ANEARLYPURPOSE-BUILTGASTURBINERESEARCH ANDDEVELOPMENTESTABLISHMENT

by DAVID W. LYNE

Summary: In 1941 the rapidly developing Power Jets Company, formed to exploit Frank Whittle's gas turbine patents moved to a site at Whetstone in Leicestershire. This article outlines the history and development of the company and describes the form and function of those buildings built during the War years which still remain on site. Turbine testing is still carried out on the site as part of the activities of GEC-Alsthom. Introduction the RAF as a Cranwell apprentice, followed by a three years RAF cadetship. He was an The Power Jets Factory at Whetstone may avid reader of technical books and always well have been the first factory in the world interested in engines. During his built specifically for jet engine development apprenticeship he wrote papers on jet and initial production. It was sanctioned by propulsion for aircraft, based on a the Government in 1940. Most of the conventional piston driven engine driving a original buildings are still standing, and fan to produce compressed air into which indeed the brick built cooling water pond fuel was injected and burnt to produce a jet has recently been re-commissioned as part thrust. of a large new turbine test facility. This idea had been patented long before in One has to be mindful of the fact that when 1917 and the Italians had used it in a the factory was conceived, only 34 years had practical, but unspectacular way in 1940. elapsed since the Wright Brothers flight in However, in place of the piston driven North Columbia in 1907, and neither engine Whittle favoured a fan compressor, technical or production processes had altered driving a turbine on the same shaft, the extra significantly in that period. They were power being obtained by burning fuel in the entering an era which would lead to air stream between the two. A crucial incredible increase in knowledge on the component of the design was the combustion metallurgical front, and influence world chamber. Existing compressor and turbine travel for ever. technology were only part way towards the art required since no one had ever tried to The driving force behind the Whetstone burn so much fuel per volume of combustion project was Frank Whittle, later and now Sir chamber before. Whittle recognised that the Frank Whittle, KCB, CB, FRS. He was born thermal efficiency of the gas turbine on June 1st 1907 at Earlsdon in Coventry, increases with altitude compared with a moving to Leamington in 1916 where his reduction in the efficiency of a reciprocating father ran a small engineering company. internal combustion engine. After local council primary and a Leamington secondary education, he joined

1 The Air Ministry were not impressed and Initial tests of the prototype engine, first on turned down his request for help to produce the combustion chambers and then on 12 a prototype. He persisted with his ideas, April 1937 of the complete unit were however, and took out a provisional patent undertaken at the BT-H factory at Rugby. in January 1930 based on his earlier work. In The prototype had a double-sided centrifugal the early 1930s he approached several large compressor, a single chamber combustion companies, i.e. British Thomson-Houston system and a single stage impulse expansion (BT-H), Reid and Sigrist and Armstrong turbine with an output of about 3,000hp. Siddeley to try to get them to take up his Thus, even at this early stage the prototype ideas, but to no avail. engine was giving an output power equal to the later development piston engines. The He continued his career in the RAF and by compression ratio was 4:1 double that of a July 1934 he had been selected by the Air contemporary centrifugal compressor. The Ministry to take up a two year mechanical resultant smoke, heat, dirt and general science tripos at Cambridge. In January conditions adjacent to the test site must have 1935, his original patent expired, and been quite intolerable to the other BT-H because of his personal financial situation, workers. The disruption was so great that the he could not afford the £5.00 renewal fee BT-H works engineer asked them to find and so the patent lapsed. In May 1935, another test site, and after some negotiation, however, he was put in touch with an the old BT-H foundry site, the Ladywood investment company, O.T. Falk and Works at Lutterworth, Leicestershire, was Partners. Through them and with financial offered to Power Jets Ltd for engine testing assistance from friends, together with some purposes. of his own money, a company, Power Jets Ltd, was incorporated in March 1936 with During this time, the financial state of the an authorised capital of £10,000. Following company remained very unsatisfactory, even this the Air Ministry did give tacit approval when the Air Ministry finally came up with to his work, but no financial assistance was £2,500 towards an experimental engine, forthcoming. having by then witnessed the first engine being run-up at the less than ideal test site at Whittle immediately filed three BT-H. This new experimental engine with 'improvement' patents, and the financial multiple combustion chambers was ordered position of the new company, Power Jets by Power Jets from BT-H and assembled in Limited was such that it placed an order their Rugby works and taken to Lutterworth with BT-H for the detail design and to be tested as a complete assembly, manufacture of an engine prototype, and for where it first ran in April 1938, them to allow Whittle to carry out some limited testing at their Rugby factory. Various Government departments witnessed Although still a serving officer, Whittle had the running of this multi-combustion secured an agreement with the Air Ministry chamber engine, which resulted in the Air to work on the project for no more than six Ministry agreeing to purchase it, pay for hours per week, and the Air Ministry further development, and to fund a new retained 'Free Crown User' status for the experimental aircraft with such an engine. patents. These ministry 'rights' to the BT-H agreed once more to make the engine inventions were ultimately to be of some on a cost-plus basis for Power Jets and significance. Gloster Aircraft were given the order for the

