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Key facts
- Type
- Experimental prototype / Pioneer aircraft
- Manufacturer
- Heinkel
- First flight
- 27 August 1939
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Subclass of
- experimental aircraft
- Operator
- Luftwaffe
- Country of origin
- German Reich
- Developer
- Heinkel
- Manufacturer
- Heinkel
- Designed by
- Ernst Heinkel
- Image
- Heinkel He 178 050602-F-1234P-002.jpg
Show 5 more facts
- Commons category
- Heinkel He 178
- Commons gallery
- Heinkel He 178
- total produced
- 2
- first flight
- 1939-08-27
- service entry
- 1939-00-00
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~11 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The Heinkel He 178 was an experimental aircraft designed and produced by the German aircraft manufacturer Heinkel. It was the world's first aircraft to fly using the thrust from a turbojet engine.
The He 178 was developed to test the jet propulsion concept devised by the German engineer Hans von Ohain during the mid-1930s. Having secured the industrial support of Ernst Heinkel, von Ohain was able to demonstrate a working turbojet engine, the Heinkel HeS 1, in September 1937. Heinkel pursued development of the He 178 as a private venture, independent of the German authorities and the Luftwaffe, keeping the aircraft relatively secret for much of its development. Heinkel was keen not only to demonstrate the capabilities of aviation gas turbines, but had a separate emphasis on developing high-speed flight technologies.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Heinkel He 178” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.