JET

The Story of a Pioneer

by Sir Frank Whittle

Frederick Muller, 1954, Third impression
Black and white photographic plates, b/w photographic frontispiece
Blue colour tipped top edge
Hardcover, dustjacket

Condition: Very Good
Minor edge and shelf wear with minor rubbing and bumping to corners and covers, previous owners’ gift inscription, details stamp and details sticker on front endpaper, minor foxing to endpapers. Dustjacket clipped in very good condition with a little chipping, creasing and small tears. (see photographs)

“At the Royal Air Force Station at Cranwell in Lincolnshire on the evening of the 15^th May, 1941, an aeroplane of unusual type was seen to taxi to the eastern end of the runway and then, after a run of 600 yards, to rise gracefully into the air for a flight of seventeen minutes.  To the distant observers one very strange thing about this beautiful little aeroplane was that it had a very short undercarriage, but an even stranger thing was the at it had no propeller.  The aeroplane was the Gloster/Whittle E.28/39 – the world’s first successful jet aeroplane – making its first flight.”