Anselm Franz

Anselm Franz was an Austrian-American jet engine engineer, born in Schladming, Austria, in 1900, who died in 1994. He studied mechanical engineering at the Graz University of Technology and earned a doctorate at the University of Berlin, then worked as a design engineer in Berlin on hydraulic torque converters. After joining Junkers in 1936 he handled supercharger and turbocharger development, and from 1939 he led the small team that built the Jumo 004, the first mass-produced turbojet. Franz chose an axial compressor and a conservative design so that a working engine would arrive quickly, and the Jumo 004 went on to power the majority of the Luftwaffe jet designs, including the Messerschmitt Me 262. After the Second World War he moved to the United States under Operation Paperclip and in 1951 set up the turbine division at Lycoming in Stratford, Connecticut, where his team produced the T53 and T55 turboshaft engines and the AGT-1500 tank engine. He retired from Lycoming in 1968 as a vice president.