1. AIRCRAFT ENGINE Lecture 4

2. 1903- 1940s Propeller + Piston Engines Era

3. History of Aircraft Propulsion
From 1903 (Wright bros.) until the Early 1940s, all aircraft used the piston engine combined with propeller as their propulsion system.
Piston engine is just similar with car engine except with several different.
A propeller is essentially a type of fan which transmits power by converting rotational motion into thrust.

4. Aircraft Piston Engines
Rotary Engine
In-Line engine
Radial Engine
Opposed
V-type Engine

5. Propeller + Piston Engine Aircraft
Thrust
Propeller: Acts as a rotating wing, creating a thrust force because of its motion through the air.
The engine takes air from the surroundings, mixed it with fuel, burns the fuel, fuels energy release, the energy of the heated gas exhaust is used to move a piston that is attached to a crankshaft.
Crankshaft turn the propeller to generate the thrust.

6. Car Engines

7. Car Engines
Valves
The intake and exhaust valves open at the proper time to let in air and fuel and to let out exhaust.
Spark plug
The spark plug supplies the spark that ignites the air/fuel mixture so that combustion can occur.
Piston
A piston is a cylindrical piece of metal that moves up and down inside the cylinder.
Crankshaft
The crankshaft turns the piston's up and down motion into circular motion.

8. What are the differences between piston engines and car engines

9. The differences between piston aircraft engines and car engines
Crankshaft – The crankshaft in an piston aircraft engine turns a propeller, crankshaft in car engine is used to move the wheels of the car.
Weight – the piston aircraft engine must be lightweight compare to car engine.
Power demand to run the engines- the piston aircraft engine demands high power for very long times compare to car engines
Numbers of engine parts - an aircraft engine has at least two sets for every parts, including ignition system (spark plugs and magnetos) and fuel pumps compare to car engine that only have one set.
Operating environment different- an aircraft engine no need radiator for air-cooling compare to the car.
First, an aircraft engine is designed with weight as a primary consideration. Thus, the weight-to-power ration is generally lower for an aircraft engine when compared with an automobile engine of comparable size.
An airplane engine has two spark plugs on each cylinder that are fired independently from engine-driven magnetos. Before taking off, a pilot checks to see that the engine will run smoothly on either “mag” alone.
Many airplane engine systems also incorporate an additional fuel pump that is electrically driven, independent of the engine.
Since it must operate over a range of density altitudes, an airplane engine has a manual mixture control. At low altitude, the mixture is set relatively rich and is leaned at the higher altitudes, where the air is less dense. During a continuous climb, where a large amount of power is required, the pilot will also set the mixture on the rich side in order to provide better cooling. The richer the mixture, the cooler the exhaust gases will be. Running too rich, however, can result in a loss of power and premature spark plug fouling.
Therefore, many airplanes are equipped with an exhaust temperature (EGT) gage that allows the pilot to set the mixture control more accurately. Carbureted aircraft engines, as opposed to fuel-injected engines, have a carburetor heat control. In the “on” position, this control provides heated air to the carburetor in order to avoid the build up of ice in venture. Since the air expands in the carburetor throat, the temperature in this region can be below freezing even when the outside air temperature is above freezing. If a pilot is flying through rain or heavy clouds at temperature close to freezing, the pilot can experience carburetor icing with an attendant loss of power unless the pilot pulls on the carburetor heat.
An aircraft engine is operated with primary reference to two gages: the tachometer (which indicates the engine rpm), and the manifold pressure gage (which measures the absolute pressure within the intake manifold). These two quantities, at a given density altitude, determine the engine power.
Aircraft spend the vast majority of their time travelling at high speed. This allows an aircraft engine to be air cooled, as opposed to requiring a radiator. With the absence of a radiator, aircraft engines can boast lower weight and less complexity. The amount of air flow an engine receives is usually carefully designed according to expected speed and altitude of the aircraft in order to maintain the engine at the optimal temperature.
Aircraft operate at higher altitudes where the air is less dense than at ground level. As engines need oxygen to burn fuel, a forced induction system such as turbocharger or supercharger is especially appropriate for aircraft use. This does bring along the usual drawbacks of additional cost, weight and complexity.

10. Propeller Aircraft Very efficient for low speed flight.
Lower load capacity compared to similar sized jet powered aircraft.
Consumes less fuel, thus cheaper and much more economic than jets.
Quiet, but fly at lower speeds.
The best option for people who need to transport a few passengers and/or small amounts of cargo.
Best choice for pilots who wish to own their own aircraft.
Propellers are not used on high speed aircraft.