2 air frame by the Air Ministry. This engine, Eventually Power Jets, developing their known as the Whittle W 1, was completed version of the W2 engine, were told by the when the Second World War began. The WI Air Ministry that car makers Vauxhall of engine, fitted to the prototype Gloster Luton could be given the task of producing E28/39, first flew on the 15 May 1941. This six W2 engines to the Power Jets design. day is still remembered by a group of This idea was dropped after a few months engineers who worked alongside Whittle. and Power Jets were given the order for the Known as the reactionaries they hold a re- even more powerful W2 'B' engine, but they union dinner annually or so near the were not allowed to use either BT-H or anniversary date. The Germans had also Rover for its manufacture as this would been working to produce a jet-propelled delay other work they had undertaken to do aircraft and their prototype, the Heinkel for the Ministry. He178 had first flown in August 1939. By October 1940, several W2 'B' engine Whittle himself, still a serving officer was designs existed, but the only fully-fledged told by the Air Ministry to stay with Power design, with back-up, design expertise and Jets Ltd, and later in 1939 they ordered a experimental results totally integrated, was more powerful design engine the W2 from that of Power Jets. BT-H and Vauxhall both him. He tried to get the Rover Car Company admitted that the requirement to achieve the interested in the production of jet engines for Ministry's target of 2,000 units a year Power Jets, but when the Ministry heard production rate within 18 months would not about it, they discouraged Rover, saying that be easy to meet. It was suggested that Rover they, the Air Ministry, wanted to take a who already managed two 'Shadow' more active part themselves. By April 1940, factories, could possibly cope. This was the Air Ministry, who as you recall, had retained 'Free Crown Use' for the new agreed, as was the Power Jets design, and on patents and had also taken note that the 14 January 1941 Rovers were given a pre- original patent had elapsed, then approached production order for 30 engines and Glosters Rover and BT-H to produce jet engines for 12 aircraft. This was followed by further including design and development in their instructions for 20 engines per week and 30 own right, on the grounds that Power Jets more per week by making use of sub- were a development organisation and should contractors. The W2B engine also formed not worry about production. the basis of the version produced by the General Electric Company of America. This gave Rover a 'free pass' into a new industry and infuriated Whittle, since Rover However, Rover were not at all happy in were neither to share their problems or their having to accept Power Jets Design solutions with Power Jets. Whittle tried to authority. Notwithstanding these difficulties regain design control but was thwarted by the first flight on 15 May 1941 gave some the Air Ministry, who insisted that Rover moral encouragement to Frank Whittle continue. What is more, BT-H also although this did not particularly help Power continued with the production of their own Jets Ltd because the Government policy version of the Whittle W2 engine for the Air appeared to place more reliance on the Ministry. Frank Whittle felt he was being Rover Car Company production capability. cheated and by-passed. Power Jets realised that if they were to succeed in getting their own design properly

