Gloster E.1/44

The Gloster E.1/44 was a British single-engined jet fighter design of the Second World War era, built by Gloster as an experimental aircraft to Air Ministry Specification E.1/44 around the Rolls-Royce Nene turbojet. It was a stressed-skin, mid-winged monoplane with a broad fuselage, air intakes ahead of the wing roots and a tricycle undercarriage, quite unlike the twin-jet Meteor. Progress was slow because Gloster concentrated on the Meteor; the first prototype was destroyed in a road accident, and the second made the first flight at RAF Boscombe Down on 9 March 1948. Test pilot Bill Waterton disliked its handling and power, the programme ended in 1949, and its revised tail was reused on the Meteor F 8.