* Astronomy

 71st anniversary of the first flight of the Gloster E28/39 jet aircraft

Sir Frank Whittles new invention was tested for the first time on May 15, 1941, when a Gloster E28/39 was fitted with the engine and took off from RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire.

The "turbojet", was invented in the 1940s, independently by Frank Whittle and Hans von Ohain. The first turbojet aircraft to fly was the Heinkel He 178 prototype of the German Air Force, the Luftwaffe, on August 27, 1939 in Rostock (Germany).
The first flight of a jet engined aircraft to come to popular attention was the Italian Caproni Campini N.1 motorjet prototype that flew on August 27, 1940. It was the first jet aircraft recognised by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (at the time the German He 178 program was still kept secret). Campini had proposed the motorjet in 1932.
The British experimental Gloster E.28/39 first took to the air on May 15, 1941, powered by Sir Frank Whittle's turbojet.
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