechanical jet propulsion device with a centrifugal blower", one in which heat from the Clerget piston engine "furnished auxiliary jet propulsion."
In the editorial lead to their article on Coandă's Augmented Flow, Flight terms it, "scarcely a jet". In the same year Geoffrey G. Smith chronicled technological development in his book Gas Turbines and Jet Propulsion for Aircraft, but did not mention Coandă.
In 1950's l'aviation d'Ader et des temps héroiques, the authors assert that Coandă flew the first jet aircraft at Issy-les-moulineaux for 30 metres (100 ft), ending with a crash.
In 1953, Flights treatment of aircraft in the 50 years since the Wright brothers
Wright brothers
The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur , were two Americans credited with inventing and building the world's first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight, on December 17, 1903...
' flight included the Coandă-1910 "ducted fan" and said of Coanda that he "believes that he 'took off for a few feet, then came down hurriedly and broke two teeth, quoting J.W. Adderley's 1952 letter to the editor of Flight, after Adderley's discussion with Coandă in Paris at the end of World War II. Adderley said he "can definitely confirm that the power unit was of the ducted-fan type, similar in basic principles to the Caproni-Campini aircraft of the 1930s."
In the early 1950s, Coandă began to say that he had flown his 1910 aircraft himself, and that the 1910 powerplant was the first motorjet
Motorjet
A motorjet is a rudimentary type of jet engine which is sometimes referred to as thermojet, a term now commonly used to describe a particular and completely unrelated pulsejet design.- Design :...
, using fuel injection and combustion to create its thrust. In 1955 and 1956, a number of aviation articles presented the Coandă version of 1910 events. He said he took off and crashed in December 1910 in the presence of aircraft makers Louis Charles Breguet
Louis Charles Breguet
Louis Charles Breguet was a French aircraft designer and builder, one of the early aviation pioneers.- Biography :...
and Gabriel Voisin
Gabriel Voisin
Gabriel Voisin was an aviation pioneer and the creator of Europe's first manned, engine-powered, heavier-than-air aircraft capable of a sustained , circular, controlled flight, including take-off and landing. It was flown by Henry Farman on January 13, 1908 near Paris, France...
. Coandă himself spoke on the subject, notably before the Wings Club at New York's Biltmore Hotel on 18 January 1956 where he said "I intended to inject fuel into the air stream which would be ignited by the exhaust gases also channeled through the same circular vent." Martin Caidin
Martin Caidin
Martin Caidin was an American author and an authority on aeronautics and aviation.Caidin wrote more than 50 books, including Samurai!, Black Thursday, Thunderbolt!, Fork-Tailed Devil: The P-38, Zero!, The Ragged, Rugged Warriors, A Torch to the Enemy and many other works of military history...
wrote "The Coanda Story" for the May 1956 issue of Flying, based on a personal interview in which Coandă said that he "intended to inject fuel into the air stream, which would be ignited by the exhaust gases also channeled through the same circular vent." For his article "He Flew In 1910", René Aubrey interviewed Coandă and wrote in the September 1956 Royal Air Force Flying Review that the flight took place on 16 December 1910, that fuel was certainly injected, and that it was "the first jet flight in the world". In Aubrey's relation of the interview, the aircraft stalled
Stall (flight)
In fluid dynamics, a stall is a reduction in the lift coefficient generated by a foil as angle of attack increases. This occurs when the critical angle of attack of the foil is exceeded...
after take-off, throwing Coandă clear, and "gently collapsed to the ground" where it burned. Aubrey wrote that the aircraft engine was "designed by a friend to Coandă's specification", and that its burning exhaust was "directed below and to each side of the fuselage, which was protected by asbestos in vulnerable places."
