WI: the Gloster E.28/39 developed further?

The early jet was exploring the new powerplant type, while not being much of a combat aircraft. So let's say that British AM decides to push the design further, into a fully-fledged fighter, while putting both further Meteor and Vampire on backburner.
What the RAF can gain, both short- and long-term, what might be the consequences for further (10-15 years ahead) jet fighter designs? Navalized jet available earlier?
 
Tizard recommended that serious thought be given to doing just that after the E.28/39 first flew. Technically it only needed the guns it was designed to have added and a more powerful engine than it first flew with. I've occasionally toyed with the idea of there being a small production run of maybe 100 aircraft to allow for operational testing in various theaters around the world.
 
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I think with an even less sophisticated design than the Meteor what you hopefully get is less of a conviction that the Meteor is "good enough" and more effort put into fielding its successor in the late '40s. I'm not sure whether that actually gets you a de Haviland monoculture or some sort of super-Meteor or, in an ideal world, much greater urgency to develop something better. The basic design that was the common ancestor of the Sea Hawk and Hunter had a prototype (which wasn't that far from the final Sea Hawk design) authorised in 1945, it took two years to build because nobody was that interested in it - if the RAF didn't have a jet they were basically happy with, that could easily have been expedited. Though they might just have ended up with hundreds of Supermarine Attackers.
 
Seriously, if Britain was not so broke and exhausted after WW2, Meteor, Vampire, Comet and Canberra should only have been short service airplanes. Within a decade they should have been replaced by more modern airplanes.

If only there was more money for R&D.

It would also have helped if some prototypes-of-limited-usefulness (e.g. Blackburn Firebrand) were limited to one or two, lessons-learned noted, then move on to the next generation.
 
The further development of the Gloster 28/39 might see a swept wing derivative, hoperfully not worse than either Sabre or the MiG-15?
 
It was only a little aircraft 29ft wingspan and 25ft long weighing 3,748 lb (1,1705 kg) gross and had an endurance of about 45 minutes. The enemy had better be circling the airfield waiting for it to take off.
 
That's enough for small numbers to be used for operational testing, say a flights worth of aircraft each attached to a number of airfields on England's south coast,.
 
Seriously, if Britain was not so broke and exhausted after WW2, Meteor, Vampire, Comet and Canberra should only have been short service airplanes.
Nothing wrong with the Canberra. It filled roles that there really wasn't another Western jet could do. A Fifty year plus lifespan isn't a bad show
 
Let's face it, how many non-US aircraft have the US armed forces ever bought?
In large amounts? Not many although there have been small numbers of aircraft, they have also licence produced variants of a few. There's the English Electric Canberra, Hawker Siddeley Harrier, Pilatus PC-9, BAe Hawk etc. On the ground you have the L7 105 mm and L/44 120 mm tank guns, L118 Light Gun, L16 81 mm mortar, and various small arms.
 
Let's face it, how many non US aircraft have the US armed forces ever bought?

Aeritalia G.222 - C-27 Spartan
AgustaWestland AW101 Merlin - VH-71 Kestrel
Agusta A109E Power - MH-68
AgustaWestland AW119 Koala - TH-119
AgustaWestland AW139 - MH-139
Alenia C-27J Spartan
Antonov An-26
Bombardier Challenger 604 - C-143A
Bombardier Global 6000 - E-11A Sentinel
British Aerospace 125 - C-29
CASA C-212 Aviocar - C-41A
CASA/IPTN CN-235 - C-144/HC-144 Ocean Sentry
Canadair CL-13 Sabre
Chengdu J-7
Dassault Falcon 20 - HU-25 Guardian
De Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver - C-127, L-20A/B, U-6A/B
De Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter - U-1A/B Otter
De Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribou - CV-2/C-7 Caribou
De Havilland Canada DHC-5 Buffalo - AC-2/CV-7A/C-8A Buffalo
De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter - UV-18 Twin Otter
De Havilland Canada DHC-7 Dash-7 - RC-7B/EO-5C
De Havilland Canada DHC-8 Dash-8 - E-9A Widget
Diamond DA20 Katana
Diamond DA40 Star - T-52
Dornier Do328 - C-146 Wolfhound
Embraer EMB 314 Super Tucano
English Electric Canberra - B-57/RB-57 Canberra
Eurocopter AS365 Dauphin - HH-65 Dolphin
Eurocopter EC145 - UH-72 Lakota
Fokker F27 Friendship - C-21A Troopship
Handley Page HP.137 Jetstream - C-10A
Hawker Siddeley Harrier - AV-8 Harrier
Hawker Hawk - T-45 Goshawk
IAI Kfir - F-21
MMIST CQ-10 Snowgoose
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21
Mikoyan MiG-29
Mil Mi-2
Mil Mi-8/17
Mil Mi-24
Mitsubishi MU-300 Diamond - Raytheon T-1A Jayhawk
PZL M28 Skytruck - C-145 Skytruck
Pilatus PC-6 Porter - AU-23 Peacemaker/OV-12/UV-12 Chiricahua
Pilatus PC-9 - T-6 Texan II
Pilatus PC-12 - U-28A Spectre
Shenyang J-5
Short 330 - C-23A Sherpa
Short 360 - C-23B Sherpa
 
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It was only a little aircraft 29ft wingspan and 25ft long weighing 3,748 lb (1,1705 kg) gross and had an endurance of about 45 minutes. The enemy had better be circling the airfield waiting for it to take off.

Was it ever a good idea for the Axis aircraft to be circling the RAF airfield?
 
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