Sir Frank Whittle

Whittle, Sir Frank (b. 1907). Frank Whittle, the distinguished aeronautical engineer and inventor of the jet engine, began his career as an apprentice with the Royal Air Force at the RAF College, Cranwell. While still a student he developed the idea of the gas turbine or ‘jet’ engine. In the lead‐up to the Second World War he was assigned to a special project to develop the engine, and despite shortage of materials and much official incomprehension was brilliantly successful. His team produced a viable gas turbine and installed it in an aeroplane to create the first British jet fighter in the closing stages of the war.

Sir Frank Whittle 1907-, English aeronautical engineer. Whittle was one of the first men to associate the gas turbine with jet propulsion. Previously the gas turbine had been regarded as a machine for supplying shaft power, but Whittle saw it as an ideal means for providing jet propulsion in aircraft. As a Royal Air Force engineering officer, he patented in 1930 the basic designs for the turbojet engine. During the 1930s and early 1940s he and his associates constructed a number of turbojet engines and jet planes. These experiments led to the modern jet aircraft engine. The Germans and the Italians who constructed and flew the first jet aircraft used the basic engine designs that Whittle patented in the 1930s; the early American jet engines were also based on Whittle's work.

Whittle, Sir Frank (1907–96) British aeronautical engineer, who pioneered the development of the turbojet engine. He entered the Royal Air Force (RAF) as an apprentice and later studied at the RAF engineering school and at Cambridge University. In 1930 he patented his first turbojet engine but received little official support. In 1936 he founded a company called Power Jets and was later given special permission to carry out development work on jet propulsion. A plane powered by the Whittle engine had its first flight in May 1941 and entered service with the RAF in 1944. He was knighted in 1948.