NO AIRSCREWS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 5, 8 January 1944, Page 5

NO AIRSCREWS

REVOLUTIONARY PLANE

JET-PROPULSION SUCCESS RUGBY, January 6. Aircraft without propellers may become familiar in the near future. Jetpropelled fighter aircraft have successfully passed experimental tests and will soon be in production. A joint statement by the U.S.A.A.F. and the R.A.F. describing this revolutionary development in air warfare says that the work was started in Britain in 1933 by Group Captain Frank Whittle. The first engine ran successfully in April, 1937. The Air Ministry placed the first order for aircraft using jet propulsion engines with the Gloster Aircraft Company in 1939. The engines were to be built by Power Jet, Limited, in a special factory in England to which Group Captain Whittle was loaned. The first successful flight was in May, 1941. The pilot was Flight Lieutenant P. G. Sayers, chief test pilot to the Gloster Company. It was Group Captain Whittle's genius and energy that made this fine performance possible. Full information about the engine was disclosed in July, 1941, to General Arnold, Chief of the United States Air Force, who, like the R.A.F. and the Ministry of Aircraft Production, had the foresight to appreciate its tremendous possibilities. He at once asked that the engine be sent to the United States. The engine which made the first flight was sent to the General Electrical Company in September, 1941. As a result of the close co-operation between the two air forces and their material suppliers and the General ■Electrical Company, a number of these engines were built. The first was ready for test in less than six months. An aircraft company was given an order to build aircraft suitable to take two engines, and the first flight in the United States was made in less than 12 months. Several hundred successful flights have been carried out since by British pilots in the United States and England, many at high altitudes and at extreme speed, without a single mishap. In view of this successful record and the obvious advantage of the new type of aircraft, General Arnold, the Air Ministry, and the Ministry of Aircraft Production directed plans to be made for production in the United States and England of a sufficient number for training purposes. The U.S.A.A.F. has also given some planes to the United States Navy for additional trials and experiment.—B.O.W.