Sir Frank Whittle: the inventor of the Jet engine,

On April, 12 1937 the ‘WU’ (Whittle Unit) bellowed into life, roaring like an angry lioness, and in so doing marked the beginnings of the jet age. We would soon have the delights of jet travel and the dangers of jet fighters as the world became smaller, transformed in a fundamental way by this new invention; as far as impact was concerned, this invention had as much reach as any.

Inventor, engineer, and RAF officer and pilot, Sir Frank Whittle (1907-96) is most famous as the developer of the jet engine. Born on June, 1 1907 in Newcombe Road, Earlsdon, Coventry to the religiously named Moses Whittle and Sara née Garlick, Frank would have just the one sibling, a brother, Alfred. For Frank, having a father who was both a mechanical engineer and owner of a small company was influential for a lad who much inclined towards anything mechanical. Frank helped out in his father’s workshop, gaining valuable practical experience. From these fairly nondescript beginnings he was destined to become an R.A.F. officer and pilot, but most importantly of all to successfully develop the turbojet engine. Frank attended North Leamington School, the R.A.F. College at Cranwell (1923-28) and Peterhouse College, Cambridge (1934-37).

Sir Frank Whittle (right) with Dan Walker of Power Jets in a photograph taken by Gloster assistant chief test pilot Michael Daunt probably during taxiing trials at Brockworth (Image: Courtesy of Jet Age Museum)

Frank’s first application to join the R.A.F. ended in failure as he was judged to be of insufficient height for his age. It was only on his third attempt in 1923, that he was finally accepted as a boy apprentice entrant, aged 16, in a moralistic tale that is akin to Robert the Bruce and the spider, or maybe Alfred the Great and the cake burning; just keep going and you will prevail. Frank qualified as a pilot officer in 1928 having completed his training at Cranwell and was married in 1930 to Dorothy (Lee), with whom he had two sons, Ian and David, a marriage that ended in divorce in 1976.

Initially assigned to a fighter squadron in 1928, Frank would later serve as a flying instructor, then as a test-pilot from 1931-32. As well as being a pilot, he also undertook further studies at both the R.A.F. Engineering School and at Cambridge University. It was whilst training as a cadet that Frank had first written a thesis exploring the feasibility of planes flying at higher altitudes, where air resistance is reduced, thereby achieving greater ranges and higher speeds in consequence. He surmised that the propellers and piston engines of the time would not be adequate, and his inventiveness moved on to rocket propulsion, or propellers driven by gas turbines. It was after his stint at Cambridge that Frank began researching the problems and potentials of jet propulsion. He certainly wasn’t the only one who’d been looking into this as a patent had been submitted by Maxime Guillaume in 1921, however, this was declared unfeasible at the time so the credit for conjuring up the first workable turbojet engine would end up going to Frank, who first put out his idea for jet propulsion in 1928 in a senior thesis at the R.A.F. College but was met by a mix of incredulity and indifference within the Air Ministry, the Government and even private industry.

Frank and Ian Whittle by a Gloster Meteor (Image: Ian Whittle)

In October 1929, Frank concluded that jet propulsion derived from the gas turbine was feasible and in accordance with this belief designed a practical engine, which is where he scored over Guillaume. Having been rejected by the Air Ministry, he patented the idea off his own bat. Frank’s struggles with officialdom were by no means unique as they’re reminiscent of those experienced by another great aviation pioneer of the time, Barnes Wallis, who faced similar hoop jumping with his ‘bouncing bomb’ invention. It’s a truism though, that when the going gets tough for the genius on a mission, he or she gets going! Bizarrely, the Air Ministry excelled itself even further by failing to apply the wisdom of secrecy to an idea that could be a game-changer in the time of war; Frank’s patent for the turbojet (1930), issued into the public domain in April 1931, became available to the likes of Germany, Italy, the Soviet Union and Japan.

