Five days before German divisions invaded Poland, a moment
before the term "blitzkrieg" was added to the history books and
the world was introduced to the definition of a merciless war,
the Nazis completed the construction of the first jet plane.
Under a mantle of secrecy, ministry executives and the owners of
the "Heinkel" Plane Company gathered in an airport close by to
Berlin and watched the technological miracle leave behind a jet
trail and take off into the sky. 10 minutes in the air "Not one
of the people standing in the audience could understand the
magnitude of the invention that took off at that moment",
explained Rose Lee, Curator of the World War II Exhibition at
the "National Air and Space Museum" in Washington. "The plane
looked quite ordinary, not particularly revolutionary, because
of an effort to keep flying it as simple as possible. Its
engine, on the other hand, was a tremendous invention". The
plane's lucky pilot was Captain Erich Worchitz, a test pilot and
engineer in the German Air Force