Several years before World War II, the Germans foresaw the great potential for aircraft that used the jet engine constructed by Hans Joachim Pabst von Ohain in 1936. After the successful test flights of the world's first jet aircraft—the Heinkel He 178—within a week of the invasion of Poland to start the war, they adopted the jet engine for an advanced fighter aircraft. As a result, the Me 262 was already under development as "Projekt" 1065 (P.1065) before the start of World War II. The project originated with a request by the "Reichsluftfahrtministerium" (RLM, Ministry of Aviation) for a jet aircraft capable of one hour's endurance and a speed of at least . Woldemar Voigt headed the design team, with Messerschmitt's chief of development, Robert Lusser, overseeing.