3 established they had to, have access to full may have built research facilities, in the production facilities. The Ladywood works main the work there was being undertaken at Lutterworth were overcrowded despite by well established aircraft companies with having moved some of the design staff to existing production facilities. nearby Brownsover Hall and renting a railway carriage for the combustion design The site chosen was then a rural area engineer. bordering the west side of the road between Cosby and Whetstone, adjacent to the Park Assembly and testing sequence Farm at NGR SP 556967. There was adequate road access and the 57.5 acre site Apart from the turbine, compressor, shaft allowed plenty of room for subsequent and cast casing, the remainder of the jet expansion. The western site boundary was engine was essentially made of sheet metal. the embankment of the then operative former Great Central Railway's line from Throughout the development of the jet Leicester to London. The site was also engine it had always been the case that small closeto the existing Ladywood works and piece testing of the engines would take place offices at Lutterworth and the design before complete engine assembly and test. offices at Brownsover Hall in Rugby. It For example the turbine blades could be was isolated from areas of high developed first as a single blade, with population and other industrial studies made of flow over them, using pieces concentrations which might have attracted of cotton as indicators of the air flow. enemy bombing raid attention. In addition the proposed test area would be protected Similarly, the combustion chambers and fuel against trespass by the existing railway nozzles were each designed and tested as embankment which itself would also act as a individual items. This also had the noise barrier. On account of the noise advantage that discrete component local inhabitants eventually managed to development could proceed alongside have testing limited to no later than 8.00 complete engine development. pm. For safety reasons the 'overspeed' test The compressor and its shaft were spun-up buildings could be constructed near the in the test house and only finally was the embankment and be sufficiently isolated to complete engine run up. protect both people and other buildings from potential damage. The jet exhaust frequently A new site at Whetstone set fire to the railway embankment. Engine drivers sometimes refused to take their trains Repeated pressure by Whittle had to have past the test bays if they could see that the some effect, and eventually the, a new jets were running. factory site at Whetstone near Leicester was sanctioned by the Air Ministry in October There was also a resource of trained 1941 and by May 1942 manufacture at engineering manpower in the region but it Whetstone had commenced. This may well was thought that the site was far enough have been the world's first green-field site away from established centres of bad where jet engines were designed, researched, practices and trades union influence which developed and then produced on a was then present in, for example, Coventry. production basis. Although the Germans There was some evidence apparently of were ahead of the British at this time and Communist-led influence on the Whetstone

4 site, and at times the workforce were said means of a wire fence, having an entrance not to be producing good work. Many of the with a gatehouse onto the Cosby Road. In work force were drafted into the area by the the 1940s some parts of the site were still Ministry of Labour rather than be used for agricultural purposes, cattle grids conscripted for National Service and it was keeping in the animals. Unfortunately the necessary to build a hostel for their cows found they could 'kneel' across and accommodation. This was situated to the were often found in the works area (DWL south of the office block but no physical 1960s interview with security guards). evidence of this now exists. It was, from author's interview information, a pre- The buildings were functional, typically of fabricated building which was demolished as brick construction, with small paned cast soon as the Ministry of Aviation iron window frames, originally with black relinquished their interest in the out blinds. Whetstone site, on leasing it to English Electric Co. Ltd. in 1955. The basis for the Main workshop roofs were of corrugated lease was that for the first four years the rent asbestos on lightweight steel trusses. would be £1,640 per annum but for the Corrugated asbestos sheets also covered the remaining 14 years it would increase to gable ends. £19,200 per annum. The site later became a GEC site and is now occupied by GEC- Other buildings had flat concrete asphalted Alsthom companies mainly. roofs, the exteriors were painted in camouflage swirls, of which traces still The facility as originally built consisted of exist. two workshops and an office block, built well back from the public road. These still The buildings were designed and financed retain their identity today, albeit with some by the Ministry and built to a fixed cost alterations and additions which can be (reportedly 2s [10p] per cubic foot for discerned by an examination of the various simple factory buildings rising to 8s [40pj phases of building. The original two for complicated test bays) and to strict workshops and offices are shown as Blocks specifications by local contractors. It is 1, 2 and 3 respectively on Figure 1. probable that the bricks were supplied by the local brickworks at Blaby. The buildings Among the special defence precautions erected by the Ministry were very similar to taken against air raids was the provision of those erected elsewhere throughout England sixteen above-ground shelters to protect the and Wales during the last war and their workforce. There was also an Air Raid standard was such that fifty years later, those Precautions (A.R.P.) post on site. Two 20 buildings that had been subject to regular mm cannons were located on the roof of the maintenance are still very acceptable office building for defence against surprise structures. low-level air attack. Underground fuel storage tanks were constructed to prevent The Whetstone site was fully operational by fire risk. As a security measure the footpath 1943, and the maximum rate of engine from Cosby to Littlethorpe and Whetstone production was 20 per month by 1944. railway station was diverted and an These engines were fitted to the first enclosed-sided foot bridge built over the test squadron of twin-engined Gloster Meteor area. The whole site was made secure by fighter aircraft which were used to catch and

