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It was high time the U.S. had an engine like the J-57, for the U.S. had been behind in the jet engine race. It had been caught napping at the start when jet propulsion began to revolutionize air power. Both the Germans (in 1939) and the British (in 1941) actually flew jet fighters before the U.S. even woke up to the fact that jet engines were practical. Thanks to Britain's foresight, and the fact that U.S. engine makers were forced to concentrate on piston engines during the war, the British stayed ahead in jets. With his J-57, Rentschler thinks he has overtaken them. But the race is still touch & go. Britain's Bristol Aeroplane Co. boasts that its new Olympus jet engine is at least as powerful as the J-57, though it is not as close to production. (Reportedly, Wright Aeronautical is dickering to build the Olympus under license.) In the same power range, Westinghouse is already testing its new J-40, General Motors' Allison division is testing its new J-35-A-23 and General Electric has its J-47. Nobody knows what the Russians, who got some of Germany's best jet engineers, are making behind their curtain, but there is no reason to think that they are far behind. Midwives for an Age. One of the best hopes that the U.S. can forge ahead lies in the past performance of Fred Rentschler, who has probably done as much for U.S. aviation as anyone since the Wright brothers. Starting from scratch a quarter-century ago with fledgling Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Co., he transformed U.S. military and transport aviation with his air-cooled Wasp engine. In the late '20s and '30s, Wasps, Hornets and the famed Wright Whirlwind (which Rentschler had just produced) were the midwives for the birth of the Air Age. They powered the fighters for the Navy's new aircraft carriers, won the world's altitude record for the U.S., hurled Jimmy Doolittle to racing fame, carried Pan American's Martin flying boats in the first commercial flights across the oceans, flew Lindbergh on a record-breaking transcontinental flight, Wiley Post around the world, Howard Hughes to a transcontinental record, and Amelia Earhart to her unknown fate. In World War II, engines made by Pratt & Whitney and its licensees (Ford, Buick, Chevrolet, Nash-Kelvinator and others) furnished half of all the U.S. piston horsepower flown in the war. By war's end Pratt & Whitney was developing the piston engine to its limits with its Wasp Major, now the most powerful piston engine ever built. It had also reached the end of an era. For the future does not lie with piston engines, but with jets—pure jets and jets driving propellers. Fred Rentschler is betting that his J57 will do for jets what the Wasp did for piston engines. Says he confidently: "Our job is not to catch the others, but to be first."