The Meteor became Britain’s first jet-engined fighter and the only operational British or Allied jet in World War Two when it went into action with 616 Squadron on 27 July 1944. Coincidentally, the Germans developed a jet fighter at a similar time – the Messerschmitt Me 262 – but the two jets never met in aerial combat.
In 1936, the British engineer Frank Whittle had started developing a jet engine but the project lacked funding. However, research and development became a priority at the outbreak of the war and Whittle’s Power Jets company was funded by the Air Ministry to design a jet-propelled fighter. The company teamed up with the Gloster Aircraft Company and its chief designer, George Carter, to build a serviceable jet plane.
It was Carter who designed the airframe for the first single-engined jet which was powered by a Whittle W1 turbojet. A “proof of concept” jet, the Gloster E.28/39 was duly constructed, and it took to the skies on 15 May 1941; however, it was underpowered. Power Jets had teamed up with Rover to mass-produce the engines but the car manufacturer realised there were design flaws and the two companies fell out. Rolls-Royce eventually stepped in and built a more powerful turbojet.
In a totally new design by Carter, the next jet became a twin-engined aircraft initially powered by two de Havilland Halford H.1 engines and it was this plane, christened the “Meteor”, that made its test flight on 5 March 1943 at RAF Cranwell, Lincolnshire flown by Neil “Michael” Daunt. However, it was the Meteor FI powered by two Rolls-Royce W2B/23 Welland turbojet engines that actually saw active service when 20 were delivered to RAF Culmhead in Somerset for trials.
This story is from the March 2023 edition of Best of British.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the March 2023 edition of Best of British.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
"A Personal Stab of Shock and Horror"
Chris Hallam looks back on the British reaction to President Kennedy's assassination
A BUILDING BONANZA
Claire Saul samples some of the entries in a new publication from the National Trust
ON TARGET
Russell Cook browses through 50 years of a publishing phenomenon
The Rise and Fall of Poole Pottery
Steve Annandale charts the history of what was, by the 1990s, Dorset's most significant tourist attraction
DOCTOR HO-HO!
Robert Ross takes a swift spin through some of the comedy stars who have stumbled into the Tardis
The Three Ronnies
Martin Handley celebrates the talents of a trio of composers
A RARE OLD SCRAMBLE
Colin Allan has fond memories of tuning in to Grandstand to watch scrambling on winter afternoons in the sport's golden age of the 1960s
THE ULTIMATE RESPONSE
Roger Harvey nominates a sculpture in his native Newcastle as the most poignant and powerful memorial to duty and heroism
POSTCARD FROM CHESHIRE
Bob Barton finds out about subsidence, timber-framed buildings, boat lifts, waterways and Lewis Carroll, taking it all with a pinch of salt
OVER HERE
Michael Foley looks back at how the people of East Anglia reacted to the American \"invasion\" during World War Two that saw the building of dozens of airfields