5 destroy the V.1 'flying bombs'. Much of the Block Z production work would have been sub- This was a smaller block, again of five bays contracted to both local and other 50ft (15.2m) wide but only 120ft (36.6m) engineering companies. long and 15ft (4.6m) headroom, it lay south of Block 1 and was used for development Buildings on the Whetstone site in 1943 purposes. One section was occupied by and their uses special blade milling equipment designed by an engineer who had been on loan from the Figure 1 shows the buildings on site in British United Shoe Machine Company in January 1944, many of which are labelled Leicester. He played an important role in with their then current uses, for developing such machining for Power Jets. development, production and testing Problems with three-dimensional blade purposes. The organisation chart of 1944 has machinery were apparently not dissimilar to also survived which shows the names of those encountered in the manufacture of senior personnel and their areas of shoe lasts. Next to this was a broaching responsibility. (Plate 9 shows the site in machine for producing the 'fir-tree' design 1945). root fixing for the blades into the forged rotor of the turbine. Also in this block were a sand- and shot-blasting unit and Block 1. several items of test equipment. These This was a single storey production facility included apparatus for monitoring air flow and consisted of five 50ft (15.2m) wide across the turbine blades using cotton bays, each 195ft (59.4m) long with 15ft threads, testing combustion chambers and (4.6m) headroom beneath the roof trusses. fuel nozzles. Special rigs were made here This workshop accommodated sheet metal for testing the compressor and its shaft in operations with operatives working at the test house Block 13 (see below) and benches and welding bays. There were also also for the full engine run up carried out in some machine tools here. Some Blocks 15 and 16 (see below). experimental items, particularly the sheet metal combustion chambers, were also Block 2 is still in use as a machine and produced in this area. Crack detection assembly shop, but has been increased in research was also undertaken since stress size since 1943. crack propagation was a major problem on the high alloy materials being used for Block 3 - - Administration Block. This two storey block was 275ft (83.8m) blades and rotors etc. No heavy overhead long and 25ft (7.6m) wide with short craneage was necessary since no single item transverse wings sections at either end and was very heavy, the assembled engine was closest to the public road. Block 3 was weighing only a few hundred pounds. The the original office block, it was constructed shop foreman had an office in the middle of of brick with textured facing bricks on the the shop floor. east wall facing the road, the flat roof was This workshop facility is still in use for originally drained into cast-iron drain pipe storage and as manufacture and assembly headers, with 'PJ 1941' cast on them. These shops. (See Plate 1). were subsequently removed and replaced by blocked-in pipes. Heating was by means of

6 a hot water system and cast-iron radiators Block 7 - Shot Blast House. with ventilation bricks below each window. No longer in existence.

Frank Whittle had his office on front of the Block 8 - First Aid upper floor of the south wing with a view This block is still in use as a surgery (see over to Cosby and Countesthorpe whilst the Plate 4). It has a single storey, area 47ft ground floor housed a small metallurgical (14.3m) by 25ft (7.6m), with an internal section. The north wing contained height of 9ft (2.7m), built of brick with a flat production drawing offices and development asphalt roof without any parapet. With steel- drawing offices on both floors. The block is framed windows, the external walls have still in use as offices and is illustrated in been rendered and painted. Plate 2. (Plate 10 shows the same block in 1945). Block 9 - Labour Office. This single storey brick building has a flat Block 4 - Main Boiler House. concrete roof, covered by asphalt. It is 30ft This was the boiler house for Blocks 1, 2 (9.1m) by 45ft (13.7m) and 9ft (2.7m) high and 3. It was 50ft (15.2m)long x 40ft and now serves as a gatehouse. (12.2m) wide and has been demolished. It originally housed two coal-fired Ruston and Block 10 No 2 Substation & Transformer Hornsby Horizontal Boilers with mechanical House. stokers. The system worked at 100 psi steam This sub-station is still in use but has been pressure. incorporated within the extension to Block 2 workshop. Block 5 - Canteen.. This building is still in use as a restaurant, Block 11 – No 1 Overspeed Test House. with a single storey it has a floor area 100ft This has two storeys and was of similar (30.5m) by 120ft (36.6m) and headroom of construction to those above having a floor 15ft (4.6m). It was constructed in the same area of 20ft (6.1m) by 15ft (4.6m). Block 11 style as the workshops and was large enough was located well away from the original to feed 300+ workers on a shift basis. buildings for safety reasons, the building Block 6 - Rolling Mill, Pattern and Model still exists but now serves as an oil store. Shop, Millwrights Shop and Garage. Block 12 - Trailer Pump House. Of single storey construction with steel truss Originally used by the fire brigade, this asbestos-clad roof with a floor area 200ft building no longer exists. (60.9m) by 40ft (12.2m), this building served as foundry, pattern and model shop, Block 13 - Steam Turbine House. and garage (see Plate 3). Here the various Located in the far south west corner of the wooden models for aero-dynamic tests site, this building was used for compressor would be made and the foundry were testing. It was 52.5ft (16.0m) by 60ft responsible for casting the individual turbine (18.3m) in floor area with 30ft (9.1m) blades from high duty alloy. The base headroom in the main bay, it was of brick materials being supplied by firms such as construction with small paned windows. Wiggin. This building is still in place today and used as garage and workshops. The author is indebted to Mr D. Brown of Lincoln, the retired Chief Engineer of GEC

