Great photographs, thanks for sharing them.

Whittle almost flew an E.28/39 but it was called off at the last moment (IIRC he was in the cockpit at the time). Whilst Power Jets was based at Bruntingthorpe from September 1944 (until May 1946 when it moved to Bitteswell), he would taxi the Gloster Meteor F1’s fairly often – then on 9th October 1945, without permission to, he flew Gloster Meteor F1 EE221. In his own words;

“I felt a sudden urge to do some taxying tests in the Meteor. After some 20 minutes of this I return to Whetstone, but returned to Bruntingthorpe again after lunch. After two flights in a Tiger Moth, I decided to do some more taxying tests. By this time I had acquired a familiarity with the cockpit lay out and with the feel of the aircraft up to take-off speed, and so yielded to an irresistible impulse to take off. I landed after a few minutes at very modest speeds – three days later I flew the Meteor again. This time the duration of the flight was 45 minutes and I attained much greater speeds and height than on the first occasion”

From ‘Aviation in Leicestershire and Rutland’ by Roy Bonser