"Yalu River and shot them down in the first jet-to-jet dogfight in history. The UK put the English Electric Canberra into service in 1951 as a light bomber. It was designed to fly higher and faster than any interceptor. BOAC operated the first commercial jet service, from London to Johannesburg, in 1952 with the de Havilland Comet jetliner. This highly innovative aircraft travelled far faster and higher than the propeller aircraft, was much quieter, smoother, and had stylish blended wings containing hidden jet engines. However, due to a design defect, and use of aluminium alloys, the aircraft suffered catastrophic metal"
"time were designing Britain's first jet bomber. Petter was concerned about Beamont's lack of engineering qualifications, but Page pointed out they would ""have plenty of good engineers but what was needed was a test pilot with operational experience"". Beamont moved to English Electric in May 1947. At this time English Electric were manufacturing D.H Vampires under licence but had no original aircraft to conduct research, particularly to explore the effects of compressibility. From his experience at Glosters, Beamont suggested to Petter that they borrow a Meteor F.4 to carry out high altitude research. Beamont made the first experimental test flight"
"1949, referring to it as ""Project 1220"". The RAE suggested the use of a ramjet for power as it offered better fuel economy. The company had only passing experience with this engine design, so they began a long series of tests to develop it. As the ramjet only operates effectively at high speeds over Mach 1, Bristol built a series of testbed airframes to flight-test the engines. The first, JTV-1, resembled a flying torpedo with the ramjets fitted to the end of the cruciform rear fins. Early problems were ironed out and the JTV series was the first British ramjet"
"English Electric Lightning The English Electric Lightning is a fighter aircraft that served as an interceptor during the 1960s and 1970s. It remains the only UK-designed and -built fighter capable of Mach 2. The Lightning was designed, developed, and manufactured by English Electric, which was subsequently absorbed by the newly-formed British Aircraft Corporation. Later the type was marketed as the BAC Lightning. It was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF), the Kuwait Air Force (KAF) and the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF). A unique feature of the Lightning's design is the vertical, staggered configuration of its two Rolls-Royce Avon"
"the E.28/39 paved the way for Britain's first operational jet fighter aircraft, the Gloster Meteor. The Meteor was powered by the Rolls-Royce Welland engine, which was the next stage in development from the Power Jets W.1. In 1946, the first prototype (""W4041"") was placed in the Science Museum in Central London, where it is exhibited today in the Flight Gallery. A full-size replica has been placed on an obelisk on a roundabout near the northern perimeter of Farnborough Airfield in Hampshire, as a memorial to Sir Frank Whittle. A similar full-size model is on display in the middle of a"
"the Quteibi tribe at Thumier in Aden in October 1947. On 25 May 1950, the squadron took delivery of its first English Electric Canberra B2 thereby becoming the RAF’s first jet bomber unit. Without a training unit in existence, conversion to type was achieved by the squadron itself with assistance from English Electric test pilots. Most of the type’s service trials were flown by the squadron and, by the end of 1950, nine Canberra B2s were held on strength. Out of the pool of type-qualified crews, a wing of five squadrons had been formed by August 1952 at Binbrook, comprising"
"Arado Ar 234 The Arado Ar 234 ""Blitz"" (English: lightning) was the world's first operational jet-powered bomber, built by the German Arado company in the closing stages of World War II. Produced in very limited numbers, it was used almost entirely in the reconnaissance role, but in its few uses as a bomber it proved to be nearly impossible to intercept. It was the last Luftwaffe aircraft to fly over Britain during the war, in April 1945. In late 1940, the Reich Air Ministry (, abbreviated RLM) offered a tender for a jet-powered high-speed reconnaissance aircraft with a range of"
"Gloster Meteor The Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter and the Allies' only jet aircraft to achieve combat operations during the Second World War. The Meteor's development was heavily reliant on its ground-breaking turbojet engines, pioneered by Sir Frank Whittle and his company, Power Jets Ltd. Development of the aircraft began in 1940, although work on the engines had been under way since 1936. The Meteor first flew in 1943 and commenced operations on 27 July 1944 with No. 616 Squadron RAF. The Meteor was not a sophisticated aircraft in its aerodynamics, but proved to be a successful"
