1939 · Engineering · Invention
Engine-exhaust silencer
Henri Coandă
The idea
Coandă received a US patent for an engine silencer in 1939.
The invention applies shaped passages to exhaust gases. Patent US2173549 preserves the proposed device, its drawings and Coandă’s explanation of how the silencer is arranged.
A life behind the work · 1886–1972
Henri Coandă
Born in Bucharest, Coandă spent part of his childhood in Paris before attending military school in Romania. Engineering studies took him through several European cities and into the first graduating class of Paris’s aeronautical school in 1910. That year he exhibited an experimental aircraft with an unusual propulsion system. He later designed aircraft for Bristol and pursued inventions involving fluid flow, prefabricated buildings and water treatment. His claimed 1910 jet flight remains disputed. Returning to Romania in 1970, he continued working until his final years.
Biography & sources ↗