In Germany in 1930 Professor Prandtl started research on gas turbine compressors which also led to a patent taken out by Hans von Ohian of Junkers in 1935. Othian-Heinkel later ran a test unit in 1937. By 1939 contracts were taken out by both the British and the Germans for turbo jet units, the Germans being the first to test, and fly on 27th August 1939 the HE178 although not a great success. In 1940 the prototypes for the Welland and Derwent engines commenced and the Italians entered the contest with a radial engine and centrifugal compressor which was a failure. Two BMWOO3 engines were flown in a ME262 in 1941. It was the British though that effectively began the jet age with the first (highly successful) flights of the Whittle W1 engine in the specially designed Gloster E28/29, This success led directly to the Meteor which was designed specifically to capitalise on the new technology.
The Gloster E28/39 taking of from Farnborough in 1945
The Gloster Meteor first flew in 1943 and beat the ME262 into operational Squadron service in 1944 by three months although by the end of the war the Germans did have many more operational jet fighters than the British. The Meteor would have entered service much earlier had the British efforts not been dogged by material shortages and poor decisions in the early war years although it did arrive in time to fill a requirement for high speed aircraft to catch the V1 flying bombs (Buzz-Bomb) in a new terror campaign initiated in the last stages of the war. Only one Squadron, 616 Squadron Royal Auxiliary Air Force operated Meteors in the WWII mainly in the ground attack role as they were not allowed early on to fly too deep into enemy territory due to the secrtecy surrounding the materials used in the Derwent engine which made it much more reliable than the axial-flow turbojets of the ME262 although had they met in combat the ME262 would probably had the upper hand as it was the faster of the two aircraft in addition to being lighter although the Meteor III which reached 616 Squadron before then end of the war went some way towards addressing this deficit.
The United States ended the jet age when they were sent a copy of Whittle's engine and full
design details. This allowed them to build and fly their first jet aircraft the Bell XP-59A on
October 2nd 1942. They also tested the first production Meteor F1 EE210. Later they were also given
the Rolls Royce Nene design which was produced by Pratt & Whitney as the J42 & J48.
The Whittle W2.b was designated the I-40 by GE and given to Allison to manufacture designated the
J33. Another early american engine was the axial flow TG-180/ J35, refined into the TG-190/J47.
The J47 was used in the Sabre and B-47 Stratojet.
Following the end of WWII the engine designers at BMW moved to France via Switzerland where they went to work for Snecma. Led by Hans Oestrich they produced the axial flow ATAR which was to remain in production in one form or another until 1995.
For the next fifteen years the Meteor was at the forefront of jet research and development even while serving the RAF until the next generation of jet fighters began to come into volume service from the middle of the 1950's. The last operational RAF Meteor flight was made by WS787 from RAF Tengah on the 17th August, 1961 which brought to a close a long association with the type although three of the surviving meteors still fly under 'Military' serials and many more became gate gaurdians after their retirement including WA591 which is now in the process of being restored to airworthiness.