"test of the first Soviet atomic bomb in 1949. The Soviets were known to have built copies of the US Boeing B-29 as the Tupolev Tu-4, which could reach the UK while carrying one of these weapons. Several new reports on air defence were quickly produced. By 1950 these had resulted in two broad deployment plans, ROTOR and VAST, covering systems in the UK and overseas, respectively. ROTOR was to be a two-phase program, initially providing coverage only in the ""Core Defended Area"" around London, and then be gradually expanded to cover the entire British Isles over time. For Phase"
"effort becoming Red Duster while English Electric's became Red Shoes. The Thunderbird originated in a proposal to English Electric in 1949 to develop a missile to provide ground-based air defence to the British Army in the field. As such, it was intended to replace the 3.7-inch heavy anti-aircraft gun that fulfilled this role during World War II. Like the 3.7, the new missile would be operated by the Royal Artillery. English Electric created a Guided Weapons Division to work on the project. While the project was starting, the Ministry of Supply (MoS) began work on what would become known as"
"of the war, English Electric started production under licence of the second British jet fighter, the de Havilland Vampire, with 1,300 plus built at Samlesbury. Their own design work took off after the Second World War under W. E. W. Petter, formerly of Westland Aircraft. Although English Electric produced only two aircraft designs before their activities became part of BAC, the design team put forward suggestions for many Air Ministry projects. The aircraft division was formed into the subsidiary English Electric Aviation Ltd. in 1958, becoming a founding constituent of the new British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) in 1960; English Electric"
"October 1952, Britain's first nuclear bomb, detonated on HMS ""Plym"" on the Montebello Islands in the state of Western Australia, was made of plutonium-239 mostly made at Windscale (which began production in 1950), with some possibly from Chalk River Laboratories in Ontario, Canada (where the Tube Alloys project was later moved). W. T. Glover & Co. of Salford were important electricity cable manufacturers throughout the early 20th century. BAE Systems Wind Tunnel Department at Warton—one its four wind tunnels—the High Speed Wind Tunnel—can test speeds intermittently up to Mach 3.8 (trisonic)—the second fastest in the UK, to the University of"
"latest Supermarine jets, including the Attacker and Swift. By 1947 he had made the first flights and masterminded the development and production test flying of all 52 variants of the Spitfire – the only allied fighter to remain in full production and front-line service throughout the Second World War. He also made the first flights of the Dumbo (an experimental variable-incidence wing torpedo bomber to S.24/37), the Spiteful, the Seafang and, on 27 July 1946, the Attacker, the Royal Navy's first jet fighter. Later he became a military aircraft marketing executive for the British Aircraft Corporation – BAC. After his"
"V bomber The ""V bombers"" were the Royal Air Force (RAF) aircraft during the 1950s and 1960s that comprised the United Kingdom's strategic nuclear strike force known officially as the V force or Bomber Command Main Force. The three strategic bombers, known collectively as the ""V class"", were the Vickers Valiant, which first flew in 1951 and entered service in 1955; the Avro Vulcan, which first flew in 1952 and entered service in 1956; and the Handley Page Victor, which first flew in 1952 and entered service in 1958. The V Bomber force reached its peak in June 1964 with"
"on two fuselage-mounted Metrovick F.2/4 ""Beryl"" engines. The design used a relatively conventional aerodynamic design, Petter having determined that the necessary performance could be attained without adopting swept wings or a swept tail. The authorities doubted its suitability for operations from unprepared fields and at low altitude but could see its potential as a bomber design; numerous manufacturers refused to take on the design. Petter left Westland to join the English Electric company in December 1944, where he was appointed by Nelson to form a design team and encouraged to develop his design. In 1945, English Electric formalised its own"
"English Electric Canberra bombers in the early 1960s. In mid-1963 a team of senior RAAF officers headed by the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Valston Hancock, travelled to the United States to evaluate the General Dynamics F-111 (then known as the ""TFX""), North American A-5 Vigilante and F-4C Phantom II strike aircraft. While in the United States, the team also inspected the Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker, which was considered necessary to support these aircraft. In addition, the RAAF officers travelled to the United Kingdom and France to evaluate the BAC TSR-2 and Dassault Mirage IV, respectively. In its final"
