Heinkel He 178

Heinkel · Germany · first flew 1939 · fighter

The Heinkel He 178 was the world's first aircraft to fly solely on turbojet power, making its historic first flight on 27 August 1939, two days before the outbreak of World War II. It was a small, simple proof-of-concept aircraft designed solely to validate Hans von Ohain's HeS 3 engine.

Recognition (WEFT)

W — Wings	High-mounted, straight
E — Engines	1 × turbojet, fuselage-mounted
F — Fuselage	HeS 3 centrifugal-flow turbojet buried in fuselage
T — Tail	Conventional

WEFT is AircraftIQ's four-point recognition method — how it works.

Spot it by:

World's first jet-powered aircraft to fly
Tiny high-wing monoplane with nose intake
HeS 3 centrifugal-flow turbojet buried in fuselage

An extremely small, round-nosed high-wing monoplane with a circular nose intake and fixed undercarriage, notable mainly for its historical significance rather than distinctive visual character.

Specifications

The Heinkel He 178 has a length of 7.48 m (25 ft).
It has a wingspan of 7.2 m (24 ft).
Its maximum speed is 598 km/h (372 mph).
Typical crew: 1.

Figures are for the representative variant described above; marks differ. See how AircraftIQ sources figures.

History

Developed in great secrecy by Ernst Heinkel's team, the He 178 demonstrated the feasibility of jet propulsion despite the Luftwaffe's initially lukewarm reception. The sole aircraft was subsequently displayed in the Berlin Air Museum, where it was destroyed in an Allied bombing raid in 1943.

Variants

Only a single aircraft was built; it served purely as a technology demonstrator with no variants.

Where you'll see it

Never entered service; the single prototype made only a handful of flights before being retired to a museum.

Related aircraft

AircraftIQ — the aircraft field guide: 4,893 recognition guides, live overhead identification, works offline.