jet 178The Heinkel He 178, the first jet-powered aircraft Historic Flht. On August 27, 1939, at the Marienehe airfield in Germany, the He 178 made history by becoming the firstThe HE 178, with its HeS 3 engine, took to the skies, becoming the world's first jet-powered aircraft to make a controlled, sustained flht. Pilot Erich Warsitz was at the controls,