The USA enters the jet age
It is rather falsely believed that the jet engine was invented in america, the USA however played no part in the development of the first generation of jet engines although their later contributions should not be underestimated. The jet age was launched in america by USAF Major General Henry (Hap), following the arrival of a Whittle W1 complete with all the technical documentation an engineer could wish for. On the 5th September 1941 Bell Aircraft and asked them to build a new fighter based around a license built copy of the W1 which became known as the GE-1. The contract was signed on the 30th September with a deadline of eight months set to produce the first of three prototypes designated XP-59A's.
Installing one of the two GE1's in an Airacomet.
The GE-1 was built by General Electric and was capable of 1,250 lbs of thrust, this meant that like the Meteor two engines would be needed although in the Airacomet they were mounted side by side in the fuselage. The performance of the Airacomet even with two engines was not impressive as it was still underpowered and as a result was outperformed by the latest piston engines fighters of the day. The GE-1 was refined to become the I-14 with 1,400 lbs of thrust who also built the I-40 a license built copy of the improved Whittle W2/B, this was also built by Allison as the J33.
In addition to Whittle's designs the americans were also given a great deal of information relating to axial flow turbojets. This gave them the confidence to begin the development of their own engines beginning with the J35/ TG-180 later refined into the J47/ TG-190 which would power the North American Sabre & B-47 Stratojet.