Paradoxically, Power Jets is perhaps the least well known but most important British jet engine manufacturer. Power Jets was the company formed by Frank Whittle to develop his pioneering jet engine designs. Incorporated in March 1936, Power Jets comprised of Whittle, his friends Williams and Tinling who were to have a 49 percent share in the new company, and investment bankers Falk & Co. who held a 51 percent share.

The Air Ministry agreed to allow Whittle to hold shares and take an active part in Power Jets even though he was still a serving RAF officer. Whittle needed an established engineering company to manufacturer the components for his engine and also facilities for testing the engine.

A contract was signed with British Thomson Houston (BTH) of Rugby who had experience in the field of steam turbines. This was not a marriage made in heaven and the relationship between Whittle and BTH was always strained and often acrimonious. Work began on Power Jets first engine the WU or Whittle unit.

The WU made history when on 12 of August 1937 it became the world's first working jet engine. Initial tests were plagued with control problems due to combustion difficulties but the engine became more reliable later on. The engine had to be repaired several times and suffered from general degradation but lack of funding meant that it had to continue running for another three years.

In July 1939, Power Jets received a contract to build a flight engine which was designated the W.1 and later that year the company received a further contract to build a more powerful engine which was to be known as the W.2.

The designation of the Power Jets engines can be confusing but can be explained below:-

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Power Jets WU (Worlds first working jet engine)

WU First experimental engine. Had three variants during its life.

W1 First flight engine. Flew in Gloster E.28/39 aircraft.

W1x Built from un-airworthy parts for test purposes.

W2 Intended to be second generation engine.

W2B Redesigned W2. Also flew in Gloster E.28/39 aircraft.

W2B Unfortunate nomenclature for BTH's engine which differed from the Power Jets W2B.

W2/500 Developed W2B, built by RR and know as the Welland.

W2/700 Final development of W2 series. Flew in Meteor but Derwent chosen in preference.

The successful flight of the E28/39, while being a triumph for Power Jets and a vindication of Frank Whittle's vision, determination and hard work also marked the start of Power Jets demise. As other established engine manufacturers saw that Whittle's engine was a success, they sought to take advantage of Power Jets size and the fact that it was headed by a serving RAF officer to make a case for limiting their activities. They argued that Power Jets lacked the experience to embark on large scale production of jet engines. The government were swayed by these arguments and Rover were given a contract for the large scale production of the W2B engine.

Rover breached the terms of the contract by making unauthorized modifications to the engine and giving it a new designation, the B26. Rover also made unauthorized copies of Power Jets drawings, deleting all reference to Power Jets and their patents in the proccess.

In December 1942 a deal was struck with between Rover and Rolls Royce which saw the latter take over production of the W2B. Previously, Power Jets had enjoyed a good relationship with Rolls Royce and although Power Jets wished to remain independant, it thought that a deal with Rolls Royce was preferable to one with Rover.

In April 1944 Power Jets were nationalized. Their role was limited to research and development and in January 1946 a disspirited Frank Whittle resigned from the company he had created some ten years earlier. Gradually, Power Jets was broken up with only a small part remaining to administer its patents.

 

 

Power Jets Ltd.

 

Power Jets Ltd
Type	Limited company
Founded	1936
Headquarters	Rugby, England, UK
Industry	aero-engine

Power Jets Ltd was a United Kingdom company set up by Frank Whittle for the purpose of designing and manufacturing jet engines.

Founded on January 27, 1936, the company consisted of Whittle, Rolf Dudley-Williams, James Collingwood Tinling, and Lancelot Law Whyte of investment bankers O T Falk & Partners.

Initial premises were hired from British Thomson-Houston (BTH) at Rugby, Warwickshire.

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the Gloster E.28/39

The Power Jets WU design was the first turbojet to run, and the Power Jets W.1 powered the Gloster E.28/39, the first jet aircraft to fly in the United Kingdom. The W.1 was also the first jet engine built in the United States where, as the General Electric I-A, it powered the Bell P-59A Airacomet. The Power Jets W.2 was intended to be produced by Rover, but because of delays was later transferred to Rolls-Royce where it entered production as the Welland, powering early versions of the Gloster Meteor.

A version of the Power Jets W.2/700 was intended for the supersonic Miles M.52 research aircraft, but the aircraft was never completed. The M.52 version of the W.2/700 was one of the first engines designed with a reheat jetpipe, i.e., an afterburner.

On 28 March 1944, after discussions with the Air Ministry, Whittle reluctantly agreed to the nationalization of Power Jets Ltd. for £135,000, and the company became Power Jets (Research and Development) Ltd.

After the Second World War the company was merged with the Turbine Division of the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) at Farnborough, to form the National Gas Turbine Establishment (NGTE Pyestock).

