Messerschmitt Me 262A, National Museum of the US Air Force

The world's first operational jet fighter, photographed outside the museum at Dayton. Its swept wings and underslung engines look a decade ahead of the propeller fighters elsewhere in this gallery, and in level flight it was faster than any Allied fighter of its day. This example was brought to the United States from Germany in July 1945 for flight evaluation, part of the American effort to learn what it could from captured German jets, and is now on display inside the museum.