Power Jets
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Power Jets was a British company set up by Frank Whittle for the purpose of designing and manufacturing jet engines. The company was nationalised in 1944, and evolved into the National Gas Turbine Establishment.
Preserved Power Jets W.1 at the Science Museum (London)
The Power Jets W.2/700 engine flew in the Gloster E.28/39, the first British aircraft to fly with a turbojet engine, and the Gloster Meteor - the light-brown object in the middle of the jetpipe is a cork intended to prevent museum visitors from hurting themselves on the sharp, pointed end, of the turbine fairing
Frank Whittle
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Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, was an English engineer, inventor and Royal Air Force (RAF) air officer. He is credited with having invented the turbojet engine. A patent was submitted by Maxime Guillaume in 1921 for a similar invention which was technically unfeasible at the time. Whittle's jet engines were developed some years earlier than those of Germany's Hans von Ohain, who designed the first-to-fly turbojet engine.
Frank Whittle
Whittle's birthplace in Earlsdon, Coventry, England. (photo 2007)
The Gloster E.28/39, the first British aircraft to fly with a turbojet engine
The W2/700 engine, or W.2B/23 as it was known to the Air Ministry. It was the first British production jet engine, powering early models of the Gloster Meteor.