"events. It will be used as a centrepiece for engineering excellence, showing what an advanced design it was for the period. V bomber The ""V bombers"" were the Royal Air Force (RAF) aircraft during the 1950s and 1960s that comprised the United Kingdom's strategic nuclear strike force known officially as the V force or Bomber Command Main Force. The three strategic bombers, known collectively as the ""V class"", were the Vickers Valiant, which first flew in 1951 and entered service in 1955; the Avro Vulcan, which first flew in 1952 and entered service in 1956; and the Handley Page Victor,"
"the Gloster E28/39 with a single turbo-jet engine (invented by Sir Frank Whittle) took off from the company's flight test airfield at Brockworth. This was followed by the twin-engined Gloster Meteor, the only jet to be used by the Allied Forces during World War II. The speed of the Meteor enabled it to fly alongside V1 flying bombs, tip them off course, to crash before they could arrive at their London target. In 1945 the Meteor gained a world speed record of 606 mph (975 km/h) and it was eventually put into service by 12 nations. Following World War II"
"English Electric's aviation interests, Hawker Siddeley built on de Havilland's heavy aircraft experience and Westland consolidated helicopter manufacture. The British government also controlled route-licensing for private airlines and also oversaw the newly established publicly owned British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) long-range and British European Airways (BEA) short and medium-range airlines. In 1951, the Ministry of Supply asked Vickers-Armstrongs to consider a military troop/freight development of the Valiant V bomber with trans-Atlantic range as a successor to the de Havilland Comet. The concept interested BOAC, who entered into discussion with Vickers and the RAF. In October 1952, Vickers were contracted to"
"Gloster E.1/44 The Gloster E.1/44 was a British single-engined jet fighter design of the Second World War, developed and produced by the British aviation firm Gloster Aircraft Company. It is amongst the first jet-propelled aircraft to be developed and had been produced on an experimental basis. Following favourable testing of the turbojet-powered Gloster E.28/39 in 1941, Britain's first jet propelled aircraft, there was considerable interest in the application of these new propulsion technology to fighter aircraft. Thus, during 1942, work had commenced upon a development of a larger twin-engined fighter aircraft, which would become the Gloster Meteor, the first Allied"
"Gloster E.28/39 The Gloster E.28/39, (also referred to as the Gloster Whittle, Gloster Pioneer, or Gloster G.40) was the first British jet-engined aircraft and first flew in 1941. It was the third jet to fly after the German Heinkel He 178 (1939) and the Italian Caproni Campini N.1 motorjet (1940). The E.28/39 was the product of a specification which had been issued by the Air Ministry for a suitable aircraft to test the novel jet propulsion designs that Frank Whittle had been developing during the 1930s. Gloster and the company's chief designer, George Carter, worked with Whittle to develop an"
"a ""shadow factory"" at Samlesbury Aerodrome in Lancashire to build Handley Page Hampden bombers. Starting with Flight Shed Number 1, the first Hampden built by English Electric made its maiden flight on 22 February 1940 and, by 1942, 770 Hampdens had been delivered – more than half of all the Hampdens produced. In 1940, a second factory was built on the site and the runway was extended to allow for construction of the Handley Page Halifax four-engined heavy bomber to begin. By 1945, five main hangars and three runways had been built at the site, which was also home to"
"the best individual thesis. Cochrane graduated in 1952. Upon graduation Cochrane joined the renowned 617 Squadron (""Dambusters"") where he flew the English Electric Canberra bomber, Britain's first jet powered bomber. He then served with No. 90 Squadron RAF and No. 214 Squadron RAF with whom he flew the Vickers Valiant, the first of Britain's three V Bombers. Cochrane saw active service with No. 214 Squadron RAF during the Suez Crisis in 1956 when he flew bombing raids on Egyptian airfields from Malta. His talents soon marked him out as a potential test pilot, not only an excellent pilot, he had"
"On December 28 it moved to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, and on January 6, 1943, sailed from the New York Port of Embarkation aboard the RMS ""Queen Elizabeth"" for Scotland. The group arrived on January 13 without aircraft at its first base in the United Kingdom, RAF Kings Cliffe. There it received new P-47C Thunderbolts and trained on them until April, when it began combat operations from a new base at RAF Horsham St Faith. Johnson, still classified as a bomber pilot, was not officially qualified to fly the P-47 in combat. To rectify that, he was sent to Llanbedr,"
"in England grew, with nine bases being constructed for the use of SAC bombers, and another six throughout the United Kingdom for support of SAC activities. In 1953, shortly after the death of Stalin, the first Boeing B-47 Stratojets, from the 306th Bombardment Wing, arrived in England for 90 days duty, beginning what would be known as Reflex operations in the United Kingdom. On 26 July 1956, a Boeing B-47 Stratojet under the division's operational control was practicing touch-and-go landings at RAF Lakenheath crashed into a nuclear weapons storage facility causing damage to several weapons stored at the site. It"
