Who are you looking for?

Install Famoose

Keep Famoose on your home screen or desktop for easy access.

Open this site in Chrome or Edge and look for Install app in the browser menu or address bar. If no install option appears, you can bookmark Famoose instead.

Famoose.co
Appearance
Text size
Page width
Colour
Discover›Technology
Contents
Frank Whittle
Engineer

Frank Whittle

Famoose for

Developing the turbojet engine in Britain.

Turbojet development · Power Jets

Born
1 June 1907
Birthplace
Coventry
Died
8 August 1996

More people

Ada LovelaceRecognising what a programmable machine could do beyond arithmetic.Alan TuringHelping break Enigma and laying foundations for computer science.Grace HopperHelping make computer programming readable in English-like language.

Frank Whittle

Frank Whittle was a British engineer, inventor and RAF officer whose research helped make jet-powered flight practical.

Early life

Training

Entered the RAF as an aircraft apprentice, trained as a pilot and later studied engineering at Cambridge.

Career

  1. 1930

    Patent

    Patented his jet-engine design.

  2. 1936

    Power Jets

    Co-founded a company to develop the engine.

  3. 1937

    Prototype

    Ran an experimental engine.

Contributions

Turbojet development

Led the British effort to develop a practical jet engine.

Power Jets

Built a team around the experimental design.

Beyond research

Later life

Moved to the United States in 1976 and taught at the US Naval Academy.

Sources & photo creditBiography and career ↗Biographical references ↗Additional biographical source ↗

Original photograph. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.

Photo: British Government. Public domain · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.