- Start
- Aug 27, 193990% CONFIDENCEfrom the source
The Heinkel He 178 Makes the First Turbojet-Powered Flight
- The maiden flight was on 27 August 1939, days before Germany invaded Poland, and lasted only six minutes.[1]
- It was preceded by a short hop by the same aircraft three days earlier.[1]
- Warsitz could not retract the undercarriage and lost altitude by side-slipping to land, almost ending in disaster before recovering.[1]
- Heinkel pursued the aircraft as a private venture, independent of the German authorities and the Luftwaffe, to test Hans von Ohain’s jet propulsion concept after the HeS 1 engine ran in September 1937.[1]
- Its limited performance – a maximum 598 km/h and small endurance – failed to impress Ernst Udet and Erhard Milch, who attended a demonstration flight.[1]
Notable features
- The He 178 was the world’s first aircraft to fly using the thrust from a turbojet engine.[1]
- It was designed around von Ohain’s third engine design, the HeS 3 turbojet, which burned diesel fuel or gasoline and gave 4.41 kN (992 lbf) of thrust.[1]
- A compact aircraft with a mainly metal fuselage, it took in air through the nose to the engine in the central fuselage and had high-mounted wooden wings with the Günter brothers’ elliptical trailing edge; the tailwheel undercarriage was meant to retract but stayed fixed down throughout the trials.[1]
- It was 7.48 m (24 ft 6 in) long with a 7.2 m (23 ft 7 in) wingspan, weighed 1,620 kg (3,571 lb) empty and 1,998 kg (4,405 lb) at maximum take-off, and had a range of 200 km (120 mi).[1]
References 285% CONFIDENCE
The first entry is always the pin's source. Overall confidence is a weighted average of how firmly each reference supports the start and end times used above; a reference counts half as much for every 180 days older than the newest.
- [1]90%en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinkel_He_178en.wikipedia.org· Posted Sep 21, 2026· Starts Aug 27, 1939 ✓· 50% of score
Happened as dated, per en.wikipedia.org: "On 27 August 1939, the He 178 V1, the first prototype, performed its maiden flight, piloted by Erich Warsitz."
- [2]80%27 August 1939thisdayinaviation.com· Added Sep 21, 2026· 50% of score
A dated aviation-history account of the flight, naming Flugkapitän Erich Warsitz, the two short circuits of the airfield, and the HeS 3B turbojet designed by Hans von Ohain.[1]
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