The de Havilland Ghost turbojet was one of the first turbojet engine developed in United Kingdom starting from the last years of World War II. Its designer, Frank Halford, developed the prototype H-2 from the smaller turbojet H-1, in order to achieve the performance required for the de Havilland Comet, the first commercial airliner with turbojet engines. During the development phase, the de Havilland acquired the Halford's company and renamed the prototypes H-1 and H-2 as Ghost and Goblin respectively. Both engines were characterized by a quite simple arrangement: a single-stage centrifugal compressor, 10 combustion chambers and a single-stage axial turbine. The first tests on the Ghost engine began in 1944 and as a result it was ready in 1945, even before the aircraft de Havilland Comet. Meanwhile, it was used to equip the Swedish fighter Saab J29 Tunnan, who made his first flight in 1948. In 1949, the Ghost was finally used on the Comet (with 4 engines) and the de Havilland Venom fighter-bomber. In the following years various versions were developed for higher performance until the end of production in the late 1950s. The Ghost was produced under license by Svenska Flygmotor (later Volvo Aero) for the fighter the Saab J29 Tunnan and by FIAT in the "48-1" version for a brief period.

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Technical specifications