In Jet Age Airlanes of 1956, Coandă himself published an article entitled "The First Jet Flight". He submitted the same text that Caidin had written for Flying in May:
A collection of aviation stories was published in 1957 by Major Victor Houart, a friend of Coandă's, who wrote that he was an eyewitness the day Coandă flew and crashed. One chapter of the book describes how Houart, together with a group of French dragoon
Dragoon
The word dragoon originally meant mounted infantry, who were trained in horse riding as well as infantry fighting skills. However, usage altered over time and during the 18th century, dragoons evolved into conventional light cavalry units and personnel...
s, watched as Coandă taxied twice around the airfield, lifted off to avoid the ruins of an old fortification wall, started flames from the engine by applying too much power, and was thrown from the aircraft the moment it hit the wall, with Coandă "not badly hurt". Houart's version put the fuel tank in the overhead wing, which was metal. In further statements, Coandă said that his 1910 aircraft had movable leading edge slot
Leading edge slot
A leading edge slot is an aerodynamic feature of the wing of some aircraft to reduce the stall speed and promote good low-speed handling qualities. A leading edge slot is a span-wise gap in each wing, allowing air to flow from below the wing to its upper surface...
s,The leading edge slot was patented by Handley Page in 1920 retractable landing gear and a fuel supply which was held in the overhead wing to reduce fuselage profile and thus drag. In 1965, Coandă presented a set of drawings, photographs and specifications of the 1910 aircraft to the National Air and Space Museum
National Air and Space Museum
The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution holds the largest collection of historic aircraft and spacecraft in the world. It was established in 1976. Located in Washington, D.C., United States, it is a center for research into the history and science of aviation and...
(NASM), prepared by Huyck Corporation and received by Director S. Paul Johnston and early aviation curator Louis Casey.
Rocket engineer G. Harry Stine
G. Harry Stine
George Harry Stine was one of the founding figures of model rocketry, a science and technology writer, and a science fiction author.-Education and early career:...
worked alongside Coandă from 1961 to 1965 at Huyck Corporation, and interviewed him in 1962. In 1967, the magazine Flying
Flying (magazine)
Flying is an aviation magazine published since 1927 . It is read by pilots, aircraft owners, and aviation-oriented executives in business and general aviation markets worldwide....
printed an account written by Stine, which described the landing gear as retracting into the lower wing, with the fuel tank hidden in the upper wing. Stine wrote that Coandă flew on 10 December 1910, and described the heat from the "two jet exhausts" as being "too much for me" after the powerplant was mounted in the aircraft. In the 1980s after Coandă's death, Stine wrote a magazine article and a book mentioning the 1910 aircraft, including new details such as the name of master mechanic Pierre Clerget as the friend who helped build the 'turbo-propulseur'. Stine's recounting of the 10 December flight included the group of eyewitness French dragoons, asbestos heat shields and metal deflector plates aft of the engine, intended taxiing with unintentional flight, a steep climb with a stall, Coandă thrown clear, and the aircraft crashing to the ground, burning. Stine gave his assessment that "Coanda's turbopropulseur had elements of a true jet", but that the patent application had no indication of the "critical stage—injection of fuel into the compressed air". He wrote that "although there were several jet-propelled aircraft in existence at an early time—the 1910 Coanda Jet and the 1938 Caproni Campini N.1—the first pure jet aircraft flight was made in Germany in 1938".
In 1965, Historian Emeritus Paul E. Garber
Paul E. Garber
Paul Edward Garber was the first head of the National Air Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. With his work and effort, the most complete collection of historical aircraft in the world was gathered and preserved...
of the NASM interviewed Coandă, who related that the December 1910 flight was no accident, that he had seated himself in the cockpit intending to test five factors: aircraft structure, the engine, the wing lift, the balance of controls, and the aerodynamics. He said that the heat from the engine was "fantastic", but that he placed mica
Mica
The mica group of sheet silicate minerals includes several closely related materials having highly perfect basal cleavage. All are monoclinic, with a tendency towards pseudohexagonal crystals, and are similar in chemical composition...
sheets and deflecting plates to direct the jet blast away from the wooden fuselage. Garber wrote that as Coandă's aircraft began to move forward and rise from the ground, "the exhaust flame, instead of fanning outward, curved inward and ignited the aircraft." In this interview, Coandă said that he brought the aircraft back to earth under control, but the landing was "abrupt" and he was thrown clear of the airframe which was consumed completely by flame, the engine reduced to "a few handfuls of white powder."
