PBS Velká Bíteš: 90 years of jet propulsion

12 aerospace industry l engineering 90 Years of Jet Propulsion January 2020 marked an important anniversary for aviation. On 16th January 1930, Englishman Frank Whittle patented the first jet engine. Without our knowledge, it was the beginning of the history of one of the most successful products of První brněnská strojírna Velká Bíteš, a. s. In 1930, the jet engine was patented by an officer of the Royal Air Force (RAF), Frank Whittle. His drawing included a compressor, a combustion chamber, a turbine and a nozzle: all basic components used in jet engines to this day. This type of propulsion provided significantly more power than even the most powerful piston engines. International competition d Five years later, German physicist Hans Joachim Pabst von Ohain started development on a similar design. Having received strong support from the state administration, Germany won the race and was the first to get an aircraft propelled by a jet engine in the air. The first German experimental jet aircraft, Heinkel He 178, took off in 1939, while the British Gloster E.28/29 followed a whole two years later. The development of jet engines transformed the way World War II was fought and later also changed the landscape of air transport. PBS is a Czech flagship d Frank Whittle's brilliant invention was, in part, the reason why the Czech Republic became a superpower in production of aircraft engines. The Czechoslovak aircraft industry started producing jet engines after World War II. The only purely Czech company that currently develops jet engines is První brněnská strojírna Velká Bíteš, a. s. (PBS). Boasting over 200 years of history, the company has been supplying turbine engines to the world for over 50 years. In the 1970s, the company started development on air generators and auxiliary power units for starting up aircraft engines. PBS has been developing its own jet engines since 2001. The first tests of a functional prototype of special 2020 T+T Technika a trh