7 Gas Turbines for the following information air (from a compressor under test, driven by on the operation of this rig. By 1944 Block the steam turbine) to an experimental ram jet 13 housed the boiler, a Lamont type, chosen which Power Jets had been asked to help because of its operational flexibility and develop. This entailed setting up a ram-jet steam conditions. It replaced an earlier engine to the north of the compressor test boiler-turbine combination that came from house, out in the open and was very noisy. the Northampton power station. Hearsay In a ram-jet the forward velocity of the unit evidence was that the Lamont boiler was caused air to be compressed in the inlet from an ex-World War I destroyer. A chamber, the compressed air was then used double-ended steam turbine running at to bum fuel in a combustion chamber from approximately 18,000 RPM drove a which the hot exhaust gases were discharged compressor unit. The unit under test could through a rear jet or venturi. This was the be observed from the observation room type of propulsion used by the German V1 alongside, where manometer (pressure), `flying bomb' in World War II. temperature, speed and thrust readings could be taken on the compressor assembly Block 13 is extant and still in use as a test (following the usual practice of testing bay but without the steam boiler and turbine engine components separately). The steam (Plate 5). Adjacent was a pond, 60ft turbine had to be controlled by hand throttle (18.3m) by 100ft (30.5m) and 6ft (1.8m) from the boiler house for a period of 10-15 deep with 15in (38cm) thick brick walls and minutes at an accuracy of better than 5 RPM lined with asphalt, having a capacity of in 10,000 in order to take steady state 170,000 gallons (772,8351itres). The open readings etc and so calculate performance tank stored water for cooling the exhaust curves. These were particularly stringent steam and boiler feed water. Located requirements. partially below ground level with a banked- up blue brick parapet, the pond remains in The compressor would be run with a very good condition. It has now been depressed (pressure) inlet to keep down the drained and re-lined to provide cooling stresses and to simulate various atmospheric water for a new GE-GEC Turbine Test Bay conditions and for some time during early being provided at Whetstone, an almost testing it was not possible to tie up thrust identical use to that for which it was first with mass flow. Eventually, after sealing of build over 50 years ago. other sources, it was realised that the walls and roof of the building were porous and air Block 14 - Aerodynamic Test House. was coming through the fabric of the Block 14 is now 55ft (16.8m) by 70ft building. It became necessary then to install (21.3m) and 30ft (9.1m) high, brick- built another screw compressor (of Lysholm with an unequal pitch asbestos-clad roof manufacture) to 'suck-down' the test cell and supported by steel joists (see Plate 6). (It is calibrate the building. This was driven from not known to what extent this building is the other end of the steam turbine. original). In this building actual components and scale models, made in either Block 2 or Mr J. Brown of Cheltenham, Mr D. Brown's Block 6, were used to develop blades, brother, who worked with Frank Whittle at turbine discs and other engine parts. The Whetstone as a combustion engineer, also Browett and Lindley compressors in Block states that: 'The compressor test house was 16 provided a source of compressed air. also used on one occasion to provide ducted

