The de Havilland Engine Company was an offshoot of the

de Havilland The de Havilland Aircraft Company Limited () was a British aviation manufacturer established in late 1920 by Geoffrey de Havilland at Stag Lane Aerodrome Edgware on the outskirts of north London. Operations were later moved to Hatfield in H ...

aircraft building company, which started life as the 'Engine Division of the de Havilland Aircraft Company' in 1926 producing the famous

de Havilland Gipsy The de Havilland Gipsy is a British air-cooled four-cylinder in-line aircraft engine designed by Frank Halford in 1927 to replace the ADC Cirrus in the de Havilland DH.60 Moth light biplane. Initially developed as an upright 5 litre (300 ...

aero-engine. The company was merged with

Bristol Siddeley Bristol Siddeley Engines Ltd (BSEL) was a British aero engine manufacturer. The company was formed in 1959 by a merger of Bristol Aero-Engines Limited and Armstrong Siddeley Motors Limited. In 1961 the company was expanded by the purchase of t ...

(BSEL) engines in 1961 with BSEL subsequently becoming part of

Rolls-Royce Limited Rolls-Royce was a British luxury car and later an aero-engine manufacturing business established in 1904 in Manchester by the partnership of Charles Rolls and Henry Royce. Building on Royce's good reputation established with his cranes, they ...

in 1968.

History

The company was officially formed at Stag Lane in February 1944 and later moved into a factory leased by the government in 1946 at Leavesden, which had earlier been a site for

Handley Page Halifax The Handley Page Halifax is a British Royal Air Force (RAF) four-engined heavy bomber of the Second World War. It was developed by Handley Page to the same specification as the contemporary twin-engine Avro Manchester. The Halifax has its or ...

production.Lumsden 2003, p.136. This is now the location of

Leavesden Film Studios Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden is an studio complex in Leavesden in Watford, Hertfordshire, in South East England. Formerly known as Leavesden Film Studios and still colloquially known as Leavesden Studios or simply Leavesden, it is a film an ...

. It went on to produce one of the early turbojet engines the

de Havilland Goblin The de Havilland Goblin, originally designated as the Halford H-1, is an early turbojet engine designed by Frank Halford and built by de Havilland. The Goblin was the second British jet engine to fly, after Whittle's Power Jets W.1, and the f ...

which saw service in the early post-war

de Havilland Vampire The de Havilland Vampire is a British jet fighter which was developed and manufactured by the de Havilland, de Havilland Aircraft Company. It was the second jet fighter to be operated by the Royal Air Force, RAF, after the Gloster Meteor, and ...

fighter. The later

Ghost A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...

turbojet propelled early versions of the

de Havilland Comet The de Havilland DH.106 Comet was the world's first commercial jet airliner. Developed and manufactured by de Havilland in the United Kingdom, the Comet 1 prototype first flew in 1949. It featured an aerodynamically clean design with four d ...

jetliner and the

de Havilland Venom The de Havilland DH 112 Venom is a British post-war single-engined jet aircraft developed and manufactured by the de Havilland Aircraft Company. Much of its design was derived from the de Havilland Vampire, the firm's first jet-powered combat ...

fighter. The company later developed the

de Havilland Gnome The Rolls-Royce Gnome is a British turboshaft engine originally developed by the de Havilland Engine Company as a licence-built General Electric T58, an American mid-1950s design. The Gnome came to Rolls-Royce after their takeover of Bristol S ...

turboshaft under licence from the

General Electric T58 The General Electric T58 is an American turboshaft engine developed for helicopter use. First run in 1955, it remained in production until 1984, by which time some 6,300 units had been built. On July 1, 1959, it became the first turbine engine t ...

design, but the company was absorbed into Bristol Siddeley Engines Limited (BSEL) in 1961; Bristol Siddeley itself subsequently merged with

in 1968 and the merged company continued with the "Rolls-Royce" name.

Engines

Piston engines

de Havilland Ghost The de Havilland Ghost (originally Halford H-2) was the de Havilland Engine Company's second design of a turbojet engine to enter production and the world's first gas turbine engine to enter airline service (with British Overseas Airways Corpo ...

de Havilland Gipsy Minor The de Havilland Gipsy Minor or Gipsy Junior is a British four-cylinder, air-cooled, inline engine that was used primarily in the de Havilland Moth Minor monoplane, both products being developed in the late 1930s. Design and development The ...

de Havilland Gipsy Major The de Havilland Gipsy Major or Gipsy IIIA is a four-cylinder, air-cooled, inverted inline engine used in a variety of light aircraft produced in the 1930s, including the famous Tiger Moth biplane. Many Gipsy Major engines still power vintag ...

de Havilland Gipsy Six The de Havilland Gipsy Six is a British six-cylinder, air-cooled, inverted inline piston engine developed by the de Havilland Engine Company for aircraft use in the 1930s. It was based on the cylinders of the four-cylinder Gipsy Major and w ...

de Havilland Gipsy Queen The de Havilland Gipsy Queen is a British six-cylinder aero engine of capacity that was developed in 1936 by the de Havilland Engine Company. It was developed from the de Havilland Gipsy Six for military aircraft use. Produced between 1936 a ...

de Havilland Gipsy Twelve The de Havilland Gipsy Twelve was a British aero engine developed by the de Havilland Engine Company in 1937. Approximately 95 were manufactured. It was known as the Gipsy King in Royal Air Force service. Applications * de Havilland Albatros ...

de Havilland Gipsy King The de Havilland Gipsy Twelve was a British aero engine developed by the de Havilland Engine Company in 1937. Approximately 95 were manufactured. It was known as the Gipsy King in Royal Air Force service. Applications * de Havilland DH.91 A ...

Turbojets

de Havilland Gyron The de Havilland PS.23 or PS.52 Gyron, originally the Halford H-4, was Frank Halford's last turbojet design while working for de Havilland. Intended to outpower any design then under construction, the Gyron was the most powerful engine of its ...

de Havilland Gyron Junior The de Havilland Gyron Junior was a military turbojet engine design of the 1950s developed by the de Havilland Engine Company and later produced by Bristol Siddeley. The Gyron Junior was a scaled-down derivative of the de Havilland Gyron. ...

Turboshafts

Rolls-Royce Gem The Rolls-Royce Gem is a turboshaft engine developed specifically for the Westland Lynx helicopter in the 1970s. The design started off at de Havilland (hence the name starting with "G") and was passed to Bristol Siddeley as the BS.360. When R ...

Rocket engines

de Havilland Sprite The de Havilland Sprite is a British rocket engine that was built by de Havilland in the early-1950s for use in RATO (Rocket-assisted take off) applications. A developed engine with slightly less thrust but a longer burn time was known as the ...

* de Havilland Super Sprite *

de Havilland Spectre The de Havilland Spectre is a rocket engine that was built by the de Havilland Engine Company in the 1950s. It was one element of the intended mixed power-plant for combination rocket-jet interceptor aircraft of the Royal Air Force, such as t ...

References

* Gunston, Bill. ''World Encyclopedia of Aero Engines''. Cambridge, England. Patrick Stephens Limited, 1989. * Lumsden, Alec. ''British Piston Engines and their Aircraft''. Marlborough, Wiltshire: Airlife Publishing, 2003. .

External links

British Jet Engine Website

{{DHaeroengines Aircraft industry in London Companies based in Watford De Havilland

de Havilland Engine Company The de Havilland Engine Company was an offshoot of the de Havilland aircraft building company, which started life as the 'Engine Division of the de Havilland Aircraft Company' in 1926 producing the famous de Havilland Gipsy aero-engine. The c ...

Rocket engine manufacturers of the United Kingdom