Advent of the gas turbine engine-commonly called a jet engine—ushered in a revolution in aviation almost as vital as the Wright Brothers’ first flight.

If necessity be the mother of invention, little wonder then that the jet engine to power the military fighter aircraft got invented around World War II. In their quest to fly higher and faster, designers of fighter aircraft hit a dead end with the propeller- driven piston-engined aircraft whose speed remained restricted in the vicinity of 500 mph. It was realised that if the aircraft performance were ever to increase, a way would have to be found to radically improve the design of the piston engine—or, alternatively, a wholly new type of power plant would have to be developed. The latter proved to be an easier option with the advent of the gas turbine engine—commonly called a jet engine—which, as the events unfolded, would usher in a revolution in aviation almost as vital as the Wright Brothers’ first flight.

Earlier attempts at jet engines gave birth to hybrid designs in which an external power source was used to first compress the air, which was then mixed with fuel and burned to produce jet thrust. However, the key to a practical jet engine was the gas turbine, which was used to extract energy from the engine itself to drive the compressor. While some pioneering work was reported in the early 20th century, it was the First World War and the looming clouds of the Second World War that lent momentum to the research work in this field. In 1928, RAF College Cranwell cadet Frank Whittle formally submitted his ideas for a turbojet which he developed further to bring out a patent.

Whittle failed to enthuse the British government about his invention, and development continued at a slow pace. However, across the English Channel a different story was being enacted in Germany. Hans von Ohain, working on a similar contraption, was introduced to Ernst Heinkel, one of the most notable aircraft industrialists of the day, who immediately saw promise in the design. Under Heinkel’s patronage, Ohain’s efforts ultimately culminated in the design of HeS 3 (5 kN) jet engine which was fitted to Heinkel’s simple and compact He 178 airframe and flown on August 27, 1939. The He 178 was the world’s first jet plane. Meanwhile, Whittle’s engine was starting to look useful. In 1941, in the thick of the Second World War, a flyable version of his engine called the W.1 (4 kN), was fitted on the Gloster E28/39 airframe specially built for it, and first flew on May 15 of the same year at RAF Cranwell.