Gloster E.28/39

L'histoire du Gloster à réaction E 28/ 39 sur Wikipedia.en

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The [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] E.28/39, (also referred to as the "Gloster Whittle", "Gloster Pioneer", or "Gloster G.40") was the first [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] to fly.

Developed to test the new [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] in flight, the test results would influence the development of an operational fighter, the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

Design and development

In September 1939, the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] issued a specification to Gloster for an aircraft to test one of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]'s [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] designs in flight.

The E.28/39 name comes from the aircraft having been built to the 28th "Experimental" [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] in 1939.

The E.28/39 specification had actually required the aircraft to carry two [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] in each wing, but these were never fitted.

Working closely with Whittle, Gloster's chief designer [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] laid out a small low-wing aircraft of conventional configuration.

The jet intake was in the nose, and the tail-fin and elevators were mounted above the jet-pipe.

A contract for two prototypes was signed by the Air Ministry on 3 February 1940 and the first of these was completed by
April 1941.

Manufacturing started in Hucclecote near Gloucester, but was later moved to Regent Motors in Cheltenham High St (now the Regent Arcade), considered a location safer from bombing.

Testing

Although the initial flight tests were seemingly early in the Second World War, the Germans were one stage ahead, having first tested their [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] at 6 am on 27 August 1939, days before the start of the war itself at [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] on the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], piloted by [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

The aircraft was delivered to [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] for ground tests beginning on 7 April 1941 using a non-flightworthy version of the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] engine.

These include some short "hops" of about 6 ft in height from Brockworth's grass airfield.

With these initial tests satisfactorily completed, the aircraft was fitted with the flightworthy new engine rated for 10 hours use and transferred to Cranwell which had a long runway.

On 15 May 1941, Gloster's Chief Test Pilot, [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] flew the aircraft under jet power for the first time from [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], near [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] in [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

The flight lasted 17 minutes and was a complete success.

Tests continued with increasingly refined versions of the engine over the following months.

Later in the test program, small, auxiliary fins were added near the tips of the tailplanes to provide additional stability in high-speed flight.
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Chief Test Pilot Sayer disappeared during an acceptance test flight for a Hawker Typhoon, presumably killed, and his assistant took over.

The oil system had been changed before he flew and after it was proven the aircraft was handed over to the RAE and flying by service pilots.

he second prototype ([Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] W4046) joined the test programme on 1 March 1943, initially powered by a [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] engine.

Testing had revealed problems with engine oil and lubricants. Flying of W4046 was by John Grierson and John Crosby Warren, (also Gloster pilots) as Michael Daunt was now involved with the F.9/40. In April, W4046 flew to Hatfield for a demonstration before the Prime Minister and members of the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

It was taken to Farnborough and fitted with a 1,500 lbf (6.7 kN) W2.B.

It achieved 466 mph.

This prototype was destroyed on 30 July while on a high altitude test flight in a crash resulting from an [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]
failure, attributed to the use of the wrong type of grease in the aileron controls.

One aileron had "stuck in position, sending the aircraft out of control".

^{[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]} The test pilot successfully bailed out from 33,000 ft.[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]

The first prototype was fitted with the 1,700 lbf (7.6 kN) thrust W2/500.

It was flown successfully to 42,000 ft but level speed at altitude was not attempted due to fuel shortage.

The pilot commented in his report on a need for cockpit heating and a larger fuel tank.

The first prototype continued flight tests until 1944.

By that time, more advanced turbojet-powered aircraft were available.

Although the Gloster E.28/39 was not able to achieve high speeds, it proved to be a capable experimental platform and exhibited a "good climb rate and ceiling". Moreover, experience with the E.28/39 paved the way for Britain's first operational jet [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

This featured the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] engine, the next stage from the Power Jets W.1.

Survivors


In 1946, the first prototype (serial W4041) was placed in the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] in Central London, where it is exhibited in the Flight Gallery.

A full-size replica has been placed on an obelisk on a roundabout near the northern perimeter of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] in [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] as a memorial to Sir Frank Whittle.

A similar full-size model is on display in the middle of a roundabout at [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] in [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] (pictured below) where the aircraft's engine was produced.

A full-scale model taken from the same moulds, with authentic paint scheme and detailing, has been built by members of the Jet Age Museum in Gloucester.

It has recently been on display in Brockworth, Gloucester, at the Kemble Air Day and MVT Show also at Kemble, and formed part of the display for the Sir Frank Whittle Centenary commemorations at RAF Cranwell in June 2007.