8 Block 15 - Atmospheric Pressure and Lindley compressors, which were Combustion Chambers Test House second-hand when installed in 1942 and This was 55ft (16.7m) by 70ft (21.3m) in only scrapped in 1994. Their purpose was to area with 10ft (3.0m) clear height under the supply air to the High Pressure Combustion joists with a pitched steel truss roof Bays (Block 17), to the Aerodynamic Test structure. Bays 1 to 5 of Block 15 and the House (Block 14) and to the Block 15 associated laboratories were specifically Atmospheric Combustion Test House (Block built for testing and developing individual 15) when necessary. The pipes carrying this combustion chambers. They ran at just air still run from the back of Block 16 to the above atmospheric pressure to simulate high front of Block 17. altitude flying (36,000 ft (10,973m)) and each combustion chamber used air at rate Block 17 - High Pressure Combustion between 1.5. and 5 pounds per second Bays supplied by electric blower units. Bay 5 was This building was 30ft (9.1m) by 50ft used for the study of aerodynamics, (15.2m) feet and 9ft (2.7m) high, with a low including blade tests and Bay 4 for exhaust pitch asbestos-covered steel joist roof. Here gas analysis - the laboratory being part of similar test work was carried out to that in this requirement. Block 15, but at higher pressure simulating conditions at ground level. One section was The 'squib' room (see Figure 3) was set aside for aerodynamic tests and two for associated with detailed design development combustion testing. of the fuel injection, especially that required for slow speed running, when the atomising Blocks 18 & 19 - Supercharger Test effect of the burners tended to be lost. Houses. Actually according to verbal evidence from These two buildings were for final engine Mr. J. Brown (q.v.), Whittle lost assembly testing (see Figure 2). These approximately two years of development important buildings, are in fact two pairs of time in the early days while attempting to test cells, (i.e. four cells in all) both pairs are developer a 'vaporiser' system (like a similar, one being built in 1941 and the other camping stove) before reverting back to the in 1943. Each pair of cells is 58ft (17.7m) eventually, very successful, atomiser which long by 36ft (11.0m) wide and 21ft (6.4m) produced 'droplets' of fuel. The effect of fuel high with two storeys. They have 13in atomisers was simulated and researched by (33cm) thickness brick bases to first floor using wax which when sprayed into water level with 7ft (2.1m) headroom. The ceilings formed small particles which could be of both the first floor and the roof are of 12in collected and measured. Even when (30cm) thickness reinforced concrete, developing a Circular Single Chamber covered with asphalt with a 3in (7cm) slope Multi-Section Combustion Chamber, the for drainage. The ground floor is of 12in practice was followed of only testing one (30cm) concrete on a 15in (38cm) depth section with its igniter and injection burner. hard-core base (See also Plate 11). A trapezium-shaped observation chamber is Block 16 - High Pressure Compressor located between the two test bays, and House serves to view both the left and right test This was 30ft (9.1m) by 40ft (12.2m) by 30ft beds. This chamber is insulated from the test (9.1m) high with a flat roof (see Figure 3 and Plate 7). Block 16 housed two Browett

9 beds by a 13.5in (34cm) wall, a 4.5in (11cm) but because of their peculiar shape, do not air gap and a further 4.5in (11cm) wall and easily convert for other uses. 2in (5cm) of sound insulation. Observation is possible through triple-glazed windows. Access is by way of sound-proof doors. All Block 20 - Fuel Pump House. doors and window fittings had to be air tight. This is no longer in existence. Air entered the test cells at the upper floor level by way of alternate brick-hole vents, Block 21 - Cooling Fan Shed like barn ventilation, through a venturi This building is also no longer in existence, measuring section, down into the ground but the adjacent Cooling Pond, some 30ft floor through grills in the ceiling. This (9.1m) by 15ft (4.6m) in area, with open top arrangement allowed for the air consumption and several feet deep is still in use as a to be measured as part of the efficiency condensate return tank. calculation. Air supply to the viewing area was by way of rectangular ducts from the Block 22 - No 2 Overspeed Test House roof to the chamber and it must have been This substantial brick building, 16ft (4.9m) quite uncomfortable at times of prolonged by7ft (2. 1m) in area and 9ft (2.7m) high with testing. concrete roof is still in existence, but not in use. Behind the test bays are the blast walls to direct the jet stream away from the railway Block 23 -No 1 Substation & Transformer embankment. Three out of the four walls House. remain. These were basically 450 slope Some 65ft (19.8m) long by 15ft (4.6m) wide reinforced concrete ramps supported by and 15ft (4.6m) high with a flat concrete brickwork. In the centre of each blast wall roof, Block 23 is extant and in use. was a spy hole in a small shutter, for direct observation of the jet. It was not the nicest Block 24 - No 2 Boiler House place to be during a run-up. One report This plant provided the plant with hot water suggests the blast ramps only spread the supply, The building is 35ft (10.6m) by 20ft noise further, especially if there was a low (6.1m) in area and 10ft (3.0m) high with an cloud base. asbestos-clad sloping roof. The building is still in use but the plant is now gas-fired. The present state of the buildings can be judged from the photographs. The main Block 25 - Sewage Pump Shed problem is leakage through the flat roof, the Still in use. buildings are otherwise structurally sound,

