Probably the first man ever to work inside a jet engine is Harold Kirkendall, 31, who is employed by GE Lockland Ohio plant. He is only 47 inches tall. His small size enables him to crawl inside afterburners (elongated tail pipes in which additional fuel is burned to provide greatly increased power) to make general inspections. Here he discusses an inspector problem with Jerry Mefford, an engineer supervisor. Although "little people" have been employed as inspectors and assemblers inside wings of aircrafts under construction, Kirkendall believes he is the first to work inside a turbojet engine

General Electric Company1951-05-09