Gloster E.1/44

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The Gloster E.1/44 was a British single engined jet fighter design of the Second World War which came about because of low availability of jet engines but was not completed in prototype form until after the war and never entered production.

[edit] Development

The success of the first British jet aircraft the Gloster F.9/37 led to the design of the twin engineed Gloster Meteor jet fighter from 1940 onwards. However in 1942 Rover, who were contracted to produce the Whittle W2 jet engine, were having production problems so the Air Ministry asked for a design which would use only one engine rather than the two. In the end Rolls-Royce Limited traded jet engine production (the W2 would become known as the Welland) for tank engine production with Rover; the supply problem was resolved and the single engined design was not required. Gloster continued with their design work privately intending to use a de Havilland H.1 engine instead of the W2/Welland. In 1944 the Ministry issued a specification (Specification E.1/44) for an experimental jet aircraft using the new Rolls Royce Nene engine. Using their first design (GA1) they produced a new one (GA.2) that would meet the specification and received a contract to build three aircraft. These were not finished until after the wars end.

The first one to fly did so on 9 March 1948 flown by Gloster test pilot Bill Waterton. The programme was stopped in 1949 as the aircraft did not have the devleopment potential of the Meteor, though the tail design was carried over and employed on the Meteor F.8 and later models. The only two aircraft to fly (the first prototype was irreparably damaged before use and its replacement was not completed) were used as testbeds for a while before being scrapped.