The de Havilland Ghost (originally Halford H-2) was the de Havilland Engine Company's second design of a

turbojet The turbojet is an airbreathing jet engine which is typically used in aircraft. It consists of a gas turbine with a propelling nozzle. The gas turbine has an air inlet which includes inlet guide vanes, a compressor, a combustion chamber, and ...

engine to enter production and the world's first gas turbine engine to enter

airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers or freight (cargo). Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines ...

service (with BOAC). The Ghost powered 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, de Havilland Aircraft Company. Much of its design was derived from the de Havilland Vampire, the firm's first jet-p ...

de Havilland Comet The de Havilland DH.106 Comet is 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 features an aerodynamically clean design with four ...

and SAAB 29 Tunnan. It was a scaled-up development of the

Goblin A goblin is a small, grotesque, monster, monstrous humanoid creature that appears in the folklore of multiple European cultures. First attested in stories from the Middle Ages, they are ascribed conflicting abilities, temperaments, and appearan ...

. On 23 March 1948, John Cunningham achieved a new world altitude record of . He was flying a Vampire Mk I modified by replacement of the Goblin engine with a Ghost engine, and installation of extended wing tips.

Design and development

The Ghost originated when de Havilland started work on what was to become the

Comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that warms and begins to release gases when passing close to the Sun, a process called outgassing. This produces an extended, gravitationally unbound atmosphere or Coma (cometary), coma surrounding ...

in 1943.

Frank Halford Major Frank Bernard Halford CBE FRAeS (7 March 1894 – 16 April 1955) was an English aircraft engine designer. He is best known for the series of de Havilland Gipsy engines, widely used by light aircraft in the 1920s and 30s. Career Educate ...

's first design, the H-1, was just entering production and he was able to meet the power requirements of the Comet by scaling up the H-1. The resulting H-2 used ten larger combustion chambers in place of the Goblin's sixteen smaller ones, using bifurcated "split intakes" which were fed by each diffuser duct to effectively make twenty inlets. While the prototype was being built, de Havilland bought Halford's firm and reformed it as the de Havilland Engine Company, renaming the H-1 and H-2 as the Goblin and Ghost respectively. The Ghost was running in 1944, and flew in 1945. This was long before the Comet or Venom was ready for flight. By this point the Ghost had been selected for the Swedish "JxR" fighter project, which eventually turned into the Saab 29 Tunnan. During the design of the Tunnan, Sweden received German data on

swept wing A swept wing is a wing angled either backward or occasionally forward from its root rather than perpendicular to the fuselage. Swept wings have been flown since the pioneer days of aviation. Wing sweep at high speeds was first investigated in Ge ...

designs via

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

and redesigned the plane to incorporate this planform. The Tunnan first flew in this form in 1948. For production versions of the Tunnan, the Ghost was built under licence by Svenska Flygmotor (later to become Volvo Aero) as the RM2. The Ghost was also licence built in Italy by

Fiat Fiat Automobiles S.p.A., commonly known as simply Fiat ( , ; ), is an Italian automobile manufacturer. It became a part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in 2014 and, in 2021, became a subsidiary of Stellantis through its Italian division, Stellant ...

and in Switzerland by Sulzer Brothers. The Ghost would next be seen when the Comet I first took to the air on 27 July 1949. It was powered by the Ghost 50, which was the interim powerplant, pending the availability of the

Rolls-Royce Avon The Rolls-Royce Avon was the first axial flow jet engine designed and produced by Rolls-Royce. Introduced in 1950, the engine went on to become one of their most successful post-World War II engine designs. It was used in a wide variety of ai ...

engine which was to be used in the Comet 2. Several versions of the Ghost 50 were produced, ending with the Ghost 50-Mk.4 installed in the Comet 1XB which was built to test new fuselage construction techniques introduced to address problems with the Comet 1. During development, the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

also asked for an improved version of the

de Havilland Vampire The de Havilland DH100 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 Meteo ...

with greater load-carrying capacity and thus a larger engine. The resulting design was known as the

Venom Venom or zootoxin is a type of toxin produced by an animal that is actively delivered through a wound by means of a bite, sting, or similar action. The toxin is delivered through a specially evolved ''venom apparatus'', such as fangs or a sti ...

, and shared many features with the earlier Vampire. The Ghost first flew in the Venom on 2 September 1949. By this point the engine had been running for some time and was already at the Mk.103 model of . The Venom was used primarily as a

fighter bomber A fighter-bomber is a fighter aircraft that has been modified, or used primarily, as a light bomber or attack aircraft. It differs from bomber and attack aircraft primarily in its origins, as a fighter that has been adapted into other roles, wh ...

, although some were also produced as

night fighter A night fighter (later known as all-weather fighter or all-weather interceptor post-Second World War) is a largely historical term for a fighter aircraft, fighter or interceptor aircraft adapted or designed for effective use at night, during pe ...

s. The Venom was later selected by the

Fleet Air Arm The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is the naval aviation component of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy (RN). The FAA is one of five :Fighting Arms of the Royal Navy, RN fighting arms. it is a primarily helicopter force, though also operating the Lockhee ...

for their

interceptor Interceptor may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''The Interceptor'', a British drama series on BBC One * Interceptor (game show), ''Interceptor'' (game show), a British television game show that ran during 1989 * Interc ...

needs, and was widely used as the Sea Venom.

Variants

;Ghost 3 (DGt.3): ;Ghost 45:rated at ;Ghost 48 Mk.1:(103) rated at ;Ghost 48 Mk.2:(104) ;Ghost 50 Mk 1:rated at at 10,000 rpm with a weight of ;Ghost 50 Mk 2:rated at ;Ghost 53 Mk 1:(105) ;Ghost 103:rated at ;Ghost 104:rated at ;Ghost 105:rated at ;Svenska Flygmotor RM2: Licence production and development at 10,250 rpm ;Svenska Flygmotor RM2B: RM2 with afterburner wet at 10,250 rpm; dry at 10,250 rpm. ;Fiat 4001: (Ghost 48 Mk.1)

licence production.

Applications

* de Havilland Sea Venom * "Ghost-Lancastrian" * Saab Tunnan * Crusader (speedboat)

Specifications (Ghost 105)

References

External links

* * {{Swedish military gas turbine aeroengines

Ghost In folklore, a ghost is the soul or Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit of a dead Human, person or non-human animal that is believed by some people to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely, from a ...

1940s turbojet engines Centrifugal-flow turbojet engines