Rolls Royce Nene jet engine, one of the earliest jet engines, the Soviets used them in their MiG-15s

by Wg Cdr SS Randhawa (Retd)

Once again ‘Make in India’ —something we saw and left in the ’60s — is being talked about in the media. We have world-class defence production infrastructures. These units worked for British forces during the World Wars, and are now under the control of the Indian Industries Board. In spite of that, we look forward to other countries for weapons. Where have we failed? In my opinion, we lack in confidence. An example: HAL Bangalore, under the supervision of Kurt Tank, produced the first jet fighter of India — rather of Asia — in 1961. The fighter had strong metal airframe structure but lacked power. The Orpheos engine needed upgrading or replacement. We lacked confidence and political will to pursue forward. The world was against us because of the Pokhran test, but alternatives could have been explored. Giving up was not the solution. The countries way behind us raced past us.

In the fifties, Air Force Station, Kanpur, was tasked with producing transport aircraft and jet engines. Avro was produced at Kanpur by IAF’s Aircraft Manufacturing Depot. It served the country for long, and then there was no more production of the type. Interestingly, 4 BRD did not exist then. The establishment was GTRC — Gas Turbine Research Centre — the one that is working as GTRE at Bangalore.

The GTRC was commanded by Wg Cdr Roy Chaudhry and Flt Lt Srinivasan was the project in-charge. I was part of the testing team. We adopted the Goblin test bed for the purpose. The then defence minister, Krishna Menon, pressed the starting button. The GTRC was shifted to Bangalore and the project went into limbo thereafter. The question is: Why?

Jet theory is not a big deal. My grandmother knew of it long before the inventors used it for making an engine. She burnt twigs in Tandoor to raise the air temperature for baking Rotis. Technologists use kerosene to do this to make the air hot for producing thrust. The tremendous hot air pressure swirls the turbine and the turbine pushes the air back. The reaction produces forward thrust. The system is called turbo jet.

The first jet engine was made in 1920. Frank Whittle, a RAF technocrat, published a paper on jet engine that was probably read by German scientist Hans Von Ohain. Both started working on it. Jet engine was patented in the name of Whittle in 1930. He produced the prototype in 1937, but Von Ohain was one-up. He produced the functional jet engine in 1938 and used it on Jet Fighter He 168 (German Swallow). The jet fighter was introduced in the war in 1945.

There is another interesting example. British company Rolls Royce produced Nene jet engines. It did not find them up to the mark and sold 40 of these engines to the Soviet Union as scrap. The Russians worked on them, improved and used them on their MiG-15. In Korean War, these were the most successful jet fighters against B-29 USAF bombers.

We must fail and go ahead in defence production.