
TAKING stock after this Seventeenth S.B.A.C. Display, the strongest impression—apart from the incredible dreariness of the weather—was one of the apparent soundness of the ancillary industry in general and of the engine manufacturers in particular. The engine makers one knew in advance had much to show, as was said last month, but a total of nine engines new to the show was an impressive number. New Engines. The new engines not already dealt with were, alphabetically, the de Havilland Gyron Junior and the Napier NRE19—both "small jobs" in their respective classes. The Gyron Junior follows the implications of its name by being a scaled-down supersonic turbojet—it is about the size of the Orpheus with, reputedly but strictly unofficially, the thrust of a Sapphire or an Avon. The design is based upon a large throughput of air (mass flow) with the low pressure-ratio required at Mach 2. It is a single-shaft engine with what appears to be a six-stage compressor with variable-incidence inlet guide vanes and a two- or three-stage turbine. The engine is almost parallel, with the jet pipe diameter only a little smaller than the air intake. Like the "Senior", the combustion chamber is truly annular and, in this case, it has thirteen fuel burners. The air intake casing forms an integral oil tank and there is a de-icing hot-air bleed from the rear of the compressor. The turbine casing has two curious external bracing flanges.

