 In January 1941, Sir Henry Tizard made an informal approach to the de Havilland Aircraft Company, suggesting that the company proceed to design a fighter aircraft that would harness the revolutionary new jet propulsion technology under development, along with an appropriate engine to go with it.While no official specification had then been issued, de Havilland decided to proceed with an exploration of the concept; the company quickly conceived of a single-engined aircraft that had air-intakes set into the wing roots to feed a centrally mounted engine, which made use of centrifugal design.The aero-engine designer Major Frank Halford had been given access to Frank Whittle's pioneering work on gas turbines, which, for the projected jet-powered fighter, Halford decided to proceed with the design of a "straight through" centrifugal engine capable of generating 3,000 lb of thrust, which was considered to be high at the time.