Sir Frank Whittle / signed color photograph (a Glasgow Squadron Print) of the Concorde SST, with personal snapshot
(Undated color photograph of the Concorde SSST, 8 1/4" x 1...)
Undated color photograph of the Concorde SSST, 8 1/4" x 11 /34", signed by aviation pioneer Frank Whittle, with a personal black and white snapshot of Whittle (2" x 2 3/4") affixed. Near Fine; no notable flaws. See Scan. Concorde photo produced by Squadron Prints, Glasgow, Scotland, undated, but would have had to have been 1977 or later; it is signed by Glasgow-based artist Dugald Cameron, one of the founders of Squadron Prints, but Cameron's signature appears to be reproduced. RAF engineer Sir Frank Whittle is credited by many aviation historians with being the inventor of the jet engine, well ahead of his German counterpart, Hans von Ohain. He patented his first turbojet engine in 1930, as a private venture at that time, without help from the Air Ministry. Not a particularly common signature. Whittle passed away in 1996. The rest, you know. Lmilit
The British Royal Air Force officer and engineer Sir Frank Whittle invented the turbojet method of aircraft propulsion.
Background
Whittle was born in a terraced house in Newcombe Road, Earlsdon, Coventry, England on 1 June 1907, the eldest son of Moses Whittle and Sara Alice Garlick.
When he was nine years old, the family moved to the nearby town of Royal Leamington Spa where his father, a highly inventive practical engineer and mechanic, purchased the Leamington Valve and Piston Ring Company, which comprised a few lathes and other tools and a single-cylinder gas engine, on which Whittle became an expert.
Whittle developed a rebellious and adventurous streak, together with an early interest in aviation.
Education
Then he entered the R. A. F. College at Cranwell as an officer-cadet.
Although he was just 21 years old by the time he graduated in 1928, Whittle was already focusing on ways to produce higher speeds and greater altitude for the propellor-driven aircraft of the time.
Its theme was a discussion of rocket propulsion and gas turbine-driven propellors, and ways in which they could be used as alternatives to the conventional piston engines then available.
After graduating from Cranwell Whittle became a fighter pilot and was then posted to an instructor's course at the Central Flying School.
He attended the Officers' Engineering Course at Henlow (1932 - 1933)and Cambridge University (1934 - 1937), where he completed his engineering training while continuing to seek interested investors for his engines.
In 1935, having found no factories interested in his engine, he formed his own company together with two partners named Williams and Tinling.
Career
Here, despite day-to-day responsibilities, he painstakingly designed his first turbojet. Although sound in theory, Whittle's invention was in advance of its time in its material demands, and the Air Ministry rejected it.
The first laboratory run of such an engine occurred on April 12, 1937, and the first flight with his engine was made on May 15, 1941.
An experimental version ran in the British Thomson-Houston works at Rugby in April 1937, and by mid-1938 the feasibility of jet propulsion had been established.
However, progress remained slow because of an ambiguous attitude by civil servants toward the unconventional organization of Power Jets, Ltd.
By April 1941 the Gloster Aircraft Company had completed an experimental airframe, and this was fitted with an early Whittle engine for taxiing trials.
After an airworthy engine had been fitted, the Gloster-Whittle E28/39 made its first test flight on May 15, 1941.
Meanwhile, Whittle did not realize that he had a competitor for his invention in Nazi Germany.
Hans von Ohain had not only produced a turbojet, but had also flown it in aHeinkel plane as early as 1939.
But though his engine was the first to fly, von Ohain did not have the last word. Whittle had been generous with his research, sharing his technology with both the British Rolls Royce and the American General Electric Company.
In the United States collaboration on the development of jet engines with the General Electric Company and the Bell Aircraft Corporation began in September 1941, while Britain was not far behind, putting its Meteor aircraft powered by Rolls-Royce "Welland" into service by May 1944.
In 1946 Prime Minister Clement Attlee's Labour government nationalized Whittle's Power Jets company and forced it to limit its activities to components research.
It was a shining moment in an otherwise quiet appointment, which ended in September 1979.
Whittle was now an elderly man, but he had no intention of fading quietly from view.
The article's many inaccuracies infuriated him.
Although Whittle lived until January, 1996, his letter was his last appearance in print.
Whittle died of lung cancer on 9 August 1996, at his home in Columbia, Maryland. He was cremated in America and his ashes were flown to England where they were placed in a memorial in a church in Cranwell.
Quotations:
"The responsibility that rests on my shoulders is very heavy indeed. . .. either we place a powerful new weapon in the hands of the Royal Air Force or, if we fail to get our results in time, we may have falsely raised hopes and caused action to be taken which may deprive the Royal Air Force of hundreds of [conventional] aircraft that it badly needs. . .. I have a good crowd round me. They are all working like slaves, so much so, that there is a risk of mistakes through physical and mental fatigue. "
Membership
In 1986, Whittle was appointed a member of the Order of Merit (Commonwealth).
He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society, and of the Royal Aeronautical Society.
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
Whyte was impressed by the 28-year-old Whittle and his design when they met on 11 September 1935: "The impression he made was overwhelming, I have never been so quickly convinced, or so happy to find one's highest standards met. .. This was genius, not talent. Whittle expressed his idea with superb conciseness: 'Reciprocating engines are exhausted. They have hundreds of parts jerking to and fro, and they cannot be made more powerful without becoming too complicated. The engine of the future must produce 2, 000 hp with one moving part: a spinning turbine and compressor. "
Connections
He was married twice. In Coventry, on 24 May 1930, Whittle married his fiancée, Dorothy Mary Lee, with whom he later had two sons, David and Ian.
In 1976, his marriage to Dorothy was dissolved and he married American Hazel S Hall ("Tommie").