Background During the late 1930s, the Heinkel company had developed the
He 178, the world's first
turbojet-powered aircraft; successfully flying the aircraft for the first time on 27 August 1939. However, an aerial demonstration of the He 178 had apparently failed to interest attending officials from the
Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM) (the German Reich Aviation Ministry) either in the aircraft itself or jet propulsion in general. Unknown to Heinkel, the Reich Air Ministry had already begun work on discreetly developing its own jet technology independently of his company's efforts. Despite having been unable to secure state backing for further work, Heinkel was undeterred in the potential value of the turbojet. Instead, the company independently decided to undertake work on what would become the He 280 during late 1939. This internal project to develop a jet-powered fighter aircraft, which had been started under the designation
He 180, was headed by the German aeronautical designer
Robert Lusser. The project was greatly aided by the earlier He 178 programme, which had not only served as a proof of concept but also yielded invaluable data gathered from flight testing; however, the design of the He 178 was deemed to be unsuitable for further development; particularly as mounting the engine within the fuselage had been judged to be impractical. For the He 280, a pair of turbojets were used, each one installed in a mid-wing position, which was viewed as a more straightforward arrangement. this arrangement was considered by some officials to be too frail for the grass or dirt airfields of the era; however, the tricycle layout eventually gained acceptance. One particularly groundbreaking feature incorporated onto the He 280 was its
ejection seat, which was powered by
compressed air; it was not only the first aircraft to be equipped with one but would also be the first aircraft to successfully employ one in a genuine emergency. One benefit of the He 280 which did impress Germany's political leadership was that the jet engines could burn
kerosene, a fuel that required much less expense and refining than the high-octane fuel used by piston-engine aircraft. However, government funding was lacking at the critical stage of initial development; the aviation author Robert Dorr largely attributes this lack of support to the personal opposition voiced by Udet. Over the next year, progress was slow due to the ongoing engine problems. A second engine design, the
HeS 30 was also under development, both as an interesting engine in its own right and as a potential replacement for the HeS 8. In the meantime, alternative powerplants were considered, including the
Argus As 014 pulsejet that powered the
V-1 flying bomb. By the end of 1942, however, the third prototype was fitted with refined versions of the HeS 8 engine and was ready for its next demonstration. On 22 December, a mock
dogfight was staged for RLM officials in which the He 280 was matched against a piston-powered
Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter, in which the jet demonstrated its vastly superior speed, completing four laps of an oval course before the Fw 190 could complete three. Finally, at this point the RLM became interested and placed an order for 20 pre-production test aircraft that were to be followed by a batch of 300 production standard aircraft.
Engine troubles and cancellation Engine problems continued to plague the project. During 1942, the RLM had ordered Heinkel to abandon work on both the HeS 8 and HeS 30 to focus all development on a follow-on engine, the
HeS 011, which proved to be a more advanced and problematic design. Meanwhile, the first He 280 prototype was re-equipped with pulsejets, ==Prototypes==