Magyar News, 1999. szeptember-2000. augusztus (10. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1999-11-01 / 3. szám
The “Árpád Sinautó ” (Gyula Balogh Collection) where a few days before heading home, he was killed in a take-off crash) He was perfectly capable of understanding the military and commercial importance of the Jendrassik turbine and it is quite conceivable that he was willing to serve as a gobetween for Jendrassik. If he indeed did so, he should have had an easy job: the Regent considered his elder son a “genius” and loved him very much. After the 100 Hp machine was successfully tested, the next step was a 300 Hp engine: also a success. Jendrassik considered the exploratory phase of the project completed and decided that the next task would be the first practical application: a 1000 Hp engine to serve as the power plant for a propeller driven (so-called turboprop) fighter plane of Hungarian design. By then, World War II was on and the project became one of prime importance for national defense. What happened then, gives a fascinating insight into the paper thin difference which separates success from failure in the field of advanced technical development activity. Seemingly, everything went like clockwork for Jendrassik so far: he translated the theoretical fundamentals described in his patents flawlessly and at amazing speed into hardware (he had the dubious “distinction” that all his American patents had to be confiscated by the U.S. Government as the property of an enemy alien so that jet engine development could legally proceed in America); a 3:1 enlargement of an existing design is considered a step quite conservative, so the 1000 Hp turboprop looked like “a piece o'cake” It was not to be. The part of the gas turbine where the fuel bums, is called the combustion chamber. In the 100 and the 300 Hp machines the combustion chamber was a cylinder; it did not fit too well with the rest of the new machine which had an annular cross section. In order to accommodate the larger fuel flow of the 1000 Hp machine, either more than one cylinder had to be used or a combustion chamber of annular shape became necessary. Jendrassik decided to get rid of the cylinders. When the 1000 Hp machine was started, it could hardly drive itself, let alone deliver any fraction of the expected 1000 Hp. Investigation showed that the majority of the fuel passed the elegant annular chamber unbumed and left in the form of oil droplets through the stack. For the next several years, Jendrassik and his colleagues tried to improve the efficiency of combustion until the summer of 1944 arrived and the 8th U.S. Air Force made a shambles of the Ganz factory during a giant air raid. The maximum performance the nominally 1000 Hp engine delivered, was only 400 Hp. Little did Jendrassik know that it would take 10 years and easily a hundred million dollars till the U.S. was successful in the development of an acceptable annular combustion chamber; even today, there are gas turbines which have up to 16 cylindrical combustion chambers. When the war was over, the Horthy regime disappeared, Hungary became a republic and - under Soviet military occupation. One of the Soviet demands involved the Ganz factory. According to the Paris peace treaty of 1946, Hungary was obligated to pay a huge reparation to the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, a large portion of the reparation had to be paid in heavy industrial products. In order to prevent the three largest industrial enterprises to profit from the delivery of the reparations (paid by the Hungarian government), the three companies were put under a government authority, ostensibly for the duration of the reparation payments. The General Manager of the Ganz factory - who represented a large bank which owned the majority of the stocks - was replaced by György Jendrassik! Jendrassik's short tenure as head of the company, was very successful. The war damages were quickly repaired and, by 1948, the Argentinians showed up: they wanted more Árpád trains. The National Academy of Sciences elected Jendrassik to become a member; one of the few engineers, to receive this honor. However, new storm clouds rose on the horizon. During the first six months of 1948, in all the Soviet dominated countries of Eastern Europe, the Communist parties took off the mask of moderation and - getting rid in one form or another of their hapless coalition partners - converted the coalition governments into Communist dictatorships. In Hungary, the change took place in March 1948; Jendrassik happened to be in Buenos Aires at the time negotiating a big contract with Argentina on “Árpád” trains. The news from home forced Jendrassik to make a decision which was probably one of the few occasions when his freedom of action was extremely narrow. Should he return to live under the new regime? Any technical executive of Jendrassik's age clearly remembered the “Engineer Trials” of the late 20-s and 30-s when dozens of the technical leaders of the Soviet Union “confessed” to “sabotage” and were mercilessly executed. Or should he return, use his enormous prestige and perhaps mitigate the disasters that surely would occur? Should he face the prospect of never seeing Hungary again? Jendrassik's health was far from perfect: he had a heart condition and living in exile in a foreign land, forced to speak a foreign language is a sure prescription to an abbreviated lifespan. He did not have much time and he made up his mind: he requested a visa to England where his predecessor and former chief, the previous General Manager of Ganz, Ferenc Klein established himself after World War II. It turned out that Klein was participating in setting up an important enterprise, called “Power Jets”. This company was the center of British jet engine development and later rocket design. The last seven years of Jendrassik's life were spent in rocket engineering but no details of his activities were available for the purposes of this article. Jendrassik died in 1954; he was only 56 years old. Ferenc Klein wrote a nice obituary in the leading British technical magazine "Engineering". What can we learn from the career of this remarkable man? It is a wide spread opinion in the United States (and elsewhere as well) that engineers are “bottom line poison” they are enamored with the beauty of what they are doing but are only vaguely aware of the importance of the marketplace; if they are not carefully watched by the “beancounters", they will bankrupt the company. It is true that there are engineers who have little understanding and/or interest in the financial aspects of their work, but there are some who are quite adept in money matters. Jendrassik's successful career illustrates how valuable these people are. Another conclusion: large population, huge landmass, an abundance of natural resources are nice to have for a nation but the most important national asset of any nation, large or small, is the intellect and character of its sons and daughters: the smallest nations can be fully competitive with the largest ones. A final, disturbing note: the fate of Jendrassik shows that - when everything is said and done - there is one thing where the smallness of one's country overwhelms even a man of Jendrassik's stature: even he could do nothing about the fact that fate deposited Hungary onto the stomping ground of nations many times its size. Géza Vermes Page 5