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	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

Wikipedia

 

 

WU "Whittle Unit"

Click on Picture to enlarge Frank Whittle's first working jet engine 1937 In 1936 a small "firm named "Power Jets LTD" set up to work on the engine designed by Frank Whittle in March 1936. The engine was his first turbojet a bench-test unit burning diesel oil and designated the "Whittle Unit (WU)". The engine it self was very simple, featuring a single two-sided centrifugal rotor; a single large combustion chamber; and a single-stage axial turbine. Whittle managed to get a number of firms to build the components. A contract was given in June 1936 to BTH, to build the engine, it was first run on the 12/4/1937. There were a number of technical problems with the new form of engine but in the end these were overcome, but on the 6/5/1938 the engine failed . A major rebuild of the WU engine resulted, again a centrifugal type turbojet incorporating a number of changes. Testing started again in October 1938 (continuing until 1940) with the results leading to a contract from the Air Ministry to make a flight ready Engine W.1X

 

W.1X, W.1

Click on Picture to enlarge W.1X, W.1 In 1939 the British Air Ministry ordered a flight ready engine from Power Jets, this would become the W.1. Designed by Frank Whittle it was a centrifugal type turbojet, with ten small reverse-flow combustion chambers, the first engine the W.1X was tested on the 14/12/1940. In April 1941 a W.1X engine was used to power the new Gloster E.28/39 in it's first ground testing, with an airworthy W1 engine being fitted of the first powered flight of a British jet on the 15/05/41. By this time the Power Jet's W1 engine was making a round 860 lb of thrust

Rover W2

    Despite this success, Power Jets was not in a position to mass-produce the Whittle engine themselves, and in October 1940, the Air Ministry arranged for production of the W.2 by Rover. Unfortunately, Frank Whittle and the Rover management worked at all times at cross purposes, with Rover always believing (wrongly) they had better ideas and did little to cooperate. The confusion was aggravated by contradictory instructions from the British Ministry of Production. It could be said that they did all they could to kill off Whittle's engine, with the jet engine development effort slowly strangled on its own red tape until late 1942. Rover managed to make only around 20 engines! in the two year of production, delaying the introduction of Gloster Meteor fighter by some time.

 

Rolls Royce W2 "Welland"  

Click on Picture to enlarge The Rolls-Royce "Welland" engine The W2    Rolls-Royce engineering staff had been working on a turboprop engine with Dr Griffith since 1939 and saw the value of the turbojet engine, when in mid 1942 Rolls-Royce's Ernest Hives took S.B. Wilks of Rover out to lunch and in a deal with Wilks the production and development of the Whittle engine was swapped for the Vickers Tank plant in Nottingham. The British Air Ministry was more than happy with this arrangement hoping that the jet engine had finally got on track. It had Rolls-Royce and the jet engine took to each other like a "duck to water". Working with Whittle to finally get an uprated version of the engine in production, the production version of the W.1 engine the W.2 was soon coming off the production line in an ever increasing rate. The W.2B made 1,600 lb of thrust by this time. Rolls-Royce named the new engine the "Welland ", beginning the Rolls-Royce tradition of naming their engines after British rivers. The Welland was fitted to the first production Gloster "Meteor" Mk I.

 

"Derwent"   

Click on Picture to enlarge The "Derwent" Engine All of the "Whittle type engines until 1943 were reverse-flow centrifugal engines. Rolls-Royce reworked the design to feature straight-through combustion chambers and better fuel and oil systems, similar in lay out to the de Havilland H-1, all this work resulted in the "Derwent I",which made 2,000 lb of thrust and used less fuel. Ran for the first time on the test bench in July 1943, the "Derwent I" was fitted to a Gloster Meteor in March 1944, and would powered the Gloster "Meteor Mk III" after the 15th aircraft. The Derwent was refined various versions up to the "Mark IV", which made 2,450 lb of thrust.

 

RB.41 "Nene"

Click on Picture to enlarge The RB.41 "Nene" Developed from the the "Derwent" in 1943/4 by Stanley Hooker, who had been in charge of the Rolls-Royce design team that built the Derwent. Roll Royce realizing that the Britain was beginning to fall behind the USA, initiated a fast-track project to build a new, much more powerful centrifugal-flow engine, the "RB.41 Nene", which was first bench-tested in November 1944 making well over 4,000 lb of thrust. Used in the Gloster E.1/44, Supermarine Attacker, Hawker P.1040 and D.H. Vampire Mk II At the time the Nene was the world's most powerful engine plus it was simple, cheap and reliable. Built under license in Australia, France and was to be built under license in the USA by the Taylor Turbine Corporation as the J42-TT-2 as the "J-42", it powered early versions of the US Navy's Grumman F9F Panther fighter, however since the the J42 was not going to be ready in time to be installed in the XF9F-2, Taylor Turbine Corporation supplied six imported Rolls-Royce Nene turbojets to Grumman. By 1948 the US Navy was fearful that the Taylor Turbine Corporation might not be able to deliver sufficient numbers of engines so the Navy encouraged Taylor to negotiate an agreement whereby the Nene manufacturing license would be transferred to a more-established engine manufacturing company. This was done as requested, and the Nene license was purchased from Taylor by Pratt & Whitney. Who would collaborated with Rolls-Royce to develop a version of the Nene with water injection, this version of the engine the "J-48", powered later versions of the Panther and its swept-wing Cougar . Also the Nene was built in large numbers in the USSR. In 1946, a Soviet delegation went to Britain and came back with new Nene engines. Named the RD-45 and later the VK-1,it was powered the MiG-15 and most other jet aircraft in the USSR for some time. The Chinese also built a copy of the engine, only finally ceasing production in 1979.

 

Derwent-5    

Click on Picture to enlarge Derwent-5     The Nene was very a good engine but it could not be used in the Meteor with out a major redesign because of it's greater size, In 1944 Rolls-Royce proposed to build a scaled-down version of the engine to fit the Meteor, this they did and had it up and ruining with in 25 weeks and producing 3,000 lb of thrust. The new engine which was designated the "Derwent V"( though it had no relationship to earlier Derwent marks) was in production by the middle of 1945 and making 3,500 lb of thrust. The Derwent V was first fitted in the Meteor Mk-IV and powered EE 454 "Britannia" to 606 mph on the 7/11/45 and EE455 "Gloster Meteor IV" two converted MK IIIs

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