Who was Frank Whittle?
Inventor of the Jet Engine.
Date and Place of Birth:
1st June 1907, Newcombe Road, Coventry, West
Midlands, England.
Family Background:
Eldest son of a factory Foreman.
Education:
Earlsdon School, Coventry. Leamington College.
Royal Air Force College, Cranwell, Lincolnshire. Peterhouse College,
Cambridge University.
Chronology/Biography of Sir Frank Whittle:
1926: Selected for
officer and pilot training t the Royal Air Force College, Cranwell,
Lincolnshire.
1928: His final
thesis for the R.A.F. College contains the germ of an idea for jet
propulsion. Becomes a commissioned officer.
1929: Develops his
idea for the jet engine using a gas turbine as the method of propulsion.
1930: Applies to
Patent the jet engine.
1931-32: Becomes
a test pilot on flying boats and floatplanes.
1932: His patent
is accepted but the Air Ministry ignores the idea.
1933: Unknown to
Whittle Hans von Ohain, a 22 year old student at the University
of Goettingen, Germany was also beginning his research on gas turbine
propulsion.
1934: Flight Lieutenant
Whittle is sent to Cambridge University as a mature student. Encouraged
to develop his idea by the academics.
1935: Meets two
former R.A.F. pilots at Cambridge who are keen to develop the jet
engine.
1936: Builds equipment
to develop jet engine in a factory in Rugby.
1937: The Company
he has formed with colleagues from Cambridge, Power Jets tests its
first experimental bench engine which is called the WU.
1938: Testing is
moved to a derelict foundry in Lutterworth for reasons of safety.
1939: The Air Ministry’s
Director of Scientific Research finally acknowledges his ideas.
Power Jets are awarded a contract to develop a full flight engine,
which is named the W1. Gloster Aircraft Company are given the contract
top build a suitable plane to carry the engine. 27th
August The Heinkel He 178 developed from Ohain’s work flies for
the first time but is clearly unstable.
1941: 15th
May. The first test flight of a Gloster E28/39 held.
1942: A prototype
of Whittle’s engine is shipped to the United States to the General
Electric Company.
1943: Building of
the United States first jet plane.
1944: First official
news of jet engined aircraft as a Gloster Meteor jet flies in combat.
This was to prove the only allied jet to take part in World War
Two. The Power Jets company is nationalised.
1946: Whittle is
taken off the development of jet engines and resigns in protest.
Awarded the Daniel Guggenheim medal for the development of the jet
engine.
1948: Invalided
out of the R.A.F. due to problems of stress. Knighted by King George
the Sixth. Becomes honorary technical adviser to the commercial
airline the British Overseas Airways Corporation.
1953: Joins the
Shell oil company as a technical adviser on drilling.
1959: Works as an
independent consultant and lecturer.
1961: Becomes technical
consultant to Bristol Siddeley Engines company.
1976: Emigrates
to the United States of America.
1977: Becomes Research
Professor at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis.
1986: Receives the
Order of Merit from Queen Elizabeth the Second.
1991: Awarded the
Charles Stark Draper Prize jointly with Hans von Ohain.
1992: Awarded the
SAE Aerospace Engineering Leadership Award again jointly with Hans
von Ohain.
Written Works:
- 1952: “Jet
– The Story of a Pioneer”. (Autobiography).
Marriage:
1. 1930: Divorced 1976.
2. 1976: To Hazel.
Places of Interest:
LONDON:
Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon.
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE:
Newark Air Museum.
STAFFORDSHIRE:
Cosford Aircraft Museum, R.A.F. Cosford.
WEST MIDLANDS:
Bagington Airport Museum, Coventry.
SCOTLAND:
Museum of Flight, East Lothian.
Date and Place of Death:
8th August 1996, Columbia, Maryland, United States
of America of cancer.
Age at Death:
89.
Site of Grave:
Ashes interred at Protestant Chapel, RAF Cranwell.
