Bolted motionless on a test stand, the little monster is not impressive. It has no coolly symmetrical propeller, no phalanx of cylinderheads, none of the hard geometrical grace of the conventional aircraft engine. Yet the unprepossessing turbojet engine has thrown the air designers into ecstatic confusion: nobody yet knows how fast the jet will enable man to fly, but the old speed ceilings are off. In their less guarded moments, sober designers talk of speeds so high that aircraft will glow like meteors.
The coming of the turbojet does not mean that the engine...
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