CJ2002

...that Sgt Pepper was released...but of more relevance here is that 100 years ago today, Frank Whittle, British inventor of the gas turbine engine, was born. Happy birthday Frank!

Cheers,

Dick
England

Legnum

Dick,

Whittle was born in Earlsdon, Coventry, England on June 1, 1907, the son of a mechanic. He left Leamington College in 1923 to join the RAF. Through his early days as an Aircraft apprentice (first at RAF Cranwell but latterly at RAF Halton) he maintained his interest in the Model Aircraft Society where he built replicas, the quality of which attracted the eye of his commanding officer, who also felt that Whittle was a mathematical genius.

He was so impressed that he recommended Whittle for the Officer Training College at Cranwell in Lincolnshire in 1926, a rarity for a "commoner" in what was still a very class-based military structure. For Whittle this was the chance of a lifetime, not only to enter the officer corps but also because the training included flying lessons. Of the few apprentices that were accepted, only about one percent completed the course. Whittle was the exception to the rule, graduating in 1928 at the age of 21, ranked second in his class in academics and an "Exceptional to Above Average" pilot.

Another requirement of the course was that each student had to produce a thesis for graduation. Whittle decided to write his thesis on future developments in aircraft design, notably high-speed flight at high altitudes and speeds over 500 mph (800 km/h). He showed that incremental improvements in existing propeller engines were unlikely to make such flight routine. Instead he described what is today referred to as a motorjet, a motor using a conventional piston engine to provide compressed air to a combustion chamber whose exhaust was used directly for thrust – essentially an afterburner attached to a propeller engine. The design was not a new one, it had been talked about for some time in the industry but Whittle's interest was to demonstrate that at increased altitudes the lower outside air pressure would increase its efficiency. For long-range flight, using an Atlantic-crossing mailplane as his example, the engine would spend most of its time at high altitude and thus could outperform a conventional powerplant.


[edit] Development of the jet engine Grant NZ

Ian Shaw

Frank Whittle was born on June 1 1907, in the Earlsdon district of Coventry.

djindivik

I live in Coventry (somebody has to), & that was the best thing that happened here in the last 100 yrs. Ray.

Legnum

On the right track now,



On the right now
Grant NZ

Legnum

Legal Release:Sir Frank Whittle


Grant NZ
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Spartan Missile

Yeah, we missed the boat

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Coventry

GrayUK

I was born in Coventry, in the Cov/Warc hospital. I lived in Green Lane and Humphry Burton Rd . Before I moved to London.

Whitley Abby was my school and we used to fly Single Channel models in the school playing fields

Gerald Rutten

Good stuff...., cheers all!

IB

One of our finest but he was never at RAF Halton as an apprentice having served his three years at Cranwell then crossing the road to the Officers College.

IB

Ex RAF Apprentice.

warbird_1

My Feedback: (61)

you gotta love franky

jason

My Feedback: (1)

Now I know why I'm Jet mad ... I grew up in the same part of Coventry Frank Whittle was born. But Just as importantly I was born in the same hospital and lived two roads away from the great Paul Gray!

Jason

digitech

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makes you wonder who your real daddy was ey?

Spartan Missile

Paul Gray does not have ginger coloured hair !
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/6714735.stm

HarryC

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Sir Stanley Hooker, the gifted mathematician whose work initially on the supercharger turned the Rolls-Royce Merlin from a good into a great engine, said that he felt he was one of 2 or 3 top men in his field in the whole world, until he met Frank Whittle and quickly realised he had "met his master"*. Frank's understanding and knowledge of fluid flows through engines was just so far ahead.

*from "Not Much of an Engineer" by Stanley Hooker. All aero-engine enthusiasts should read that book!

H.