of small gas turbine engines based in commerce township michigan united states . it produces jet engines for cruise missiles and small jet powered aircraft . contents 1 history 2 products 3 see also 4 references 5 external links history edit dr. sam b. williams worked at chrysler on their automotive turbine systems but always imagined a wider set of applications for the small gas turbine engine . he left chrysler to form williams research corporation in birmingham michigan in 1954 . 1 2 in 1981 the company became williams international . it has been building small turbofan engines since the 1950s for use in cruise missiles as well as target and reconnaissance drones . using the missile engines williams developed a series of personal vtol flying craft including a jet powered belt in 1969 the williams aerial systems platform wasp also known as the flying pulpit in the 1970s and the x jet which was evaluated by the united states army in the 1980s . 3 4 the wasp platform was the only competitor to the garrett stamp in the united states marine corps stamp small tactical aerial mobility platform program of the early 1970s . also in the 1980s williams identified a need in the general aviation market for a small light jet engine to power cost effective personal and corporate jet aircraft . the company introduced the fj44 engine which in turn made possible the introduction of a number of small jet aircraft . in 1992 nasa initiated its advanced general aviation transport experiments agate program to partner with manufacturers and help develop technologies that would revitalize the sagging general aviation industry . in 1996 williams joined agate s general aviation propulsion program to develop a fuel efficient turbofan engine that would be even smaller than the fj44 . the result was the fjx 2 engine . williams then contracted with burt rutan s scaled composites to design and build the williams v jet ii a very light jet to use as a testbed and technology demonstrator to showcase the new engine . the aircraft and engine were debuted at the 1997 oshkosh airshow . the production version of the engine the ej22 flew on the prototype eclipse 500 vlj which had evolved from the v jet ii but was subsequently replaced by a pratt & whitney engine . products edit williams wr19 used in cruise missiles and drones williams f107 used in a variety of cruise missiles williams f112 used in cruise missiles and experimental aircraft williams fj22 a derivative of the fjx 2 ; also known as the ej 22 for the vlj market williams fj33 for the vlj market williams fj44 produced for light business jet aircraft a variant of which was used in the virgin atlantic globalflyer williams v jet ii light jet aircraft williams x jet experimental vtol platform from the 1960s williams wr34 turboshaft williams wr44 used in cruise missiles and the foxjet st600 williams wst117 turboshaft see also edit ev1 series hybrid a gas turbine hybrid vehicle prototype chrysler turbine engines references edit 1 richard a. leyes and william a. fleming the history of north american small gas turbine aircraft engines p. 385 williams wasp ii kocivar ben . turbofan powered flying carpet popular science september 1982 . accessed september 2014 . wahl paul . jet flight with no wings . popular science . april 1974 . pp. 88 89 and 152 external links edit williams international corporate website v t e williams research williams international aircraft engines turbojets wr2 j400 wj119 p9005 turbofans ej22 f107 f112 f121 f415 fj22 fj33 fj44 wr19 turboshafts wr34 wts117 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title williams international & oldid 715082697 categories aircraft engine manufacturers of the united statescompanies based in oakland county michiganprivately held companies of the united states navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages deutschbahasa indonesiaitaliano polski edit links this page was last modified on 13 april 2016 at 16 12 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view