#1 Jet of World War II

"Cub Driver" wrote in message
...

If either side were "lucky" it
was Germany, not the Allies, because the latter elected not to seriously
explore applications of jet-propulsion until some point in 1943.

This would come as a great surprise to Frank Whittle, the Gloster
company, and the Air Ministry, and even Hap Arnold, GE, and Bell in
the United States, all of whom were vigorously pursuing turbojet
fighters by the end of 1941. The Germans had a bit of an edge (and
they did take it more seriously before September 1939), but they
exploited the edge to better effect than the Allies did. Even today,
the Me-262 is a very impressive airplane.

Point well-taken, Cub Driver,...except...,that in comparison to the monies
involved in perfecting piston engines and airframes to which to fit them,
the Allies had not placed turbine propulsion on the front burner. Lockheed,
for example, was rebuffed when it approached the USAAC with its earliest
jet-fighter proposal (a stainless steel, cannon-amed twin-axial-flow
turbojet employing boundary-layer control and a front-mounted canard with
operating altitudes upwards of 50,000 ft and speed of about 625 mph or so).

Instead, Bell AC was awarded the first development contracts, and the result
was the P-59, an overweight, underpowered a/c with little scope for
development.

Lockheed had to wait until 1943 before being given the go-ahead on what
became the P-80, employing a British-designed centrifugal-flow turbojet and
was never provided funding for the r&d on either its propietary axial-flow
turbojet engine or its airframe.

Where I can't agree with you yet is over whether the Me-262 is impressive.
Seems to me that a fighter which has trouble getting airborne, trouble
staying airborne for more than 25 minutes and which is unable to complete a
turn while over a single county was of any real use to the Reich. The
victory claims (as you, especially, have reason to understand) attributed to
this a/c were highly inflated. The a/c's airframe and engines were
underdeveloped, and as a consequence it was as much of a threat to its
pilots as was enemy action.

I read Mr. Whittle's bio a few years ago. IIRC, all he needed was official
backing (i.e., money) and he could have produced and perfected his gem far
earlier than historically.