Gustavus Green

Who was Gustavus Green?

Gustavus Green was a British engineer who made significant contributions to the design of early aircraft engines. Born in Hounslow on 11 March 1865 Green opened a bicycle factory in Bexhill-on-Sea, and in 1905 built his first lightweight, water-cooled aircraft engine and soon established the Green Engine Co to produce them. Green engines were much used by the pioneers of British aviation, for example Alliott Verdon Roe and Samuel Cody. His later engines were too heavy for the aircraft of the time, but were used to power torpedo boats during World War I.

In 1909, Green was awarded a £1,000 prize by the British government for his work on aero engines, and another £5,000 in 1914.

After World War II, Green became involved in the development of the 'flexible deck' concept for aircraft carriers, his ideas for such a deck culminating in the successful landing of a de Havilland Sea Vampire flown by Eric "Winkle" Brown on an experimental rubber deck installed on HMS Warrior.

Green became an honorary companion of the Royal Aeronautical Society in 1958 and he died in December 1964 at his home in Twickenham, a few months before what would have been his hundredth birthday.