Frank Whittle

Title

Frank Whittle

Description

*June 1. 1907 Coventry, England
+August 8. 1996 Columbia, Maryland USA

Whittle joined the RAF in 1923 to become a pilot but was denied due to his lack of height and weight so he became an aircraft mechanic and due to his skills in model making. He was recommended to the RAF College Cranwell in 1926, which would open the route to a commision and a flying career for his graduation he wrote a thesis on the development of aircrafts in which he theorized that piston engines would be replaced by motorjets (an afterburner powered by a piston engine) he graduated second in his class in July 1928.

Whittle continued to work on his engine idea but nobody he showed it to showed much interest in the idea, the Royal Aircraft Establishment (British equivalent to NACA) had already turned away A.A. Griffith for his idea of a turboprop.

In 1929 Whittle was encouraged by his Commander to go to the Air Ministry with his concept but there was little interest and a general opinion that the engine would not work.
On the 16th of January 1930 Whittle took out a patent for jet engine (technically it was not the the first patent for a jet engine this was taken out by Maxime Guillaume in 1921 but never followed up on.

Later in 1930 a friend of Whittle arranged a meeting for Whittle with British Thompson-Houston (BTH) while they were interested the enormous cost of 60.000 pounds deterred them from building the engine

Whittle continued working for the RAF but he wasn't really able to continue his work on jet engines due to a lack of money which peaked in 1935 when he couldn't afford the 5 pound renewal fee for the patent which then expired.

In 1935-36 he was contacted by old RAF comrades and friends and they convinced him to continue his work and help him set up Power Jet Ltd. in march of 1936 in Rugby Warwickshire in rooms from BTH, Whittle was still a commissioned officer and needed special permission from the RAF to work in his own company.

Power Jets built its first engine in April 1937 the WU (Whittle Unit) but the engine was unreliable and expensive which led to financial troubles for Power Jets Ltd.

Since there was little funding the progress slowed down and Heinkel and v. Ohain overtook Whittle and Power Jets by 1938/39.

The trouble became so bad the Power Jets could barely keep operating and Whittles health started to get worse (aided by his sever smoking habit and the abuse of benzedrine and sleeping pills)
only by mid 1939 did the Air Ministry start to inject cash into Power Jets and the company was able to further develop engines which resulted in the Power Jets W.1 which ran for the first time on the 14 of December 1940 and then was placed in the Gloster E.28/39 the first british Jet which took flight for the first time on the 15 of May 1941 close too two years after the Heinkel 178 but in contrast to Heinkel and v. Ohain Whittle wasn't sidelined after his success on the contrary he became an important part of the british jet program which let to the development of further Power Jet Ltd. engines and Planes like the Gloster Meteor.

Power Jets Ltd. was merged with the RAE in 1948 and Whittle had a successful career in Great Britain and the USA receiving many Awards, both military and civilian.