Top 10 Astonishing Facts about Sir Frank Whittle

Top 10 Astonishing Facts about Sir Frank Whittle

Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle at the desk by British Government from Wikimedia Commons

Lieutenant Frank Whittle served in the Royal Aviation Force as an English air officer. He was well-known and well-recognized for being the only inventor of the turbojet engine. Because of his discoveries and his dedication to showing his breakthroughs, Whittle was one of the finest “hands” engineers of the twentieth century.

1. He was the son of a mechanical engineer

Frank Whittle was born on June 1, 1907, in Earlsdon, Coventry, England, to Moses Whittle and Sara Alice Garlick. His first efforts to join the RAF were unsuccessful due to his lack of height, but he was approved as an apprentice on his third attempt in 1923. In 1928, he earned his pilot’s license.

2. He attended the Royal Airforce College 

Whittle made his first of three attempts to join the Royal Air Force in 1922, when he was 15 years old (RAF) Whittle’s zeal secured him a position as one of five apprentices to acquire a cadetship at the Royal Air Force College, Cranwell, for officer and pilot training after a three-year spell as an airframe and engine fitter apprentice.

Whittle began focusing on achieving higher speeds and altitudes for propeller-driven aircraft after graduating in 1928, despite the fact that he was just 21 years old at the time.

3. Whittle’s thesis discussed rocket propulsion and gas-turbine propellers 

Whittle authored a thesis in 1928, during his second year of college, that lay the groundwork for a transformation in aeronautics that would affect his life and the lives of everyone involved in and outside the aviation business. His thesis, Future Development in Aircraft Design, explained that aircraft could, in theory, travel faster at higher altitudes because the atmosphere was thinner, resulting in less resistance to forward passage through the air; however, he demonstrated by calculation that this would require the turbine engine.

Whittle was assigned to RAF Wittering in September 1929 to train as a flight teacher. It was here that he demonstrated that jet propulsion produced from a gas turbine was a viable possibility through calculation. In 1930, Whittle petitioned for a patent, which was granted in April 1931. Unfortunately, the Air Ministry was convinced that the notion was flawed, and the patent was not kept secret.

4. He started building his turbojet when he became a fighter pilot 

Frank Whittle by British Government from Wikimedia Commons

He became a fighter pilot after graduating from Cranwell and was offered instructor’s training at the Central Flying School. Whittle was able to spend some time building his first turbojet while juggling other jobs. Whittle’s idea was ahead of its time in terms of material requirements at the time.

As a result, the idea was rejected by the Air Ministry. Despite this, Whittle applied for a patent in 1930 for his idea. Whittle sought to attract the attention of manufacturers throughout manufacturing, and he was given a patent in 1932. Due to the Great Depression, however, he had limited luck in locating prospective producers.

5. He went to Cambridge University 

He moved to Cambridge University to study in the Department of Engineering in 1934, while still in the RAF and graduated with a BA with first-class honours in the Mechanical Sciences Tripos after just two years of study.

Sir Melvill Jones, Professor of Aeronautical Engineering, was his supervisor. Whittle was pushed by his Cambridge colleagues to pursue his jet engine idea further, resulting in the results that we now take for granted.

6. He had a serious competitor in Nazi Germany 

The Gloster Aircraft Company finished an experimental plane in April 1941, and it was modified with an early Whittle engine for testing. The Gloster-Whittle E28/39 performed its maiden test flight on May 15, 1941, after receiving an airworthy engine.

Simultaneously, Whittle was unaware that his idea had a competition in Nazi Germany. Hans Von Ohain was the first to develop a turbojet, which he flew in a Heinkel plane in 1939. Von Ohain did not have the last say, despite the fact that his engine was the first to fly.

7. He shared his research with companies

Gloster E.28 39 “Whittle” by Oxyman from Wikimedia Commons

Whittle generously shared his knowledge with British Rolls Royce and the American General Electric Company. Whittle’s enthusiasm rekindled interest in the creation of manufacturing engines and the plane that would become the Gloster Meteor twin-engine fighter.

Collaboration on jet engine research with the General Electric Company and the Bell Aircraft Corporation began in September 1941 in the United States, but Britain was not far behind, with the Meteor aircraft powered by Rolls-Royce “Welland” entering service in May 1944.

8. Whittle’s Power Jet Company was nationalized 

Whittle’s Power Jets was nationalized by Prime Minister Clement Attlee’s Labor administration in 1946, and it was obliged to confine its operations to component research. Whittle and several coworkers quit as a result of this.
Whittle withdrew from the RAF with the rank of Air Commodore, a knighthood, and a cash reward of 100,000 pounds two years later.

9. He suffered many mental breakdowns 

Sir Frank Whittle relocated to the United States in 1976 after suffering repeated mental breakdowns and marrying Hazel Hall, a former US Navy nurse. Whittle has been named a visiting research professor of Aerospace Engineering in the US Naval Academy’s Division of Engineering and Weapons in Annapolis, Maryland.

10. He received the highest honour the office could ever give

Plaque frank whittle statue by Snowmanradio from Wikimedia Commons

In 1978, while Whittle was doing new research, the Federation Aviation Administration awarded him the Extraordinary Service Award, the highest award that the office can give. It was a shining and outstanding moment in a quiet appointment that ended in September 1979.

He took the job of NAVAIR Research Professor at the United States Naval Academy from 1977 to 1979 after relocating to the United States in 1976. Whittle died of lung cancer in August 1996 at his home in Columbia, Maryland. In a BBC poll of the 100 Greatest Britons in 2002, Whittle was voted 42nd.

The jet engine was a success, especially in the United States, where the technology was eagerly adopted. Whittle left the Royal Air Force in 1948 as an air commodore. In the same year, he was knighted and moved to work in the United States, where he became a research professor at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis. Whittle passed away on August 9, 1996.