Neil Burgess Jr. (August 2, 1918 – April 20, 1997) was a leading American aircraft propulsion engineer and designer. Working at

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...

with

Gerhard Neumann Gerhard Neumann (October 8, 1917 – November 2, 1997) was an American aviation engineer and executive for General Electric's aircraft engine division (which today is called GE Aviation). Born and raised in Germany, he went to China shortly be ...

, they won the 1958

Collier Trophy The Robert J. Collier Trophy is an annual aviation award administered by the U.S. National Aeronautic Association (NAA), presented to those who have made "the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America, with respect to im ...

for their work on the

General Electric J79 The General Electric J79 is an axial-flow turbojet engine built for use in a variety of fighter and bomber aircraft and a supersonic cruise missile. The J79 was produced by General Electric Aircraft Engines in the United States, and under li ...

turbojet engine which powered the

Lockheed F-104 Starfighter The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is an American single-engine, supersonic air superiority fighter which was extensively deployed as a fighter-bomber during the Cold War. Created as a day fighter by Lockheed as one of the " Century Series" o ...

Biography

Born Neil Burgess Junior on 2 August 1918 to Roy Neil Burgess and Lucia L. Payne of Melrose, Massachusetts. He started working for GE in the 1930s. Burgess earned a Masters in electrical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1939. In 1943 he married Evelyn Ruth Lent (1922-2000) and they had five children: Cynthia, Mark Neil, Susan, Nancy, and Wendy. In 1983, he retired as General Electric vice president for commercial engine marketing serving almost 50 years in engineering and marketing. Burgess died 20 April 1997 in Cincinnati, Ohio.

J79

The J79 and the F-104 were developed concurrently. The J79 was the first engine to exceed

Mach Mach may refer to Mach number, the speed of sound in local conditions. It may also refer to: Computing * Mach (kernel), an operating systems kernel technology * ATI Mach, a 2D GPU chip by ATI * GNU Mach, the microkernel upon which GNU Hurd is bas ...

2, Burgess and Neumann solved the problems of rapid acceleration without

compressor stall A compressor stall is a local disruption of the airflow in the compressor of a gas turbine or turbocharger. A stall that results in the complete disruption of the airflow through the compressor is referred to as a compressor surge. The severity of ...

while maintaining reliability and lower fuel consumption over a wide speed range. They reduced compressor stalls by developing the J79's revolutionary "variable

stator The stator is the stationary part of a rotary system, found in electric generators, electric motors, sirens, mud motors or biological rotors. Energy flows through a stator to or from the rotating component of the system. In an electric ...

" that fine-tunes air compression at the engine inlet. The variable stator worked so well that engineers did not believe that engine test cell performance readings. The J79 started test runs in June 1954 and flew on the F-104 maiden flight on 17 February 1956. The first J79 allowed the F-104 to achieve Mach 1.1 in full power and Mach 2.2 with

afterburner An afterburner (or reheat in British English) is an additional combustion component used on some jet engines, mostly those on military supersonic aircraft. Its purpose is to increase thrust, usually for supersonic flight, takeoff, and combat ...

Collier Trophy

Awarded in 1958 to the USAF and industry team's co-development of the F-104 airframe by

Clarence "Kelly" Johnson Clarence Leonard "Kelly" Johnson (February 27, 1910 – December 21, 1990) was an American aeronautical and systems engineer. He is recognized for his contributions to a series of important aircraft designs, most notably the Lockheed U-2 an ...

Lockheed Lockheed (originally spelled Loughead) may refer to: Brands and enterprises * Lockheed Corporation, a former American aircraft manufacturer * Lockheed Martin, formed in 1995 by the merger of Lockheed Corporation and Martin Marietta ** Lockheed Mar ...

Skunk Works Skunk Works is an official pseudonym for Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Programs (ADP), formerly called Lockheed Advanced Development Projects. It is responsible for a number of aircraft designs, beginning with the Lockheed P-38 Lightn ...

and

J79 The General Electric J79 is an axial-flow turbojet engine built for use in a variety of fighter and bomber aircraft and a supersonic cruise missile. The J79 was produced by General Electric Aircraft Engines in the United States, and under lic ...

engine by Neil Burgess and

of General Electric. Also Maj Howard C Johnson, USAF, for world landplane altitude record and Capt Walter W Irwin, USAF, for world landplane speed record both in the F-104 with the J79 engine. Using the F-104, Major Johnson established a world land plane altitude record of 91,243 Feet; and Captain Irwin, established a world straightaway speed record of 1,404.09 miles per hour.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Burgess, Neil 1918 births 1997 deaths MIT School of Engineering alumni Collier Trophy recipients Businesspeople from Massachusetts American aerospace engineers Aviation inventors American manufacturing businesspeople 1958 in aviation American inventors Aviation history of the United States Aviation pioneers 20th-century American businesspeople