"its influence in world affairs. It therefore restarted its own nuclear weapons development effort, which was now codenamed High Explosive Research. The first British atomic bomb was tested in Operation Hurricane on 3 October 1952. In November 1946, the Air Ministry issued an operational requirement (OR230) for an advanced jet bomber capable of carrying a bomb to a target from a base anywhere in the world with a cruising speed of and at an altitude of between . The bomb weight arose from an earlier operational requirement for an atomic bomb (OR1001), which specified a maximum weight of . The"
"of Hawker Hurricanes and Airspeed Oxfords that were under the command of No. 9 Group RAF. By the end of the war, over 3,000 bombers had been built and flown from Samlesbury. After the war, such aircraft as the De Havilland Vampire, the English Electric Canberra (the first aircraft designed and built wholly by English Electric) and the English Electric Lightning were built on the site. The site has also produced parts for the Anglo-French Concorde and the ill fated TSR2 project. When English Electric merged to become BAC and later British Aerospace, it worked closely with the nearby sister"
"high-altitude jet-powered bomber; following the start of the Second World War and the Battle for France, a greater national emphasis on fighter aircraft arose. Power Jets and Gloster quickly formed a mutual understanding around mid-1939. In September 1939, the Air Ministry issued a specification to Gloster for an aircraft to test one of Frank Whittle's turbojet designs in flight, resulting in the development of the Gloster E.28/39, the first British jet aircraft. The designation adopted for this initial proof of concept aircraft, ""E.28/39"", originated from the aircraft having been developed in conformance with the 28th ""Experimental"" specification issued by the"
"With Petter on board, English Electric was put on the MAP short list to develop Britain's first jet bombers. Petter started work for English Electric in July 1944. As he was unencumbered by an existing design office, he had the opportunity to personally recruit a team of ambitious young engineers. His first recruit was Frederick Page, who was then a senior aerodynamicist at Hawkers. Petter first discussed the B1/44 proposal with Page in October 1944, and appointed him as his chief stress man the following April. In 1945, Petter proposed a study contract to the MAP for a high-speed, high-altitude"
"Cranwell, becoming the first British and Allied jet aircraft. Even before the Pioneer flew, the Air Ministry encouraged Carter to design a practical jet fighter since the Pioneer was not suitable because it was unlikely that an engine of at least thrust would be available in the near future. Carter therefore decided that the design would require two engines. The result was designated the F.9/40 which first flew on 5 March 1943 and would find worldwide fame as the Gloster Meteor. His later designs included the E.1/44. He supervised the design of the Gloster GA-5 delta-wing fighter (later the Gloster"
"11 October 1956, a Valiant B.1 (WZ366) of No 49 Squadron was the first RAF aircraft to drop a British operational atomic bomb when it performed a test drop of a down-rated Blue Danube weapon on Maralinga, South Australia. Windscreen blinds were fitted in advance of the test to protect the crew from the intense flash of light from the nuclear detonation. Following the landing of the aircraft after deploying the weapon, WZ366 was assessed for potential damage and for radioactive contamination. On 15 May 1957, a Valiant B(K).1 (XD818) dropped the first British hydrogen bomb, the Short Granite, over"
"carry two 1,000 lb (454 kg) bombs or eight unguided rockets. Following its retirement from service in 1956, Attacker F.1 Serial number ""WA473"" was placed on display on the gate at RNAS Abbotsinch. Completed at VAs South Marston factory in July 1951, it had served with 702 and 736 Naval Squadrons. In late 1961 it was moved to the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Somerset, UK. Supermarine Attacker The Supermarine Attacker is a British single-seat naval jet fighter built by Supermarine for the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm (FAA). The type has the distinction of being the first jet fighter"
"made from concrete. The first five Valiants produced were completed to a pre-production standard, the first being WP199. On 21 December 1953, the production aircraft conducted its first flight; this had again occurred within the schedule that Edwards had promised. On 8 February 1955, this first production Valiant was delivered to the RAF. Britain's ""V-bomber"" force, as it had been nicknamed in October 1952, formally entered operational service on that day. The Victor and Vulcan would soon follow the Valiant into service, for a total of three types of nuclear-armed strategic bombers in RAF service. In September 1957, the final"