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 Anselm Franz was an engine designer whose Junker Jumo 004
became the first jet engine to enter mass production. He also designed
turbochargers, superchargers, and turboshafts. Before his death in 1994, he was awarded the U.S. Army Outstanding Civilian Service Medal and the R. Tom Sawyer Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Anselm Franz was born in Schladming, Austria
in 1900. He studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Graz
and earned a PhD from the University
of Berlin. After
completing his education, Franz developed hydraulic torque converters for a
company in the German capital. Several years later, he joined Otto Mader's
Junkers Engine Co. as head of turbocharger and supercharger development.
The Jet Race of the 1930s
During the 1930s, military aircraft began to use forced
induction systems to increase high-altitude engine power. As the clouds of war
gathered over Europe, however, engine
designers began to experiment with a new technology - jet propulsion. In 1930, England's Frank
Whittle designed the first turbojet, an engine which featured a multistage
compressor, combustion chamber, single-stage turbine, and nozzle. Five years
later, the Royal Air Force (RAF) pilot finally received enough private funding
to build his first jet engine.
Whittle's successful bench test in April 1937 was historically
significant, but the work of German inventors wasn't far behind. A year after
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain ceded the Sudetenland to Adolph
Hitler, Germany's
Hans von Ohain watched as his own jet engine powered a Heinkel He 178 airframe
on the world's first jet-powered flight. Days later, on September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, triggering the start of
World War II.
The First Operational
Jet Fighter
 As the Nazi blitzkrieg
raced across Europe, Anselm Franz was placed in charged of jet-engine
development at Germany's
Junker Engine Co. Although Junker's Otto Mader was unimpressed with what he
called "this jet idea", he heeded the advice of Helmut Schelp, director of
advanced development at the Reich Air Ministry, by reassigning Franz. The
Austrian-born engineer took several turbocharger engineers with him, but soon
discarded the centrifugal compressors with which they were familiar. Instead,
Franz opted for an axial compressor that offered both efficiency and
reliability.
With little time to model individual components, Anselm
Franz designed an experimental jet engine that was aerodynamically and
thermodynamically similar to the final production version. Equipped with a
six-can combustor, the Junker Jumo 000A could be bench tested with only a
single can. Test runs in 1940 and early 1941 were successful, but damage to the
engine's sheet-metal stator vanes required help from vibration specialist Max
Bentele. After a complete stator redesign, Franz tested his engine again during
a 10-hour run in December 1941. On July 18, 1942, two 000A turbojets powered the world's first operational jet fighter, the Messerschmitt Me262, on its
maiden flight.
Although almost 6000 Junker Jumos were built by the end of
World War II, jet fighters such as the Messerschmitt couldn't stop the advance
of Allied armies. After Germany's
surrender on May 8, 1945, Franz was brought to the United States as part of "Operation Paperclip", the same secret program that recruited Werner von Braun.
A New Life
 During the late 1940s, Anselm Franz worked with the United
States Air Force (USAF) on various engine-related issues. In 1951, he was named
head of the new turbine division of Lycoming Engines, a manufacturer of
general-aviation products. Working out of the company's plant in Stratford, Connecticut,
Franz focused on market segments that were largely ignored by giants such as
General Electric and Pratt & Whitney. Franz's first design, the T53
helicopter engine (right), was used on both the Bell Aircraft UH-1 Huey and AH-1 Cobra
helicopters. A subsequent design, the larger T55, was later converted into a
small turbofan engine and mounted on OV-1 Mohawk ground-attack aircraft.
Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anselm_Franz
http://www.memagazine.org/backissues/september97/features/franz/franz.html
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bljjetenginehistory.htm
http://www.scientistsandfriends.com/jets1.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_von_Ohain
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycoming_T53
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