In 1950, the Wright Aeronautical Corporation, a division of the Curtiss-Wright Corporation, entered the aircraft gas turbine business when its President Roy T. Hurley traveled to Britain and obtained licenses to manufacture and sell the Bristol Olympus turbojet and Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire turbojet in the U.S. Wright qualified the Sapphire as the military J65, and production began in 1952 and ended in 1957. A total of 10,023 J65 engines were built by Wright and Buick. It powered aircraft such as the Republic F-84 Thunderstreak and RF-84F Thunderflash, the Martin B-57A and RB-57B Canberra, the North American FJ-3 and FJ-4 Fury, Douglas A4D-1 Skyhawk, Grumman F-11 Tiger, and Chance-Vought Regulus missile.
This J65-W-16A artifact was removed from the museum's Douglas A-4C Skyhawk jet aircraft. A total of 1,288 J65-W-16A engines were built for the North American FJ-3 and FJ-4 between December 1955 and December 1958.
