Can anyone ID this aircraft for me please?

[SMLE]

Hello,

The photograph below shows my wife's grandfather (in the centre) who was employed as a carpenter at Farnborough during the war. Can anyone identify the aircraft in the picture? The family story has it that it was in development and it was strictly against orders for them to take any photos of the aircraft. They don't seem too worried though do they!

Many thanks for your help.

Carl

[Garth Thompson]

Hello,

The photograph below shows my wife's grandfather (in the centre) who was employed as a carpenter at Farnborough during the war. Can anyone identify the aircraft in the picture? The family story has it that it was in development and it was strictly against orders for them to take any photos of the aircraft. They don't seem too worried though do they!

Many thanks for your help.

Carl

This is a Gloster E.28/39 also known as the Gloster Whittle, Pioneer or G.40.

Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloster_E.28/39

Garth

[SMLE]

This is a Gloster E.28/39 also known as the Gloster Whittle, Pioneer or G.40.

Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia....Gloster_E.28/39

Garth

Thanks Garth!

So the family story is right, it was a secret prototype, the first British jet aircraft and one of only two ever built. Looking at the markings it seems to be initial prototype W4041 which is now in the science museum. I was there only the other week and didn't know.

Apparently my wife's grandfather was a carpenter who worked on prototype aircraft during the war, I don't know if you'd need a carpenter for this one and if he worked on it or whether it was just a good chance for a photo. Any ideas, did they use wood at all?

Thanks again.

Carl

[Garth Thompson]

Carl,

While wood was used in several WW2 aircraft I would think not in a jet due to the stresses, tempratures and operating altitudes. However I'm pretty sure the factory would have used a carpenter to make assembly jigs and the like since both the aircraft were prototypes and most likely hand built.

Garth

[SMLE]

Carl,

While wood was used in several WW2 aircraft I would think not in a jet due to the stresses, tempratures and operating altitudes. However I'm pretty sure the factory would have used a carpenter to make assembly jigs and the like since both the aircraft were prototypes and most likely hand built.

Garth

Thanks again Garth.

Just got more of the story; apparantly he made the frame that the original picture stands in from cockpit plexiglass from the aircraft. The fact that he made the frame to display that particular picture I think shows he must have worked on it.

Carl.

[PKeating]

Super photo! The Gloster Whittle's maiden flight was on 15.5.1941. Many people think we beat the Jerries to jet flight but Heinkel put a prototype in the air in August 1939. There's an original example in the London Science Museum and a replica on a roundabout near the Farnborough aerodrome in Hampshire, south-west of London. The Gloster Whittle's maximum speed was less than 350 mph, however, so it wasn't suitable for development as an operational fighter. However, it paved the way for the Gloster Meteor, which did fly operationally before the end of WW2. Thanks for posting this. I thing Frog and Airfix made models of this aircraft in the late 1960s. I remember building and painting the Frog version.

PK