Massachusetts sees a flurry of inbound and outbound flights every single day through Boston Logan International Airport, one of the busiest airports in the country with more than 40 airlines and 100 domestic and international destinations available through the travel hub.
It should, then, be no surprise that Massachusetts is home to many aviation firsts, including the first General Electric jet engine, known as the Type I, first running on March 18, 1942, in Lynn – the first jet engine to run in the entire country.
General Electric, already recognized as the world leader in exhaust-driven supercharging as World War II began in Europe, set out to build America’s first jet engine. In 1941, the United States Army Air Corps selected the General Electric plant in Lynn as the location where the engine would be built and, during the following calendar year, the company’s engineers successfully ran the jet engine for the first time.
A technological marvel at the time for a nation in the throes of World War II, which would not end until September 2, 1945, the original jet engine would set the stage for aviation advancements under General Electric’s watch. In 1944, the company developed a more powerful jet engine which eventually powered the first United States combat capable jet fighters, originally termed the P-80 Shooting Star, which were flown by U.S. troops in combat during the Korean War.
General Electric still operates the Lynn facility today under the company’s GE Aerospace division and is recognized by the U.S. Department of Defense as a facility that designs, produces, assembles, and tests military and commercial aircraft engines and components.
While there are more than 130 years of aviation history at the Lynn facility that GE runs, the stories in the skies of Massachusetts are not limited to the North Shore.
In 2018, Katie Servis was named Airport Manager at Cape Cod Gateway Airport in Hyannis, the first woman in the role since the airport was founded nearly 100 years prior in 1928. Servis, a Bridgewater State University graduate who leads the small community airport, welcomed two airline giants this year in Hyannis – American Airlines and Jet Blue – further expanding the offerings of the Barnstable County aviation hub.
Whether it’s supporting technological innovation critical to our nation’s defense or breaking down barriers in aviation, it’s clear that Massachusetts can pilot the country through turbulent atmospheres and continue its role as an innovative state pushing the country to new heights.
