"cv" was good enough to tell us about Hans von Ohain and Frank Whittle---jet engine pioneers.
But Henri Coanda (who crashed and burned on his first jet airplane flight in 1910) deserves extra mention.
I said he was all but forgotten, and that's true today--but further research shows he was highly honored for his work during his lifetime--not all of it on aeronautics, but building materials and oil storage as well.
Not only did he get the first jet into the air--though it's stretching it a bit to say he actually flew-- but he's responsible for many aerodynamic discoveries.
--Reverse thrust.
--Noise reduction by two different airflows.
--Extra thrust and lift by two airflows for useful extra lift on flaps-- and the theory later developed into the fuel-saving fanjet used today on most airliners.
--The air boundary layer on aircraft surfaces, first called the "Coanda Effect" on jet exhausts and later "laminar flow".
The P-51 Mustang and many WWII German aircraft made good use of laminar flow techniques. The idea was to disturb the flow of air over the "skin" as little as possible.
Laminar flow is why you can't blow all the dust off your car no matter how fast you go.
Coanda got a patent in 1934 for his "fluid flow" techniques that included some of the effects above.
He not only used wind tunnels, but went to direct tryouts of his aerodynamics by mounting models on a high-speed train for testing.
Coanda was technical director of Bristol Airplanes in England until 1914, then went to Dalauney-Belleville Airplanes in Saint Denis for a couple of years and designed three aircraft. He was design consultant for the well-known "Caravelle" airliner.
Coanda designed a flying-saucer looking aircraft in 1935, and told a technical conference in 1967 that:
My opinion is we should search for a completely different flying machine, based on other flying principles. I consider the aircraft of the future that which will take off vertically, fly as usual and land vertically. This flying machine should have no parts in movement...]
His 1910 jet airplane also had these innovations:
--wings made with steel leading edges instead of wood
--movable slats on the forward wing edge to increase lift
--the wing profile had a strong camber (curve)for lift
--the two wings were of different lengths and the upper wing was set ahead of the lower wing which was shorter.
This reduced the aerodynamic interference between the two surfaces.
This technique was later termed Sesquiplan and reinvented 10 years later where it was applied in Fokker, Brequet, and Poetz aircraft
--Gasoline and oil were stored in the upper wing, reducing the fuselage size and thus drag.
Quite a remarkable guy.
http://www.allstar.fiu.edu/aero/coanda.htm#Coanda-1910
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