11. 1941- Today Jet Engines Era

12. Heinkel He-178(1939): 1st jet engine aircraft
Jet Aircraft History
1931: 1st turbojet engine designed by Sir Frank Whittle
1939: The 1st jet aircraft (Heinkel He 178) was developed in England and Germany
1943: The first jet fighter aircraft, Messerschmitt Me 262 went into service in the German Luftwaffe.
Heinkel He-178(1939): 1st jet engine aircraft

13. Jet Engines History Dr. Hans von Ohain designer of turbojet engine
Used for Lockheed SR71 Blackbird
Dr. Hans von Ohain
designer of turbojet engine
Fastest in 1989
Now retired

14. History of Aircraft Propulsion
1944 (After World War 2)-Today :
Airplanes used jet engines to generate thrust.
Jet engines also referred to as Gas Turbine Engines.
Various types (turbo-jet, turbo-prop, turbo-shaft, turbo-fan , ramjet, scramjet)
Messerschmitt Me-262 : 1st operational jet-powered aircraft
German V-1 bomb (pulse jet engine): 1st application for military purposes.
Bell P-59: 1st American aircraft
MiG-15: 1st Soviet jet aircraft.

15. Jet Aircraft
Jet aircraft make use of turbines for the creation of thrust.
Consumes more fuel but provide much more thrust than a piston engine.
Fly faster than propeller driven aircraft.
Greater weight capacity
Example: Airbus A340 and Boeing 777, can carry hundreds of passengers and several tons of cargo, and are able to travel for distances up to 13 thousand kilometers.
Noisy, this makes jet aircraft a source of noise pollution.

16. Turbo-jet Engine
A turbojet is a type of gas turbine engine that was originally developed for military fighters during World War II.
A turbojet is the simplest of all aircraft gas turbines.
It features a compressor to draw air in and compress it, a combustion section which adds fuel and ignites it, one or more turbines that extract power from the expanding exhaust gases to drive the compressor, and an exhaust nozzle which accelerates the exhaust out the back of the engine to create thrust.

17. Newton's 3rd law
The theory of jet propulsion is based on the Newton’s third Law, which state that For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
When the jet engine is operating, it draws a lot of air from the front and after air-fuel burns the gas ejects at high speed.
During this process, the engine applies force to the gas and lets the gas accelerate in the backward direction and in the meantime, the gas also gives the engine a reactive force to push the aircraft to move forward.

18. Turbo-jet Engine
Thrust
Newton's 3rd law: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This is called thrust.
Inlet- inlet is the opening at the front of engine, it allows the outside air to enter the engine.
Compressor – compressor is made up of fans with many blades, it compress the air and raises the pressure & temperature of the air, the compressed air then is delivered to the burner.
Burner – Burning process occur here. Fuel is sprayed to the compressed air .The mixture of the fuel + air will be burned. The results is heated gas with high energy, high pressure and high temperature.
Turbine- turbine used some of the heated gas energy to turn the compressor . This energy is transferred through the shaft.
Nozzle- The balance of heated gas energy exits through the nozzle at very high speed. This causes thrust.
As the jets of gas shoot backward, the engine and the aircraft are thrust forward. (Newton 3rd Law)

19. Turbojet Engine

20. Turbojet Engine
Cross section of turbojet engine

21. Turbo-prop Engine The propeller located at the front of engine
The propeller converts the power developed by the engine
into thrust as efficiently as possible under all operating conditions.
These aircraft are popular with commuter and regional airlines, as they tend to be more economical on shorter journeys.
Hercules-1 C130

22. Turbo-prop Engine
PC-7 & PC-7 MkII 
CN M
C-130H
Jetstream 32

23. Turbo-fan Engine
Similar to the turboprop, except a fan replaces the turboprop propeller.
Larger fan at the front provides thrust in the same way as a propeller.
The turbofan engine has a front fan, which runs at the same speed as the compressor and fan turbine located at the back to drive the fan.
Most modern airliners use turbofan engines because of they can produce high thrust, lower fuel consumption and low engine- noise.
located to the rear of the compressor drive turbine may
also drive the fan.
The fan draws in more air than the compressor of a
turbojet engine because of the larger area of the inlet.
Because the larger amount of air is compressed and
accelerated by the fan, the air completely bypasses the
burner and turbine sections of the engine and exits
through the fan exit ducts. Since the air is not heated by
burning fuel to obtain thrust, the turbofan engine has
The difference between the two
engines is the airflow. The fan is inside a cowling, and as a result the airflow through the fan is unaffected by the aircraft's speed. This increase the efficiency.
lower fuel consumption. To develop thrust, the turbofan
engine accelerates a large amount of air at a relatively
lowvelocity, which improves its propulsion efficiency.
Compared to the turbojet, the turbofan engine has a
low engine noise level. The low noise level results from
the lower gas velocity as it exits the engine tailpipe.
One reason for the decreased velocity is an additional
turbine stage in the engine. This additional turbine
stage extracts power from the exhaust gases to drive the
fan.
The aircraft powered by a turbofan engine has a
shorter takeoff distance and produces more thrust
during climb than a turbojet of approximately the same
size. This extra thrust allows the turbofan aircraft to
take off at a much higher gross weight.

24. Turbo-fan Engine

25. Pratt & Whitney F100 turbofan engine for the F-15 Eagle and the F-16 Falcon

26. Ramjet & Scramjet
Ramjet & Scramjet aircraft are in the experimental stage.

27. Question?
What is the different between piston aircraft engine and car engine?
What is the different between a propeller aircraft and jet aircraft?