>From Wikipedia: "The first rocket-powered aircraft was the Lippisch Ente, flown in 1928. The Russian Bereznyak-Isayev BI-1 flew in 1942. The Heinkel He 176 was the world¹s first aircraft to be propelled solely by a liquid-fuelled rocket, making its first powered flight on 20 June 1939 with Erich Warsitz at the controls."
"Heinkel had recently purchased the Hirth engine company, and Ohain and his master machinist Max Hahn were set up there as a new division of the Hirth company. They had their first HeS 1 centrifugal engine running by September 1937. Unlike Whittle's design, Ohain used hydrogen as fuel, supplied under external pressure. Their subsequent designs culminated in the gasoline-fuelled HeS 3 of 1,100 lbf (5 kN), which was fitted to Heinkel's simple and compact He 178 airframe and flown by Erich Warsitz in the early morning of August 27, 1939, from Rostock-Marienehe aerodrome, an impressively short time for development. The He 178 was the world's first jet plane." On 12/4/10 21:54, "Daniel Arditi" <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Really ? Was the Ercoupe the first jet powered plane on the planet ? I never > heard that. Fantastic :-) > > Daniel [email protected] www.ercoupe.co.uk Alon A2 Aircoupe A-188 G-HARY --
