Whittle, Sir Frank

Whittle, Sir Frank (1907- 1996), inventor, b. Coventry, England.

Frank Whittle joined the Royal Air Force at the age of sixteen. Four years later, he wrote an essay about the future of flying and in it he mentioned the need for a new kind of aircraft engine.

He went on thinking about this and came up with the idea of a gas turbine or jet engine. In a jet engine, the thrust which drives an aircraft forward is provided by hot gases emerging from the rear of the engine.

He drew up plans for one and sent them to the Air Ministry. At first they were not interested. Then in 1935 Whittle and some friends formed a company called Power Jets and he was allowed leave from the RAF to build his engine. It was ready to be tested in an aircraft in 1941, and the first British jet flight was made on 15 May by a Gloster E.28/39.

As the Second World War (1939-45) was in progress, tests with jet aircraft were at first kept secret. After the war Whittle was knighted and awarded £100,000 by the government. The Gloster can be seen in the Science Museum, London.

See John Golley Genesis: Frank Whittle and the Invention of the Jet Engine