The Jet Age began in Britain in May 1941 when the Gloster E.28/39, the first British jet aircraft, made its first flight. The first British jet fighter was the Gloster Meteor, which entered service with the RAF in 1944 and went on to serve with air forces all over the world, and the RAF never looked back. This was the start of the first generation of British jet aircraft, from the Meteor and the de Havilland Vampire in the years immediately after the Second World War, through the ill-fated Comet airliner and the Hawker Sea Hawk in the 1950s to the Gloster Javelin, the start of the second generation in the 1960s.

In this book, aviation historian Guy Ellis looks at the development of this first generation of British jet aircraft.