Who was the designer of the first jet plane that flew? Hint: forget Whittle and Ohain.

MonkeyOnALeash

" The first aircraft to incorporate the principles of the jet engine was the Coanda-1910, piloted by its Romanian inventor Henri Coandă in 1910. The engine of this aircraft, unlike the modern jet engine, used a piston engine rather than a turbine to drive its compressor. Unfortunately, the aircraft crashed during its first and only demonstration, however remaining mostly intact. The first true turbine-equipped jetplane was the Heinkel He 178 (Germany), piloted by Erich Warsitz in 1939 (August 27, 1939). " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_aircraft "Going into World War II, other countries could not compete with America’s piston-driven airplanes. Instead they turned to the unproven idea of jets—and nearly left America behind." http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/it/1993/2/1993_2_44.shtml Nov 10 07, 10:08 AM

Baloo55th

Nice one. It didn't directly lead to any developments, although Caproni's workshop (where Coanda did his work) was also responsible for the Caproni Campini, a later (30 years) plane using the same type of system. Nov 10 07, 12:42 PM