This engine is from the final series made by Frank Whittle's company, Power Jets.

Whittle was a cadet in the Royal Air Force in 1928 when he had the idea for a gas turbine engine. He saw that this would enable aircraft to fly far higher and faster than with a piston engine and propeller.

Whittle had problems in getting finance, but by 1936 the threat of war encouraged air rearmament. The Air Ministry began to support development and, in May 1941, the Gloster-Whittle E28/39 made its first flight with the experimental Power Jets W1 engine. These flights were so successful that quantity production was assigned to the Rover car company. Unfortunately the relationship between Whittle and Rover went badly and in 1943 Rolls-Royce took over production.

The W2/700 is a poignant relic of the Whittle team and the short-lived Power Jets company. It was, in their view, their best engine but, by the time it was developed, manufacture had passed to the mainstream aero-engine companies and Power Jets was converted into a national gas turbine research centre.

Whittle did not achieve his dream of manufacturing the jet himself, but he led Britain into the jet age and established it as a major centre of gas turbine design and manufacture.

Inv. 1982-1071