Tested in Germany in 1939 and by the British in 1941, the jet revolutionized air travel after World War II, allowing planes to fly farther and faster and to carry heavier loads. Before the jet, early workhorses like the DC-3, which began commercial operation in 1936, were powered by piston-firing internal-combustion engines. A jet engine gulps air, compresses it, burns it with fuel ignited by temperatures ranging above 1,400F, and ejects hot gases that provide powerful forward thrust. In 1975, a British-French consortium unveiled the supersonic aircraft, the Concorde, which flies passengers across the Atlantic in less than half the time taken by regular commercial jets.

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"Midland Air Museum: The Jet Engine"

Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum

Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum: "Jet Aviation"