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The work to make this aircraft a reality was described as "probably the most important invention this century".On April 8, 1941, a top-secret event, which was to revolutionise world aviation, took place at Brockworth airfield, Gloucestershire. After initial taxi trials the pilot - Gerry Sayer, the Gloster Aircraft Company's chief test pilot, pushed the throttle lever forward until the engine indicator read 16000 rpm and the Gloster E 28/39, Britain's first jet aircraft, became airborne. To avoid the possibility of bomb damage at Brockworth, a likely Luftwaffe target, this diminutive aircraft had been fitted with Sir Frank Whittle's revolutionary gas turbine engine at Regent Motors in Cheltenham, where the Regent Arcade now stands. According to Sir Ralph Robins, the Chairman of Rolls-Royce, "Frank Whittle's pioneering work on the turbojet engine is probably the most important mechanical invention of the 20th century."

The work to make this aircraft a reality was described as "probably the most important invention this century".