De Havilland spectre rocket engine (No. 13008), by De Havilland Aircraft Company, Hatfield, England, 1954-1958

De Havilland Spectre No 13008. The Spectre rocket engine propelled Britain's SR-53 interceptor aircraft. The SR-53 was intended as a manned stop-gap while guided ground-to-air missiles were being developed. Spectre burned kerosene fuel in hydrogen peroxide. It became the first fully controllable British rocket engine to fly when a trial unit was fitted to a Canberra aircraft in 1956. This photograph shows a cutaway of the Spectre in which the 'pepper pot' holes of the combustion chamber's injector head are clearly visible.