Jets bring in new era of air power

Spokesman Magazine, Jan, 2004 by Gary Null

Finally, in 1943 Lockheed and Northrup were let in on the secret and Lockheed was tasked to build a jet plane using the latest model British engine, called the Halford engine. Using the design for a jet plane, on which they had already been working, Lockheed had the plane built in 145 days. The XP-80 Shooting Star made its first flight at Muroc Dry Lake on January 8, 1944.

The plane was the first Army Air Force aircraft to achieve 500 mph in level flight. During the same year, General Electric produced its I-40 engine, which developed twice the power of the Halford engine. Work on engines continued past the end of the war and have been an on-going process ever since. At the end of the war, work was already underway to produce the B-47 bomber while improvements on fighter aircraft continued. Jet bombers soon became the mainstay of American aerial might.

After World War II, America was the only country with the resources and intact industrial base to achieve major advances in aircraft development. This was clear to everybody involved in jet design; and several of the major European designers, such as Mr. Campini and Dr. Von Ohain, moved to the United States in the 1940's to continue their work here.

Thus, while the United States was only the fourth country to get a jet aircraft into the air, by the 1950's it pulled ahead of the rest of the world in aircraft development, a position it maintains to the present day.

By Gary Null

AFTAC Historian

Patrick AFB, Fla.