Jet travel allowed a greater scope for world travel for everybodyOn display at the Midland Air Museum is one of the early engines produced by Coventry born Sir Frank Whittles Power Jets factory at Whetstone England. The engine is a centrofugal W2/700 which produced 2500lbs thrust and was also the type to be used in the proposed Miles 52 Supersonic Experimental Aircraft Project of 1944.
Sir Frank Whittle who first patented his ideas in 1930 for the jet engine and which culminated in the worlds first ever successful liquid fuelled turbo- jet engine ground run on the 12th April 1937 at the British Thompson Houston works Rugby, England. The first British jet aircraft the Gloster E28/39 Experimental aircraft first flew with a W1 Whittle engine on 15th May 1941 with a thrust of 1000lbs at RAF Cranwell England. This led to the Gloster Meteor, which became the first allied jet aircraft to fly operationally in World War 2.
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