By 1936 Frank had the vital financial backing he sought and with R.A.F. approval, and that of valuable associates, was able to form the aptly named Power Jets Ltd. A test engine was built and started up for the first time on the ground in April 1937, an event regarded as the jet engine’s invention. This early proof-of-concept prototype evolved into a flight engine over the succeeding years. Inevitably, long-winded negotiations with the Air Ministry would follow before the project was finally recognised in 1939, by which time, of course, Britain was preparing for another war. Time really was of the essence. In Germany, two independent turbojet projects had been operational since 1936, those of Hans von Ohain at Heinkel AG and Herbert Wagner at the Junkers airframe division. The relatively simple Ohain engine was briefly used to propel the world’s first turbojet-powered aeroplane in August 1939, the first operational jet engine powering the first jet engine flight, but any further development of this engine had been abandoned by 1942. Germany would then concentrate on designs within the Junkers aero-engine division and at the manufacturer BMW. The outbreak of WW2 meanwhile, had finally persuaded the British Government that it should support Frank Whittle’s development.

Meteor & V1 – A Meteor intercepting a V1 flying bomb – artist’s impression (Image: Ian Whittle)

Meanwhile, the Whittle engine continued to progress; now being referred to as the ‘W1’, in April 1941 it was installed in the purpose-built Gloster E.28/39 airframe in readiness for taxi-tests at the company airfield. The following month, the E.28 was conveyed to RAF Cranwell where a series of test-flights commenced on May, 15 with the gentleman in the hot seat being Gloster’s chief test pilot, Jerry Sayer. Frank Whittle’s finest hour had arrived; he’d successfully developed and proved the efficacy of his aircraft jet engine during those critical days of war (1941). With the war still aflame and not going well for Britain, excepting its victory in the Battle of Britain, the United States, whilst still neutral until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in December ’41, had become intensely interested in developments on the other side of the pond. It duly asked for details, plus a jet engine to examine. A team from Power Jets headed to Washington DC, with the ‘W1X’ engine, for General Electric to get its collective head around. G.E. was able to get its own jet engine (installed in the XP-59A Airacomet) airborne in October ’42 just as the war began turning in the Allies’ favour. This was even before Power Jets followed with the Gloster Meteor, which had its maiden flight in 1943, the year before the British Government took over the company.

Full-scale model of a Gloster E.28/39 outside Farnborough Airport – a memorial to Sir Frank Whittle (Image: LambOfDog)

The twin-engined Gloster Meteor jet fighter went into operational service with the R.A.F. in July 1944, the month after D-Day, with the humble Frank Whittle finding himself propelled to the status of national hero as the jets began to down German V-1 rockets. As a result, he went on to become the Government’s technical adviser on turbojet engine design (1946-48). In 1948 Frank finally retired from the R.A.F. with the rank of Air Commodore. Although only just the wrong side of 40, he’d been worn out by it all; the struggle to make his dreams a reality in the face of officialdom’s resistance and technical difficulties had devastated his health. Eventually, Frank took his expertise to America, becoming a research professor at the US Naval Academy, based in Annapolis, Maryland, before moving permanently to the States in 1976. He also remarried, to Hazel (Hall), a retired US Navy nurse, in the same year. Among Frank Whittle’s many honours was becoming a CBE (New Year Honours, 1944), a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1947, and his knighthood in 1948. He also received welcome and deserved recognition from HM Government, when it granted him a tax-free award of £100,000. The Order of Merit (OM) followed in 1986.

Frank Whittle memorial sculpture, Rugby. The sculpture represents a propeller transformed into the internal turbine of a jet engine, showing how Whittle transformed the world of flying forever (Image: G-13114)

Frank Whittle died in Maryland on August, 9 1996, aged 89. His ashes were interred at R.A.F. Cranwell. In 2000, a memorial stone was unveiled to him in the R.A.F. Chapel in Westminster Abbey, which reads, ‘inventor & pioneer of the jet engine’. In his book, Jet: The Story of a Pioneer (1953) Frank tells his own story of the development of the jet engine. The subsequent films Whittle and The Jet Pioneer do the same.

Plaque on the memorial to Sir Frank Whittle in Rugby – simply stated/powerfully put: ‘Sir Frank Whittle – father of the jet engine’ (Image: mattbuck)