Rebuttals
In 1960, Charles Harvard Gibbs-SmithCharles Harvard Gibbs-Smith
Charles Harvard Gibbs-Smith was a British polymath historian of aeronautics and aviation. His obituary in the Times described him as "the recognised authority on the early development of flying in Europe and America" Richard P...
, aviation historian at the Science Museum
Science Museum (London)
The Science Museum is one of the three major museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is part of the National Museum of Science and Industry. The museum is a major London tourist attraction....
in London, reacted to the mid-1950s assertion that Coandă built and flew the first jet engine aircraft. Gibbs-Smith wrote that "there has recently arisen some controversy about this machine, designed by the Rumanian-born and French-domiciled Henri Coanda, which was exhibited at the Paris salon in October 1910. Until recently it has been accepted as an all-wood sesquiplane, with cantilever wings, powered by a 50 hp Clerget engine driving a 'turbo-propulseur' in the form of a large but simple ducted air fan. This fan was fitted right across the machine's nose and the cowling covered the nose and part of the engine: the resulting 'jet' of plain air was to propel the aeroplane." He wrote that "no claims that it flew, or was even tested, were made at the time", and that the story of it flying suddenly appeared in the 1950s—the aircraft was thus "disinterred from its obscurity." He wrote that the airfield at Issy-les-Moulineaux, a former military exercise ground where the test supposedly took place, was under the constant observation of the French Army who owned it, and under observation by French aviation reporters and photographers, and by aviation experts from other countries. He said that the airfield was the "most famous, most used, most observed, and most reported-on 'airfield' in Paris", and that all events, let alone an exciting crash and destruction by fire, would have been carried in local papers, and described in military reports, but no contemporary accounts exist of the Coandă-1910 being tested, flown or destroyed. Gibbs-Smith countered the Coandă assertions point by point, saying that the aircraft did not have retractable undercarriage, did not have leading or trailing edge wing slots, did not have a fuel tank overhead in the wing, and did not have fuel injected into any turbine. Gibbs-Smith pointed out that the pilot would have been killed by the heat if any combustion had been initiated in the engine's air stream.
In 1970 Gibbs-Smith wrote another account of the Coanda-1910, using much the same phrasing as in 1960:
In 2010, Antoniu wrote that he thought Gibbs-Smith speculated on the basis of the evidence of absence
Evidence of absence
Evidence of absence is evidence of any kind that suggests the non-existence or non-presence of something. A simple example of evidence of absence: checking one's pocket for spare change and finding nothing but being confident that one would have found it if it were there...
that the aircraft was never tested or flown, but that Gibbs-Smith did not find any concrete evidence to support his position. Similarly, Antoniu was unable to find concrete proof of a test flight. Antoniu also wrote that Gibbs-Smith did not check the French patents claimed by Coandă in 1910 and 1911, describing the retractable gear, leading edge wing slot and upper wing fuel tank, and that he did not see photographs from private collections demonstrating aspects about which he wrote.
In 1980, NASM historian Frank H. Winter examined the 1965 drawings and specifications Coandă prepared while at Huyck Corporation, and wrote an article about Coandă's claim: "There is a wholly new description of the inner workings of the machine that does not occur in any of the accounts given [in the 1910s] and which defies all of the patent specifications." He said Coandă told various conflicting stories about his claimed 1910 flight, and that Coandă produced a set of altered drawings as proof of his claims:
In his article, Winter wondered why Coandă did not add the novel feature of fuel injection and air stream combustion to his May 1911 patent applications if that feature had been present during his supposed flying experience five months earlier. Rather, Winter noted that the August 1910 patent filings in French were essentially the same as the May 1911 ones in English, and that all the descriptions were applicable to air or water flowing through the device. He also noted that no mention was made in the early patents of asbestos or mica heat shields, or of any fuel injection or combustion.
