Talk:De Havilland Goblin

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When the author claims that this was the second sort of engine to fly, what does s/he mean?

It means that it was the second British engine to take to the air powering an aeroplane (the first being the Whittle Unit used in the Gloster E.28/39} as opposed to ground runs on a testbed. This is significant in that it means the engine has reached a stage in development where it has proven both powerful and reliable enough to risk the possible loss of a pilot and aircraft.

Later engines were tested on modified airliners/bombers such as the Lancastrian and Lincoln (as well as in the tail of modified Vickers Wellingtons) and as these were multi-engine aircraft the risk of engine failure of the test jet engine was of much less consequence. Ian Dunster (talk) 10:36, 13 April 2008 (UTC)