With company pilot Pete Girard at the controls, the jet-powered Ryan X-13 Vertijet makes its first full-cycle flight. He takes off vertically from the aircraft’s mobile trailer, transitions to horizontal flight, performs several maneuvers, and then lands vertically.
In 1941, Gen. Henry H. “Hap” Arnold of the then-U.S. Army Air Corps, personally reviewed a jet engine patented by Sir Frank Whittle flying on a Gloster E.28/39 aircraft. Impressed by its design, Arnold arranged for a Whittle engine to be brought back to the U.S. and tasked General Electric…