Author(s): Graham Hoyland

Transport

The invention of the jet engine had a profound effect on the world. Commercial jet aircraft revolutionized travel, opening up every corner of the planet. Few know that the jet engine was invented by an Englishman in 1929. The invention was a masterstroke of genius by 21-year-old Frank Whittle, replacing the piston engine's thousands of reciprocating parts with one part: a single smoothly revolving turbine. Although the world's first jet airliner was the British de Havilland Comet, Britain then gave away the technology - not only to the United States but to the Soviet Union as well. The Jet Set, the air hostess and the package holiday all followed. The dream of cheap, exotic travel had been realized. Yet, just like the impact of the internet, there were downsides to the world-reaching power of this phenomenon. Jet tells the story of this brilliant new technology, how it shrank the world and how it changed life forever.