de Havilland Engine Company
The de Havilland Engine Company was an offshoot of the de Havilland aircraft building company, which started life as the 'Engine Division of the de Havilland Aircraft Company' in 1926 producing the famous de Havilland Gipsy aero-engine. The company was merged with Bristol Siddeley (BSEL) engines in 1961 with BSEL subsequently becoming part of Rolls-Royce Limited in 1966.
Key facts
What became of it Bristol Siddeley (1961) and Rolls-Royce (1966)
Where it builds · 1
Leavesden, United Kingdom
Component or engine plant
Gipsy Queen, Ghost
Today they are film studios
Every plant is checked against the company’s own website — or that of whoever inherited its history — and placed in its town. A green dot is a working plant; an amber one has closed.
The story
The company was officially formed at Stag Lane in February 1944 and later moved into a factory leased by the government in 1946 at Leavesden, which had earlier been a site for Handley Page Halifax production. This is now the location of Leavesden Film Studios.
It went on to produce one of the early turbojet engines the de Havilland Goblin which saw service in the early post-war de Havilland Vampire fighter.
The later Ghost turbojet propelled early versions of the de Havilland Comet jetliner and the de Havilland Venom fighter.
The company later developed the de Havilland Gnome turboshaft under licence from the General Electric T58 design, but the company was absorbed into Bristol Siddeley Engines Limited (BSEL) in 1961; Bristol Siddeley itself subsequently merged with Rolls-Royce Limited in 1966 and the merged company continued with the "Rolls-Royce" name.
Its engines
The engine families of its own that power aircraft in the encyclopedia.
What it powers
The aircraft families in the encyclopedia that fly on its engines.
Who flies them
The airlines with the most of its aircraft in our documented fleet; this is not a ranking of its order book.
Identity, founding and headquarters from Wikidata; the narrative from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Plants checked one by one on each company’s own website. Counts are of our documented fleet.
Cite
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This page was last updated on September 28, 2026
APA
Vuelopedia. (2026, September 28). de Havilland Engine Company. Retrieved October 19, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/manufacturer/de-havilland-engines
MLA
“de Havilland Engine Company.” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 28 Sept. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/manufacturer/de-havilland-engines. Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.
Chicago
Vuelopedia. “de Havilland Engine Company.” Fundación Poderia. Last modified September 28, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/manufacturer/de-havilland-engines.
Harvard
Vuelopedia (2026) de Havilland Engine Company. Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/manufacturer/de-havilland-engines (Accessed: 19 October 2026).
BibTeX
@misc{vuelopedia_en_manufacturer_de_havilland_engines,
author = {{Vuelopedia}},
title = {{de Havilland Engine Company}},
publisher = {Fundación Poderia},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-09-28},
url = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/manufacturer/de-havilland-engines},
howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/manufacturer/de-havilland-engines}},
urldate = {2026-10-19},
note = {Accessed 2026-10-19}
}Wikipedia
{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/manufacturer/de-havilland-engines |title=de Havilland Engine Company |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-09-28 |access-date=2026-10-19 |language=en}}