October 1945 – how WWII innovation paved the way for UK aero sector growth

Among them was aerospace and in October 1945 Sir Frederick Handley Page, the legendary British aircraft industry pioneer, penned an article for The Engineer outlining how war time developments could translate into civil air transport. 

“The war, with its prodigal expenditure of brain and man-hours on the improvement of the aeroplane and its power plant as a fighting machine, has compressed perhaps thirty years of normal technical development into less than six years,” wrote Sir Frederick. “Many of these new technical developments promise much for the future safety, economy, speed, and regularity of air transport. Jet or gas turbine propulsion and its numerous derivatives, rocket power, Radar, laminar flow, and low-drag aerofoils, are all capable of diversion to serve the needs of the transport operator and the user of high-speed travel the world over.”

In the latter years of WWII the jet engine propelled Germany’s Me 262 and the UK’s Gloster Meteor.