While looking through aviation periodicals and Paris newspapers reporting for the month of December, 1910, Winter found that there was a spell of bad weather at Issy during which no flying took place. This situation occurred mid-month, the period covering the conflicting dates (10 and 16 December) that Coandă said his aircraft was tested, flown and crashed. In their regular "Foreign Aviation News" column, Flight magazine reported that the "blank period" of inclement weather at Issy ended on the 19th when Guillaume Busson tested a monoplane made by Armand Deperdussin. Other aircraft tests and piloting activities were listed, with no mention of Coandă or his machine.
Winter found that Camille (or Cosimo) Canovetti, an Italian civil and aviation engineer, had been working on a 'turbo-propulseur' aviation engine before Coandă, and had attempted to show an aircraft with such an engine at the Aviation Exposition in Milan in 1909. Canovetti took out patents on his machine in 1909, and more in 1910. Canovetti wrote in 1911 that the 1910 appearance of the Coandă engine "called general attention" to designs like his.
After Coandă's death
Modern reference books about aviation history represent the Coandă-1910 in various ways, though many do not mention the machine or the inventor at all. Others acknowledge Coandă as the discoverer of the Coandă effectCoanda effect
The Coandă effect is the tendency of a fluid jet to be attracted to a nearby surface. The principle was named after Romanian aerodynamics pioneer Henri Coandă, who was the first to recognize the practical application of the phenomenon in aircraft development....
but give Hans von Ohain
Hans von Ohain
Hans Joachim Pabst von Ohain was a German engineer, one of the inventors of jet propulsion.Frank Whittle, who patented in 1930 in the United Kingdom, and Hans von Ohain, who patented in 1936 in Germany, developed the concept independently during the late 1930s...
the honour of designing the first jet engine to power an aircraft in manned flight, and Frank Whittle
Frank Whittle
Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, OM, KBE, CB, FRS, Hon FRAeS was a British Royal Air Force engineer officer. He is credited with independently inventing the turbojet engine Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, OM, KBE, CB, FRS, Hon FRAeS (1 June 1907 – 9 August 1996) was a British Royal Air...
the honour of completing and patenting the first jet engine capable of such flight. In their 1994 book American Aviation, authors Joe Christy and LeRoy Cook state that Coandă's 1910 aircraft was the first jet.
Aviation author Bill Gunston
Bill Gunston
Bill Gunston OBE FRAeS is one of the most internationally respected and published aviation and military authors. He flew with Britain's Royal Air Force from 1943 to 1948, and is a flying instructor. He has spent most of his adult life doing research and writing on aircraft and aviation. He is the...
changed his mind two years after publishing a 1993 book in which he gave Coandă credit for the first jet engine. Gunston's 1995 description began: "Romanian Henri Coanda built a biplane with a Clerget inline piston engine which, instead of turning a propeller, drove a centrifugal compressor blowing air to the rear. The thrust was said to be 220 kilograms [490 lb], a figure the author disbelieves. On 10 December 1910 the aircraft thus powered inadvertently became airborne, crashed and burned. Often called 'a turbine aeroplane', this was of no more significance than the Campini aircraft mentioned later, and Coanda wisely decided to switch to a propeller." In his publication of 1998 – World Encyclopedia of Aero Engines: All major aircraft power plants, from the Wright brothers to the present day – Gunston did not include Coanda; nor did he include Coanda in 2005's Jane's Aero-Engines or 2006's World Encyclopedia of Aero Engines.
Walter J. Boyne
Walter J. Boyne
Walter J. Boyne is a retired United States Air Force officer, combat veteran, aviation historian, and author of more than 50 books and over 1,000 magazine articles...
