Hans von Ohain; German Inventor of Jet Engine

Hans Joachim Pabst von Ohain, 86, retired chief scientist of the Aero Propulsion Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio and German inventor of the jet engine. Von Ohain and Frank Whittle, a British engineer, were working on development of the engine simultaneously in the 1930s and ‘40s and Von Ohain’s was the first to fly in 1939. The British version did not fly until 1941, although neither jet seriously influenced the course of World War II. Whittle and Ohain moved to the United States and were awarded the Charles Stark Draper Prize by the National Academy of Engineering. Whittle died in 1996. In Melbourne, Fla., on Friday.