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First Jets

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Summary

Last year, Special Hobby released a long awaited 1/48 scale kit of the Gloster E.28/39 Pioneer. The kit, despite its shortcomings, is a must in any WW2 aircraft collection. But what about the Heinkel He178, the very first jet in aircraft history? Condor (now MPM) released a 1/48 kit of the German jet in 1995 so it is possible now to display the first jets side by side on your shelves. To see which manufacturer made the best representation of both planes, I decided to build them with nothing more than what's in the box and by following the instructions and painting guides as close as possible.

History

Sunday August 27th 1939, Ernst Udet received a phone call from Ernst Heinkel:
- "Good morning," said Mr Heinkel, "I just wanted to say Flugkapitän Warsitz successfully made the maiden flight of the first jet plane in aircraft history: the Heinkel He 178!"
After a moment of silence Udet answered:
- "That's very good! Congratulations for both of you! But now let me go to bed again..."

Fortunately, the Germans leaders never realised the importance of the jets until the very last moments of the war, when it was too late. The first British jet, the Pioneer, flew only on April 8th 1941and the overall performance wasn't better than its older "brother" from Heinkel! But the British engineers did catch-up in the following years and both the Me 262 and Gloster Meteor did see operational use at the same time in summer 1944.