, director of the National Air and Space Museum
National Air and Space Museum
The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution holds the largest collection of historic aircraft and spacecraft in the world. It was established in 1976. Located in Washington, D.C., United States, it is a center for research into the history and science of aviation and...
and a prolific aviation author (more than 40 non-fiction books and 1,000 magazine articles) mentions Coandă in passing a few times in his works. Boyne discusses Coandă briefly in one of his books, The Leading Edge: "Professor Henri Coanda, whose scientific work was impeccable, designed and built a jet aircraft in 1910; it, like Martin's Kitten
Martin KF-1
|-See also:-External links:**...
, was superbly built and technically advanced—and could not fly." In a later magazine article sidebar, Boyne described more details: "Romanian inventor Henri Coanda attempted to fly a primitive jet aircraft in 1910, using a four-cylinder internal combustion engine to drive a compressor at 4,000 revolutions per minute. It was equipped with what today might be called an afterburner, producing an estimated 500 pounds [230 kg] of thrust. Countless loyal Coanda fans insist that the airplane flew. Others say it merely crashed."
In 1980 and 1993, Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation included an entry on the 1910 aircraft, calling it the "Coanda turbine" and describing it as "the world's first jet-propelled aircraft to fly". In 2003, Winter co-authored a book with fellow NASM curator F. Robert van der Linden: 100 Years of Flight: A Chronicle of Aerospace History, 1903–2003. In the book the Coandă-1910 is described as an unsuccessful ducted fan aircraft lacking documentation to substantiate any flight test.
Citing Carl A. Brown's 1985 A History of Aviation, Tim Brady, the Dean of Aviation at Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University, wrote in 2000: "the development of the jet is, broadly, the story of three men: Henri Coanda, Sir Frank Whittle, and Pabst von Ohain..." His description of Coandă's disputed test flight agreed that fuel injection and combustion had been initiated in the rotary compressor's vent, with the novel detail that the aircraft "flew for about a thousand feet [300 m] before crashing into a wall." In 1990 at the 24th Symposium of the International Academy of Astronautics, one of the papers presented included this sentence: "It is to Henri Coanda (1886–1972), a world famous inventor and pioneer of jet flight, that space engineering owes—beside one of the first model planes provided with a rocket engine (1905)—the construction and engine experiment of the first jet aircraft, the 'Coanda-1910'." In 2007 in his popular book Extreme Aircraft, Ron Miller wrote that the powerplant in the Coandă-1910 was one of the "earliest attempts" at a jet engine, but was unsuccessful—it was "incapable of actual flight", unlike the engines designed by Whittle and Ohain. The question of the Coandă-1910 being the first jet aircraft does not appear to be resolved, supporting Stine's view: "Whether Henri Coanda built the first true jet will probably be argued interminably."
In the 2000s, Dan Antoniu and other Romanian aviation experts investigated existing photographs of the Coandă-1910, leading them to believe that the aircraft presented at the exhibition was not finished, that it was exhibited with many improvisations. Antoniu published Henri Coandă and his technical work during 1906–1918, a 2010 book in which he said that the unfinished state of the aircraft led to Coandă filing several extra patents and starting a new series of studies with the aim of making the machine airworthy. For instance, Antoniu wrote that the exhaust pipes of the Clergét engine appeared free; there were no devices to redirect exhaust gases to the turbine as described in the patent, and there were no heat shields for crew protection. As well, the central attachment of the tubular struts holding the wings to the fuselage, with mere collars secured with screws, was judged by Antoniu as appearing potentially unsafe during take-off or landing because of the "considerable loads on the struts". The X-shaped empennage was covered at high angles by the horizontal stabiliser making it unusable, and any high-speed taxi would put the machine in danger of a nose-over.
