Timeline of Jet Power - 1945

1945

• The Nakajima Kikka flies for the first time on August 7, 1945, powered by two Ishikawajima Ne-20 turbojets, making it the first Japanese jet aircraft to fly.
• Stanley Hooker scales the Nene down to Gloster Meteor size, producing the RB.37, also referred to, confusingly, as the Derwent V. A Derwent V powered Meteor sets the world speed record at 606 mph at the end of the year. This performance is so outstanding that immediate development of more powerful engines is considered unimportant.
• The Junkers 022 turboprop runs.
• An afterburner equipped Jumo 004 is tested.
• Lyul'ka VDR-3 axial-flow engine tested.
• Lyul'ka TR-1 axial-flow engine tested.
• The RB.39 Rolls-Royce Clyde turboprop runs, combining axial and centrifugal stages in the compressor. Rolls-Royce abandon development, preferring to focus on the turbojet. A carrier-based naval strike aircraft, the Westland Wyvern, having already changed from its original Rolls-Royce Eagle piston engine, uses the alternative turboprop, the Armstrong Siddeley Python.
• The Avia S-92, a version of the Me 262, is built in Czechoslovakia.