Who
was He?
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.
Essential Works:
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:
RAF Chapel, Westminster Abbey, London.
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