Anselm Franz
Anselm Franz (January 20, 1900—November 18, 1994) was a pioneering Austrian
Early life
Born in Schladming,
Junkers Aircraft
In 1936, he joined
development.Meanwhile
The program was set up later in 1939,[1] initially consisting of a very small team drawn from the supercharger division. Unlike the Heinkel designs, the Jumo would use an axial compressor, as opposed to the centrifugal compressor, in order to have a smaller frontal area. With that exception the design was otherwise very conservative, a series of six flame cans were used for combustion instead of a single annular burner, and the compression ratio was kept low at 3.14:1. Franz decided to focus on development time-to-market instead of performance in order to avoid having the program killed off if it didn't produce a working engine quickly.
The first testbed run of the experimental 004A took place in the spring of 1940, and had full speed runs in January 1941. The engine flew on an Messerschmitt Bf 110 on March 15, 1942,[1] and after a number of these A models were delivered, the Messerschmitt Me 262 first took to the air with the 004A on July 18. The RLM was finally interested in the design, and ordered 80 production quality versions. The new 004B version included a number of changes, but ran into difficulty with vibration and fatigue problems that greatly delayed its service entry. It was not until the spring of 1944 that the engine was routinely lasting 50 hours and could enter full production. It nevertheless went on to power the majority of the Luftwaffe's jet designs.
Operation Paperclip
After the war Franz moved to the United States as part of Operation Paperclip,[5] and worked for a time with the USAF on engine-related issues at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.[1] He was known to still wear his long leather, military coat from Nazi Germany in the United States, with the Nazi insignia removed.[6]
In 1951 he was hired to set up a new turbine division at
.Retirement
Franz retired from Lycoming in 1968, having risen to vice president and assistant general manager.[7] He died in 1994, holder of the U.S. Army Outstanding Civilian Service Medal, the R. Tom Sawyer Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Austrian Decoration of Honour for Science and Art,[8] and the Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold with Star for Services to the Republic of Austria.[9][4]
References
- ^ ISBN 978-1-57607-345-2.
- ISSN 1070-874X. Archived from the originalon January 1, 2022. Retrieved January 1, 2022.
- ^ Endbericht der ExpertInnenkommission für Straßennamen Graz, Graz 2017, p. 3, 27.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-275-99355-9.
- ISBN 3-540-40645-X, 9783540406457.
- ISBN 978-0-595-30622-0.
- ^ Franz, Anselm. From Jets to Tanks - My Contribution to the Turbine Age. Stratford, Conn.: Avco Lycoming Stratford Division. p. 79.
- ^ List of holders of the Austrian Decoration of Honour and the Austrian Crosses of Honour for Science and Art on German Wikipedia.
- ^ List of holders of Austrian decorations of honour