Memorials and models
A full-size replica of the Coandă-1910 was built in 2001; it is displayed in Bucharest at the National Military MuseumNational Military Museum (Romania)
The National Military Museum , located at 125-127 Mircea Vulcănescu St., Bucharest, Romania, was established in 1923 by King Ferdinand. It has been at its present site since 1988, in a building finished in 1898.- External links :...
. A scale model is displayed in the French Air and Space Museum at Paris – Le Bourget Airport
Paris – Le Bourget Airport
Paris – Le Bourget Airport is an airport located in Le Bourget, Bonneuil-en-France, and Dugny, north-northeast of Paris, France. It is now used only for general aviation as well as air shows...
. At the site of the historic Issy-les-Moulineaux airfield, a large plaque lists the three pioneers of flight most closely associated with the airfield: Louis Blériot
Louis Blériot
Louis Charles Joseph Blériot was a French aviator, inventor and engineer. In 1909 he completed the first flight across a large body of water in a heavier-than-air craft, when he crossed the English Channel. For this achievement, he received a prize of £1,000...
, Alberto Santos-Dumont
Alberto Santos-Dumont
Alberto Santos-Dumont , was a Brazilian early pioneer of aviation. The heir of a wealthy family of coffee producers, Santos Dumont dedicated himself to science studies in Paris, France, where he spent most of his adult life....
and Henri Farman. Later, a plaque honoring Coandă and Romanian aviation engineer Trajan Vuia
Traian Vuia
Traian Vuia was a Romanian inventor and aviation pioneer who designed, builtand flew an early aircraft. His first flight traveled about 12 m at Montesson, France on March 18, 1906...
was placed on a nearby building under the auspices of the mayor of Issy-les-Moulineaux, L'Aéroclub de France, and the Romanian Association for Aviation History. A full-size functional replica of the plane is under construction at Craiova
Craiova
Craiova , Romania's 6th largest city and capital of Dolj County, is situated near the east bank of the river Jiu in central Oltenia. It is a longstanding political center, and is located at approximately equal distances from the Southern Carpathians and the River Danube . Craiova is the chief...
, Romania by a team of engineers and test pilots from I.R.Av. Craiova.
In October 2010 the National Bank of Romania issued a commemorative silver coin
Commemorative coin
Commemorative coins are coins that were issued to commemorate some particular event or issue. Most world commemorative coins were issued from the 1960s onward, although there are numerous examples of commemorative coins of earlier date. Such coins have a distinct design with reference to the...
for the centennial of the building of the first jet aircraft. The 10-leu
Romanian leu
The leu is the currency of Romania. It is subdivided into 100 bani . The name of the currency means "lion". On 1 July 2005, Romania underwent a currency reform, switching from the previous leu to a new leu . 1 RON is equal to 10,000 ROL...
piece is intended for coin collectors, with the official purchase price set at 220 leu. It represents the aircraft on the obverse side and a portrait of Coandă on the reverse, including Romanian words which translate to "first jet aircraft". The same month the philatelic section of the Romanian Post
Posta Româna
CN Poşta Romănă SA is the national operator in the field of postal services in , sole supplier of universal service in any point on the Romanian territory, providing prices accessible to all the users thereof and at high quality standards....
, Romfilatelia, produced a limited edition philatelic folder and a stamp commemorating the centennial of jet aircraft. The stamp presents a modern internal schema of the Coandă-1910, a drawing of the injectors and burners, and a quote from Gustave Eiffel
Gustave Eiffel
Alexandre Gustave Eiffel was a French structural engineer from the École Centrale Paris, an architect, an entrepreneur and a specialist of metallic structures...
: "This boy was born 30 if not 50 years too early". At the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
in December, president Jerzy Buzek
Jerzy Buzek
Jerzy Karol Buzek is a Polish engineer, academic lecturer and politician who was the ninth post-Cold War Prime Minister of Poland from 1997 to 2001...
opened a centennial exhibition celebrating the building and testing of the Coandă-1910.
Specifications
External links
- Frank H. Winter (6 December 2010). "Coanda's Claim", Air & Space online