The German Air Ministry witnessed the world’s first jet-powered flight

Posted in Aerospace, Aviation, Historical articles, History, World War 2 on Thursday, 9 May 2013

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This edited article about aviation originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 248 published on 15 October 1966.

Early jet flight, picture, image, illustration

Heinkel HE 178 (top left), Gloster Whittle E28/39 (top right) by Wilf Hardy

On 27th August 1939, on a remote airfield in Germany, a strange, high-pitched whining sound rose above the familiar roar of piston-engined aircraft being tuned up for the day’s test flights. A tiny, shoulder-winged monoplane bumped its way out on to the runway, with a haze of heat coming from an opening in its tail.

The whine rose to a full-throated roar as the plane gathered speed. It lifted a few feet from the runway, flying in a straight line, and then its pilot brought it down again. The Heinkel HE 178 had made the world’s first turbo-jet powered flight.

Three days later, the slim little machine was in the air again, making fast circuits of the airfield. This time the engine gave trouble and the pilot had to make a forced landing, but three months later, the Heinkel jet made a perfect demonstration flight before officials of the German Air Ministry. After that, development began in earnest.

In design, HE 178 was very similar to the British Gloster E28/39, which did not fly until nearly two years later, powered by Sir Frank Whittle’s jet engine. It had a shoulder-mounted wing of wooden construction attached to a duralumin fuselage, and the Heinkel-Hirth HeS 3B turbo-jet engine developed 1,100 lb. of thrust – low by today’s standards.

The Heinkel reached a top speed of 435 m.p.h. and had a wing-span of 26 feet 8 inches.

The first British RAF turbo-jet to become fully operational, was the twin-engined Gloster Meteor.

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