Jet engine

Jet engines are wonderful, far more reliable and efficient than piston engines, and allowed to us to make aeroplanes that go further, faster and far safer than what we had earlier. Sadly they also made air travel cheap enough that it has become a pollution nightmare...! The UK was at the forefront of the technology and Sir Frank Whittle was one of the leaders. This stamp features two Rolls-Royce Conway engines from a Vickers VC-10, the aeroplane was built between 1962-1970 and the engine started life in 1940 and lasted until the final VC-10 was built being replaced by more efficient models.

I wasn't born in 1967, so can't tell you anything about the time.... However I have touched a Rolls-Royce Olympus 593 Turbojet from a Concorde, which was sitting on a dolly in the corner of the engine hall at the Science Museum in London.

A stamp like this today is worth about £1.40... a bit more than 1 shilling and sixpence...