the jet plane

talking to my grandad, i found out that maybe nazi germany was not the first country to make the jet plane. in 1942, he was stationed in england and noticed that some planes were flying extremly fast over england. all of the planes bore the RAF symbol on the bottom of their wings. later he relized that they were called jets. three years later, the nazis brought out the jet fighters to turn the war, but ultimitly, it was too late.

The jet aircraft your grandad probably saw was the Gloster E28/39 aircraft powered by one W.1 turbojet engine. It was the creation of British entrepreneur, Sir Frank Whittle. The W.1 turbojet was designed to produce a static thrust of 1,240 lbs at 17,750 rpm.

In June 1939, the Air Ministry was finally convinced of the merits of Whittle' invention. They then decided to have a flight engine built (the W.1) and have the Gloster Aircraft Company build an experimental airplane - the E28/39.

The aircraft was completed in March 1941 and the engine in May 1941. First flight of the E28/39 occured on the evening of May 15, 1941.


Below: Frank Whittle's Gloster E28/39 jet aircraft,
first flown in May 1941.




Below: The first jet aircraft was the German made
Heinkel He-178 which flew for the first time on
August 27, 1939.

thats really cool, thanks for the input