General Electric I-A

The General Electric I-A was the first working jet engine in the United States, manufactured by General Electric and achieving its first run on 18 April 1942. It followed the arrival of an imported Power Jets W.1X, which was flown to the United States from Britain in 1941, together with plans for the improved Power Jets W.2B, and like those designs it used a centrifugal compressor. General Electric drew on its turbocharger experience for the work, which began in secrecy at the River Works plant in Lynn, Massachusetts, under the cover name Type I Supercharger. The I-A added partitions in the blower casing to separate the airflow to each of ten reverse-flow combustion chambers, a change suggested by Frank Whittle, and developed 1,250 pounds-force of thrust. A pair of I-A engines powered the Bell XP-59A on its first flight in October 1942, and the design led directly to the General Electric J31.