Paul Schmidt (26 March 1898 18 October 1976) was a German aerospace engineer and inventor based in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

, mainly known for his contribution to the development of the

pulsejet 300px, Diagram of a pulsejet A pulsejet engine (or pulse jet) is a type of jet engine in which combustion occurs in pulses. A pulsejet engine can be made with few or no moving parts, and is capable of running statically (i.e. it does not need ...

Life

Schmidt was born on 26 March 1898 in

Hagen Hagen () is the Largest cities in Germany, 41st-largest List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany. The municipality is located in the States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located on the south eastern edge of the R ...

, Westphalia. His early work involved efforts to improve the performance and efficiency of aircraft power plants. In 1928 he decided the most promising technology was intermittent thrust generation. With meagre resources, he worked on developing pulse engines. German ministry officials visited him in the early 1930s to make an assessment of his work. He initially started pushing the concept of the pulse engine in 1931. Patent DE523655 contained the first sketch of an impulsive duct. In the mid 1930s, the

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

was interested in applying Schmidt's work . His development of the Pulse Engine was referred to as the Schmidtrohr (Schmidttube) and he obtained both German and British patents for it. He used the term "pulsating incineration" in reference to the re-ignition principles. While his early pulse engines performed poorly, he lost control of the project, though still remained involved. However, the project got more attention and government funding, following the start of the war. The

supported the project, and Schmidt's pulse engine, with extra development, was used to power the

V-1 flying bomb The V-1 flying bomb (german: Vergeltungswaffe 1 "Vengeance Weapon 1") was an early cruise missile. Its official Ministry of Aviation (Nazi Germany), Reich Aviation Ministry () designation was Fi 103. It was also known to the Allies as the buz ...

, the first cruise missile. The engine was based on a 3.6 metre long tube resonator. It had a valve matrix at its entrance, and a laval nozzle at its exit, and used it for periodic re-ignition (at about 50 Hz).Peter O. K. Krehl "History of Shock Waves, Explosions and Impact" Schmidt died on 18 October 1976 in Munich.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schmidt, Paul German aerospace engineers 20th-century German inventors 1898 births 1976 deaths People from Hagen Engineers from Munich