Death of Hans von Ohain, Jet Engine Co-Inventor, Touches Colleagues at University of Dayton
The death of Hans von Ohain, who changed aviation history with the co invention of the jet engine, has saddened his colleagues at the University of Dayton who remember the soft-spoken engineer as an ingenious inventor and an inspirational educator who always had time for students.
Von Ohain, 86, died March 13 in Melbourne, Fla. Upon retirement in 1979 as chief scientist of both the Aerospace Research Laboratories and the Air Force Aero Propulsion Laboratory, he joined the University of Dayton, where he worked part-time as a senior research engineer in the University of Dayton Research Institute and a professor of mechanical engineering until 1992. He received an honorary degree from UD in 1988.
"He was a very inspirational teacher, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels," said Dale Whitford, retired director of UDRI's aerospace mechanics division and a personal friend. "He was very, very interested in helping young people with their education. His door was always open to them."
"I think his greatest contribution to UD was his continued work to develop more fuel-efficient jet engines and his contribution to the education of graduate students," said Gordon Sargent, vice president for graduate studies and research, dean of the Graduate School and director of UDRI.
The Charles Stark Draper medal, a prestigious award sometimes referred to as the Nobel Prize of engineering, hangs in Sargent's office. Von Ohain and Sir Frank Whittle, who worked independently to develop the jet engine, received the medal and a $375,000 prize in 1991 from the National Academy of Engineering. A replica hangs in UD's School of Engineering as part of a display honoring von Ohain.
John Minardi, who holds three patents with von Ohain, called him "a great man and a wonderful person who was very inventive." Minardi, who retired from UD in 1990 as a professor of mechanical engineering and a UDRI senior research engineer, worked with von Ohain on several inventions, including a jet engine with no moving parts, an ejector turbine and a mono-rotor engine.
"He was able to spot the strengths of the people he worked with and compliment them on the abilities they might have," Minardi remembered. "He could bring things down to their essence and convey it to students."
In a 1989 interview for Dimensions, the University of Dayton's alumni tabloid, von Ohain recalled his first ride in an airplane -- an adventure that made him want to develop a less stressful, smoother way to fly. "The propellers made a horrendous noise. The airplane rattled because it had piston engines. You couldn't even talk to your neighbor. It was not," he said with a wry smile, "as romantic as I thought it would be. . . .I thought flying should be elegant."
Then a 21-year-old graduate student in physics at Germany's University of Goettingen, von Ohain envisioned a propellerless plane that could fly higher, faster and smoother by using a gas turbine engine rather than pistons. He designed the engine used in the first turbojet-powered flight on Aug. 27, 1939, near Warnemunde, Germany, on the Baltic Coast. He was just 27 years old, and it was only days before the start of World War II.
Whittle, an engineer in England, took out the first patent on the concept and developed a small prototype that ran successfully in a laboratory in 1937. Whittle and von Ohain share honors for the invention of the jet engine.
March 14, 1998
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