Reiner Decher - Powering the Worlds Airliners: Engine Developments from the Propeller to the Jet Age

Powering the Worlds Airliners

Engine Developments from the Propeller to the Jet Age

Reiner Decher

First published in Great Britain in 2020 by

Pen & Sword Air World

An imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

Yorkshire Philadelphia

Copyright Reiner Decher 2020

ISBN 9781526759146

eISBN 9781526759153

Mobi ISBN 9781526759177

The right of Reiner Decher to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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Dedication

A s a young man, I steered into aeronautical engineering as a field of study and later spent a lifetime teaching other young men and women what I knew and understood. My father, Siegfried Decher, was active in the field and it seems as though he had an almost invisible hand in guiding what I was to do in life. He approved of my choices and held back from an active role in them. In my studies I learned from Jack L. Kerrebrock at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who taught me to love the magic of fluid flow and its challenges. Later, as I started my career as a teacher, I was privileged to have as a mentor my colleague Gordon C. Oates at the University of Washington, from whom I learned to love thermodynamics. To them I owe much. Among the tasks I undertook in my professional life, I applied my passion, albeit unsuccessfully, to the challenge of finding an engine configuration that would make a supersonic transport plane practical. For that opportunity, I thank Gary C. Paynter of The Boeing Companys Propulsion Research Group for much stimulating discussion and collaborative labour.

I am now sufficiently aged to have enjoyed the company of a number of the engine pioneers and aeroplane-design leaders mentioned here and elsewhere. I met some as a youngster and others were colleagues later in life. It is indeed a pleasure to have them reappear in spirit as I write these words. To them, to the Wright brothers, and to the many whose names are not in the vocabulary of everyday life but who had a hand in helping to create the modern airliner and its engines, I dedicate what you are about to read and will hopefully enjoy.

The faces of many who played a role in this story are on the following pages. The list is by no means all-inclusive but highlights the people with the ideas.

Glossary of Abbreviations

Dramatis Personae: Pictorial People Index

A photograph brings people described by names closer to life and to understanding the complicated things that men have built.

Thanks to the following institutions for providing the images in this section:

The Boeing Company: William Boeing, Donald Douglas, George Schairer, William Cook, and Joe Sutter.

General Electric: Sanford Moss and Gerhard Neumann.

The Igor I. Sikorsky Historical Archives

The author: Siegfried Decher and Anselm Franz

Pratt & Whitney Archives: Frederick B. Rentschler

GLMMAM Archive: Glenn L. Martin

Pan Am Historical Foundation: Juan Trippe

Wikipedia Commons: all others.

William E. Boeing 18811956

Adolf Busemann 19011986

William H. Cook 19132012

Glenn H. Curtiss 18781930

Siegfried H. Decher 19121980

Donald W. Douglas, Sr. 18921981

Anton H.G. Fokker 18901939