Enter The Jet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Near the end of WWII the Germans were still a bit ahead of us in rocket technology, and this had spread to include them experimenting with similar propulsion on airplanes. The final form of this was the Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe, the world's first operational turbojet aircraft. First flown under jet power on July 18, 1942, it proved much faster than conventional airplanes. Fortunately for the world it was too late to help them, and material and fuel shortages as well as an Allied bombing raid that took out most of them prevented them from seeing much action. But this was the start of a new era in aircraft.