Notes and Sources Personal Interview - J. Brown, P. Byrne and JET, the story of a Pioneer, by Sir Frank K. Fulton. Whittle, KCB, CB, FRS., (Muller, London, Personal recollection - D. Lyne et al. 1953). Acknowledgements Unpublished archives of GEC. The author wishes to thank not only to all 2.1 Publicity Dept File Unnamed sources. those people who gave oral evidence but 2.2 Plant and Buildings File Drawings, Plan, also the Works Engineer and the Managing Deeds etc. Director of GEC Alsthom Engineering System Ltd, for permission to take Private correspondence - D. Brown and P. photographs and the use of the Plans. Byrne. Particular thanks are due to P. Byrne, ex N. G.T.E. Works Engineer for information and photographs. Update - July 96

Since first producing this article great interest has been shown in it, and several people have provided further information.

Sir Frank has sent words of encouragement through his 'Reactionary' colleague Roy Fowkes of Camberley (who lectures on the Whittle Story), having received a copy that I sent to him.

From the archives of the British Thomson - Houston Co Ltd at Rugby have emerged copies of early letters from Frank, and in one in particular, dated 29 November 1930, from RAF Digby, in acknowledging a visit to Rugby, he writes:

"I hope that the work on which I am privately engaged will result in an engine of turbine type suitable for aircraft".

This surely must be the quote of the century!

And four weeks later, on December 12th 1930 he wrote again to BTH, this time from his home in Coventry where he was on leave.

He mentions that he has applied for patents for a turbo compressor and a turbine type engine for aircraft and as BTH have the necessary plant and experience for producing the engine "I have decided that if you are interested I will supply you with the information on the subject".

Leicester readers should note that he had given some consideration, following discussions with Squadron Leader Reid, of Reid and Segrist, to involve them in the project, but after further discussion with the Squadron Leader, chose British Thomson Houston.

In 1937, Whittle, by now himself a Squadron Leader, wrote to the Chief Engineer (F Samuelson) of British Thomson Houston Co having had various discussions with BTH over the Theory of Turbine Blade Design and in a letter dated 24.12.37 wrote:

"Apparently, in all past and present designs of turbines with axial flow, and employing full peripheral admission, it has always been assumed that the fluid leaves the nozzle ring with uniform velocity and pressure".

Whittle goes on to say:

"This type of flow is not possible owing to the fact that the fluid issuing from a nozzle ring is, in effect, a rotating mass of gas in which the pressure gradient due to the centrifugal force, of every element of the fluid, is large. The variation of velocity is therefore also large".

The implications were that Whittle, a Squadron Leader in the RAF, knew more about turbine blade theory and design than the designers.

He went on to say:

"In my opinion, it is now necessary to discard all previously accepted ideas on turbine efficiency, because there can be little doubt that failure to appreciate the fundamental nature of the flow from a nozzle ring must have been responsible for a large proportion of the losses in turbines".

Adoption of these Whittle principles was later confirmed by test work!

The records relating to the Whetstone factory building in the 1940s, are now known to be at the Public Record Office in Kew, and these will also be followed up as time permits.

Meanwhile, any further information will be gratefully appreciated.

DAVIDLYNE 10 Somerville Road, Leicester, LE3 2ET. Tel: 0116 2891595 or Mobile 0973 189 315.

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